Grand Junction is stretching out a hand to grow the university campus. As a part of this effort, they have decided to rename North Avenue to University Boulevard. This switch is not an all of a sudden change to the town, for it has been talked about and been worked on for the past few years. President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, Diane Schwenke, said, “ For four years, volunteers and businesses in the corridor have been working together to promote this new change.”
The name change is supposed to help strengthen the connection between the community and the school. “Changing the name is the start of an overall plan,” Schwenke said, “because this group of volunteers and businesses have been working to make this change for four years, we wanted to honor their efforts.” The Chamber foresees several benefits from the change that will take place in March. These benefits include diversifying the community, positively encouraging businesses to assist and recruit CMU students and boosting closer collaboration between students, businesses and community members.
The Chamber foresees several benefits from the change that will take place in March. These benefits include diversifying the community, positively encouraging businesses to assist and recruit CMU students and boosting closer collaboration between students, businesses and community members.
This idea was prompted by a community member, Levi Lucero. The Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Mesa University, and the North Avenue Owner’s Association (NAOA) championed this idea and then the formal request was sent to the City Council. The NAOA has a website that is giving out grants for businesses located on North Avenue to help them continue to grow and prosper.
According to http://revitalizenorthavenue.org, “The City of Grand Junction is offering grants to assist North Avenue businesses with improvements to their facilities. The North Avenue Catalyst Program offers grants of up to $10,000 to be used for façade and site improvements, pedestrian safety and streetscape improvements. All grants require a 50 percent match.”
Poppy Woody, president of the North Avenue Owners Association, stated, “Infrastructure and public safety benefitting existing taxpayers should be a priority over businesses coming here or threatening to leave. We represent the people that love this community and choose to be here. Focusing on what is positive and makes our community better for existing residents, will make us more attractive to people wanting to move their families and their businesses here.”
“There are a lot of upsides,” reassured Schwenke. “We are assisting the businesses in the corridor, and these businesses do have resources.” Schwenke provided some examples of these resources, including but not limited to, volunteers and discounts on printing. The name change will be official this March, but for businesses, it won’t be final until the March of 2019.
