The Bowling Green City Commission Tuesday heard a presentation about revamping its Summer Stroll program. Since 2000, city officials and staff have spent Monday nights each summer walking through designated neighborhoods to hear resident concerns. Neighborhood Services Coordinator Karen Foley presented a plan to revamp the program and instead focus on having, in essence, pop-up city halls throughout the year.

“We are ready to do some things differently, but still want events to be community focused,” Foley said. So rather than a weekly stroll, a city tent would be erected in neighborhoods with city staff on hand to engage residents and offer information.

“We want to retain a physical presence with staff … and maximize personal, one-to-one communication,” she said. The idea would allow for the events to be held year-round and would be a natural tie-in with community events such as block parties or farmers markets.

“Other cities are doing something similar,” Foley said. A presentation about the proposal included examples from Boston, where a vehicle like a food truck is designated as a “city hall to go” and offers services such as taking ticket and tax payments and providing library cards. 

Foley said a schedule of where the pop-up city halls will be would be publicized through mailers, news releases, social media and on the city website. The program, if ultimately implemented, could start this summer.

Also Tuesday, the commission:

•approved a $451,000 contract with Glasgow’s Alliance Corp. for renovations to the lobby area at the Sloan Convention Center. The planned renovations are designed to allow the center to better “compete for convention services,” City Manager Kevin DeFebbo said.

The scope of the work includes removing old flooring and adding new carpet tiles, lighting upgrades, covering brick walls, painting, new signage and installing sound baffle panels and an acoustic wood grill in the ceiling.

•approved a $426,271 bid from Southern Kentucky Contractors of Bowling Green for fiscal year 2016 sidewalk construction. The sidewalk project list includes East Main Avenue from Park Street to High Street; Stonehenge Avenue from the end of the existing sidewalk to Veterans Memorial Lane; East 14th Avenue from Park Street to U.S. 31-W By-Pass; and Cypress Wood Lane from Scottsville Road to the city limit.

•approved a contract of up to $1.5 million with Scotty’s Contracting & Stone of Bowling Green for fiscal year 2016 street resurfacing of 9.6 miles of city roads. In response to questions from commissioners about specific roads slated for repaving, DeFebbo said the city uses scientific methods to determine the city streets most in need of paving. He noted that the city has increased its spending on road paving projects 80 percent in recent years and will look to increase that spending in the future as well. 

•approved allowing Patent Pending Curious Eatery and Bar on East Main Avenue to lease city sidewalk space and three parking spaces for a sidewalk cafe.

•declared five parcels of property surplus and authorizing their sale. The properties, at 831 Gilbert St., 817 and 633 W. Main Ave., 309 Martin Luther King Jr. Court, and 400 W. 10th Ave., were seized for delinquent property taxes.

— Follow city government reporter Wes Swietek on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.