PRESCOTT – The Prescott Riverfront Project is striving to make positive differences in the ways the community can use the river front. The project includes many plans to make the riverfront accessible, safe, and easy to use for all members in the community.

Jayne Brand, Prescott city administrator, said “What we are looking at is to create a walking trail that comes across the bridge and will go along the riverfront and then go up to Freedom Park and everything that goes along with building that. Not too much happening right away, but that is what we are planning to do next.”

Other projects that go along with the new trail include redoing some of the streets downtown near the riverfront and adding some different and new parking options in that same area.

The first action of the project was the new courtesy dock that was recently built and installed. “We started with phase one, which was the courtesy dock and that is finished and in,” Brand said.

The dock is also handicap accessible, unlike the older courtesy dock. One of the goals on the forefront of this project is to make the riverfront more accessible for everyone.

“After we put the courtesy dock in, a woman who was in a wheelchair came down and was really excited to see that it was handicap accessible,” Brand said. “She was able to go out on the river and she said, ‘thank you so much, I haven’t been able to go on the river for years,’ and it was really exciting to be able see that and see first-hand how it is positively impacting our community already.”

The courtesy dock partially floats on the surface of the river which allows the dock to move up and down with the water.

Brand said, “It is nice because it is always moving with the water which makes it accessible because when the water levels go up the dock also goes up, whereas the dock before would just not be easy to use because it would flood.”

The boat launch will be modeled after this type of floating dock.

“We would love to do something like that with our boat launch so that it will go up and down with the water. When the water is high, we have to pull it out and when it is low, we have to push it in, but with this it will just be more convenient for people to use,” Brand said.

There are a lot of thoughts going into this long-term project to improve the accessibility and appeal of the riverfront for both visitors and members of the Prescott community.

“We would love to do even more,” Brand said. “We want to get back our fishing dock. We’re on the river so we need a fishing dock for sure. Those are the kind of things we have been talking about but of course it all costs money and takes time.”

Most of the projects will not begin until 2022; the planning and funding is set to be approved later this year or early in January or February 2022 and at that point, the projects will begin construction in the spring.

“Cedar Corporation and our city engineer is currently doing the planning and designing for the parking and the green space and stuff and then we will bid the projects later this year or early next year so the projects will actually happen in 2022,” said Brand.

Cedar Corp. photo.