Joliet tram latest move to make downtown accessible during construction

City officials are getting some flak for this week’s approval of a 15-seat tram to help move people around downtown Joliet, but it’s one of many moves made by City Hall to improve the business climate with construction dust in the air.

The city is building a new square and redesigning Chicago Street, projects that are part of a long-term plan to revitalize the downtown business district.

In the short term, however, downtown’s main street is torn up, and an ongoing state project to update the drawbridges over the Des Plaines River adds to the challenges of driving and parking downtown.

“We’re so excited about the Chicago Street project,” said Amber Duffy, part of the family that runs the Jitters coffee shop that shares the street with other downtown businesses. “It’s going to bring so much life down here and greenery and art.”

In the meantime, however, business has fallen off with the project underway, Duffy said. She hopes the downtown walkers still stopping by in the nice weather won’t go away when it gets colder. Construction won’t be over soon.

“It’s a two-year project,” Duffy said.

The Joliet City Council on Tuesday approved a federal grant that will pay the $95,000 cost of acquiring the electric tram and installing a charging station to keep it running.

“These large projects take a lot of time for people to embrace and to make happen,” he said.

—  James Roolf, banker and member of the City Center Partnership

The idea of the tram generated a social-media flurry of criticism that made its acquisition debatable and has led to the city now rebranding it as a shuttle. But no one showed up at council meetings to oppose it, and two people advocating for the downtown showed up to support it.

Downtown banker James Roolf, a member of the City Center Partnership that promotes the downtown district, encouraged the council to buy the tram, calling it “another added element to what we have in downtown Joliet.”

Roolf urged city officials to stay the path of what has become a big commitment to the downtown district.

“These large projects take a lot of time for people to embrace and to make happen,” he said.

The tram is one more step the city has taken to encourage small businesses downtown in a difficult time.

Others in place or in the works are:

• Free parking at the city parking deck with validation, which started in late summer. Downtown businesses now can stamp the parking stubs from the Ottawa Street deck so their customers don’t have to pay to park there.

• Free street parking later this year. The City Council in August approved a $56,738 mobile license plate reader. The reader will monitor parked cars to ensure they don’t take up spots for more than two hours. But downtown visitors will not have to feed meters to park in the streets. City officials say free street parking could take effect by December.

• Signs will go up on downtown street corners in coming weeks to assure pedestrians that while a large section of Chicago Street is closed the sidewalks and businesses remain open. The signs also will list the names businesses along the street.

• The city also plans to send a letter to every Joliet household encouraging visits downtown and providing a guide to parking. Messages also are planned for the city’s electronic billboards around town.

• A grant program still being developed that, if approved by the City Council, would provide financial assistance to businesses showing impact from the construction.

Duffy said business owners recently heard from Mayor Terry D’Arcy that the city is eying a grant program to offset the impact of construction.

“All of the businesses down here were in a meeting with Terry last week,” she said.

Another thing that downtown businesses are getting from City Hall is a lot of communication. Duffy said they hear from city officials and get text messages providing updates on the construction project.

Deputy City Manager Christa Desiderio said City Hall wants to hear from business owners, too.

“We are making every effort to minimize the negative impact that this construction is having on their business,” Desiderio said.

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