Downtown Turlock walking the walk as city plans for $1 million bike-pedestrian grant

Volunteers nestled winter-blooming flowers and ornamental cabbages into planters along Main Street as community walkers limbered up before doing a circuit along the wide brick sidewalks that line Turlock’s downtown thoroughfare.

That feet-friendly focus will expand into north and south areas of Turlock this coming year with an expected $1 million grant to help build better bike lanes and pedestrian crossings near schools.

But the flowers are just along Main Street. After a three-year hiatus, the Turlock Garden Club will be keeping downtown abloom again, said project co-chairwoman Stephanie Telles as she tucked cyclomens, snapdragons and primrose next to pansies and goldilocks on Tuesday.

“We’ve had a lot of people honk and say, ‘Thank you,’ ” she said.

“We think it’s a win-win. We love doing it,” said fellow co-chairwoman Carol McRoberts.

The club has 25 helpers pitching in to plant the planters in spring and fall, and tidy up the pots each month. Watering is done with a drought-friendly drip system installed when the pots were emptied and made over this year, said Gina Loretelli, executive director of the Turlock Downtown Property Owners’ Association.

“They had not been emptied in, I think, 11 years,” Loretelli said. Her group coordinated the planters’ rejuvenation and hopes to seal and paint them as soon as the city agrees on the colors.

Orchard Supply Hardware donated the drainage rocks and soil to refill the planters. The Greenery donated the plants, and Turlock Garden Club provided the planting and maintenance crews.

Adding to the ambiance are banners hanging from the old-fashioned streetlights up and down the street. This week they are flying the new logo of California State University, Stanislaus, part of a town-and-gown promotion this month. The association’s banners will change with the season, with other community groups able to join in the festive look for a fee, Loretelli said.

“So many people come downtown. We want the ambiance to match the energy that’s here now,” she said.

Loretelli spoke before leading a high-energy walk through downtown, a one-hour Main Street loop with about two dozen Turlock citizens participating. The weekly walks began Sept. 8 and will head off every Tuesday morning through May, weather permitting.

Downtown City Walks meet at 9 a.m. at Central Park. To encourage participation, the community group with the most participants will get a $1,000 donation from the downtown association.

Tuesday’s walkers included 15 members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Turlock chapter. VFW member Dave Truhitte said he came to enjoy the morning with friends. Truhitte said he works out every day and was ready to brave the fast-walking group or hang back with the “casual walker” group’s pace.

Standing nearby, Sil Manente tapped his cane and said he’d be taking it a little slower, but he wanted to come support the VFW.

“I woke up. I’m still here. So why not?” he said with a chuckle.

As the walkers cruised Main, new stores or merchandise in the windows proved a common distraction. No one discouraged the momentary lapses in speedy progress, as discovering the budding downtown was part of the plan.

“The purpose of walking is to encourage a healthy lifestyle and to form strong bonds of friendships among Turlock citizens, along with creating awareness of the downtown district and trying to share with the community all that the downtown has to offer,” notes a downtown association release on the walks.

Walking is a citywide focus as well. The city learned Sept. 16 that it is being recommended for a $1 million federal grant to promote biking and walking, with the hope it will lower automobile use. The grant must also get the green light from the California Transportation Commission on Oct. 21-22.

The city will have to pitch in $500,000 or so to complete the projects in the grant.

“Turlock is fortunate to have committed citizens and city staff that work tirelessly on the development of these transportation projects,” said Mayor Gary Soiseth. “Because of their hard work, Turlock is the only city in the county to receive these funds.”

The first project envisioned under the grant is to install protected bicycle lanes along Christoffersen Parkway, which passes Walnut Elementary School, Turlock Junior High, Pitman High and the university.

Intersection improvements are a part of the plan, as is a connector between the parkway and North Tegner Road at its western end. Also planned are safety enhancements, bike lanes and entrance improvements at the university and along Crowell Road.

The second tentative grant award focuses on southwest Turlock, widening West Linwood Avenue between Lander Avenue and West Avenue South, near Cunningham Elementary School. It would add a continuous left-turn lane to improve the queuing of vehicles by the school, as well as adding a sidewalk and a bike lane along the north edge of the street.

A midblock, marked crosswalk directly in front of the school is planned with a pedestrian-activated hybrid beacon – the first of its kind for Turlock.

Depending on when the funds arrive, the Christoffersen Parkway improvements are tentatively slated for construction in summer 2018, and the Linwood Avenue improvements are targeted for summer 2019.

The Citizens Advisory Committee, other community groups and city consultants prioritized the projects, said Nathan Bray, principal civil engineer with the city.

Turlock has another grant still being considered that would add bike lane improvements along the west side of North Soderquist Road north of Canal Drive, running along the back of the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds. The fate of that application will be known in October.

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Downtown Turlock walking the walk as city plans for $1 million bike-pedestrian grant."