Yreka explores relief programs for businesses affected by Main Street construction

The multi-year roadway construction project through the downtown Yreka has prompted the city and the Siskiyou County Small Business Development Center to partner on an initiative to offer relief for businesses along Main Street.

Yreka will apply for a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant to serve as the basis for a forgivable loan program to be administered by the SBDC. 

The street rehab work on Main Street is expected to begin in earnest later this year when the California Department of Transportation begins a $78 million project stretching from near Walmart at Fort Jones Road, through town into Main Street, and ending near the Yreka Truck Stop on Montague Road. The project will include new paving, sidewalks, crosswalks, planters, lighting and more. It is due to run through the summer of 2024. 

Economic development officials, aware of business disruptions to come, want to develop plans to offer relief for businesses, largely in the form of loans or grants to offset losses brought on by the construction. 

“The idea is that folks be aware of it ahead of time,” said Quintin Gaddy, program director for the Small Business Development Center. 

Anyone who has traveled on Main Street in the last few months may be led to believe the Caltrans construction has already begun. The street is an obstacle course of yellow cones, heavy equipment, workers and detours. The city has been involved in a massive sewer and water upgrade project, in advance of the Caltrans project to come later. 

“That is a huge project. It’s one that I thought I would never see in my career,” Matthew Bray, director of Yreka Public Works, told the City Council at a June 16 meeting. Some of the sewer and water infrastructure dates to the 1920s, he added. 

The Main Street rehab project, largely funded by the state, will position the downtown district for a wave of economic revival, say officials from Siskiyou Economic Development. 

“A project like this assists future development in that this corridor, which then becomes much more attractive to developers, or new retailers along this area,” Kory Hayden, who heads up community initiatives at county economic development agency, told the City Council this week, explaining the area with its slower traffic, bike-lanes and other amenities becomes more welcoming to pedestrians and retail and business activity.

“It becomes a more visible area,” she added. 

“Our Main Street highway corridors are central to our communities. And we need to have people slowing down, parking, stopping and visiting our businesses,” said Hayden. 

The city will apply for another Community Development Block Grant, this one totaling $500,000, to be used by the code enforcement department. The money would be used to help fund the abatement of troublesome and blighted properties. 

“We would look at really beefing up that process, and getting more aggressive with this funding,” said City Manager Jason Ledbetter. 

The city currently has only $50,000 set aside for code enforcement costs. 

“And sometimes $50,000 gets used up on one property,” Ledbetter remarked. 

Construction work updating sewer and water lines along Main Street in Yreka continued on Thursday. The project is to be complete in the coming weeks, in advance of a larger streetscape renovation project let by Caltrans.

Skip Descant is a freelance journalist. He’s written for newspapers in California, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. He lives in downtown Yreka.