Festus has agreed to spend more than $1 million on improvements to its South Second Street parking lot.
Festus City Council members voted 6-0 on April 14 to award the $1,070,674.60 contract to Jokerst Paving & Contracting of Festus to complete the improvements. Council members Jim Collier of Ward 1 and Mike Cook of Ward 4 were absent from the meeting.
Jokerst submitted the lowest of three bids for the project, which includes replacing and overlaying pavement; removing and installing new sidewalk; installing new lighting; and updating pavement marking.
“This will be that whole parking lot area,” City Administrator Greg Camp said. “It will be from Adams to Mill (streets).
“This is something that came out of the Main to Mississippi study. This was one of the first recommendations they made, to address the South Second parking before we do anything with Main Street.”
The cities of Festus and Crystal City previously received a federal Great Streets Initiative grant to help pay for a study that was completed in 2022 and became the “M2M: Main to Mississippi Plan” for improvements to the downtown area along Main Street in Festus and Bailey Road and Mississippi Avenue in Crystal City.
Camp said he doesn’t know when Jokerst will start the parking lot improvements, but once the work begins, it is scheduled to be completed in a six-month window.
Parking downtown obviously will be affected during the work, he said.
“Sections of (the parking lot) will be blocked off to parking,” Camp said.
He said drivers will be advised to look for parking spots at the Festus Public Library, 400 W. Main St., and on municipal parking lots north of Main Street during the project.
As part of the parking lot improvements project, the city will ban vehicle traffic on a portion of Behring Street that links the parking lot to Main Street, Camp said.
“Behring will be turned into pedestrian-only access,” he said. “It’s the one-way street that comes off of Main.”
Camp said downtown businesses have been notified about the project through the Festus Main Street Association.
“They’ve been briefed along the way,” Camp said. “They’ve made recommendations. But now it’s a chance for us to say, ‘It’s coming, and this is what it’s going to look like.’”