Pretty soon, when visitors to Centralia ask how to get downtown, the locals will be able to tell them to just follow the flags.
The Centralia Downtown Association purchased 250 flags in five different colors that will line the streets from the Interstate 5 exits at Mellen Street and Harrison Avenue to the city’s downtown, where more flags will hang on each block. Each block will have its own assigned colors. The color assignment was chosen by Centralia Mayor Bonnie Canaday by random drawing on Monday afternoon.
“We have assigned colored flags to make it easier to navigate for our tourists who want to know where a certain store is,” said Downtown Association President Teva Youngblood.
To add to the themes, the downtown association will install colored bike racks and colored garbage cans on the street corners. The garbage can frames will be powder-coated to a similar color as what Centralians are used to seeing, but the cans inside will be a color that corresponds with the block they are on.
“You can say (to a calling tourist) ‘Hey, I’m on the blue block. When you see the blue bike racks I’m the third door in,’” Youngblood said.
The association hopes that the new elements will help pique people’s interests and also serve the needs of some people who rely on different forms of transportation. With only a handful of bike racks around the downtown area, Youngblood said the new ones will meet the needs of an underserved segment of the population.
“It’s our job to invite tourists into the city, and we’re revitalizing,” she said. “We have no bike racks. We have maybe three. We see that as a need.”
Youngblood said they hope to have all the flags, racks and cans installed by the end of the month. In a few months, the group plans on having some maple trees on Tower Avenue removed because their roots are cracking the surrounding sidewalks. However, they won’t be taken out until their replacements are large enough. Youngblood expects that won’t be for a few more months.
Youngblood was voted in as the organization’s president at the end of October. The organization held a meeting under her leadership for the first time on Monday. Former president Steve Koreis-MacLeod currently serves as the Downtown Association’s interim executive director.
