Main Street Logan experiences a make-over during the summer
Main street in Logan and city activities will be a little different now due to recent changes and remodeling of the old Cache County Courthouse.
“They’re creating a much more usable building,” Michele Mechem, a Logan City planner, said.
It came to a choice of whether to remodel or demolish the courthouse and the city decided to remodel, Mechem said.
The building was built in 1883, Newel Daines, the director of the project, said. The courthouse is the oldest building in the territory of Deseret (state of Utah) still in use, Daines said.
“The county administration and county council made the initial decision, while the city acted as a review board for the remodel,” Mechem said.
Daines said a handicap elevator will be placed in the new building, along with new stairways and windows.
After the changes are made the courthouse will be ADA (American Disability Act) approved, Mechem said.
The building should also be able to withstand an earthquake and will meet building codes, Mechem said. However, making the building earthquake safe required a lot of reconstruction, Daines said.
The courthouse will be completely renovated and restored to its original state and size, Daines said. The remodeled courthouse will be used for county council, county executives, the county attorney, the travel bureau, and the county council will hold their meetings there as well, Daines said.
“It will be open, it will be a public building,” he said.
Along with the improved interior of the courthouse, landscaping will improve the exterior of the building and Main Street, Bob Marcolese, the Logan downtown manager, said.
There will be landscaping and a three-phase electric and water access for intended festivals, which would spill over into the rear and parking lot, which will also landscaped, Marcolese said.
Anticipating the Gardeners Market moving to Main Street, Marcolese said, the new landscaping will also give opportunity for other activities and community gatherings.
“A weekly sort of Summerfest, but actually have musicians and music there weekly and possibly week nights,” Marcolese said.
This project will also add roughly 70 available parking spaces on Main Street, Marcolese said.
“I am thinking about having a fund-raiser of sorts that would be a pedestrian brick program where people could purchase bricks and have their family names somewhere around the courthouse,” Marcolese said.
People can have their names placed among a historical landmark, and the bricks would be placed in an area where they would not be moved or removed due to future changes Marcolese said.
Part of the plan is to put a history of the valley on the stones in the plaza between the county administration building and the courthouse, Daines said.
The county paid partial for the remodeling as well as the George Eccles Foundation who gave a donation, Daines said.
Daines, a former mayor of Logan, said the George Eccles Foundation also donated to the remodel of the Ellen Eccles Theatre when he was mayor.
Looking forward in the future for a median and a crosswalk connecting the streets, Marcolese said, hopefully the planned median will help to minimize and separate traffic on Main Street.
“It will make downtown Logan more pedestrian friendly,” Marcolese said.
The old sidewalks between 100 and 200 North on Main Street will be restored with funding provided by the business owners whose businesses are located near the sidewalks, Marcolese said.
Along the new sidewalk will be historic park benches and lamps, locust trees and planters as well, Marcolese said.
“That [the sidewalk project] will compliment the whole restoration of the courthouse,” Marcolese said.
“What makes the sidewalk improvement project fun and different is that I actually get to get involved with the physical change,” Marcolese said.
The remodeling of the county court house and grounds out front will probably be done by the end of October, and the sidewalks completed by Halloween, Marcolese said.
-amysueh@cc.usu.edu