Also just created on MyColdwater.com: a construction information and detour map page. As suspected, Division St. is now closed to through traffic at Washington St., creating headaches as the city of Coldwater is effectively divided into two parts. Some of the detour signs posted don't make any sense (e.g., taking people as far out as Garfield & U.S. 12). All weekend long I've seen people on Division St. ignoring the signs and driving through anyway. I don't advise this, and it's only a matter of time before they start digging up the street and making it totally impassable. Check out the map... I'm suggesting some fairly easy (and safe) detours. [map © 2007 delorme (www.delorme.com) Street Atlas USA®. Used under license.]

Coldwater now has not one, but two farmers' markets! The first one started a month ago at Nutritech Feed Service (between Bronson and Coldwater) and is held every Saturday 8am-2pm. There's also a new one starting at Family Farm and Fleet in the city limits. There was a big article about it in the Daily Reporter that it was starting today, so many people were surprised when they arrived there to find no market and no signs! But don't give up... I called to get the official scoop... it definitely IS a go; what happened was that the vendors were scared off by the stormy weather. Its debut is now scheduled for next Saturday the 18th at 8am. I've created a new Farmers' Market Information Page for all the info.

Well, it looks like I was wrong about the new water tower not having a logo. Since my previous blog entry about it, an attractive new "Coldwater" logo has been put up. Looks nice!

To add to the photos of all the construction work around town, here's a recent project at Taxes Latino. State St. is repaired now but it looked like this for about a week. Probably a new water and/or sewer connection was made to the building. In the meantime, the owners are continuing to slowly improve the building; the textured surface you see has recently been added to the south side of the building. Before the building was purchased, it was an eyesore, but when complete it, being on a key corner lot, will greatly improve the image of that entire part of town (which was really reviving until the recession hit).

CBPU's water main upgrade plans included Sprague St. also, and apparently the plan is to tear up everything at once instead of doing the project piece by piece. So now Sprague St. is also closed, and detour signs are posted all over town (e.g., Sprague St. detoured to Michigan Ave.). The mystery, though, is why there are signs on State St. saying its a detour for Washington St. That makes no sense - why not just use Chicago (U.S. 12) or Pearl? Finally, to top off the summer construction season, it looks like barrels are going up on I-69 south starting at the U.S. 12 interchange. Have fun!