Ice Age features prominent in city plan

The Electric City 25-year Pathway and Revitalization plan would change the face of the city by adding a number of visual treats.

While the plan suggests a number of changes, it will depend on successful grant applications to become a reality.

Its Ice Age Floods theme would take shape through sculptures and signage. A dominant feature suggested in the plan would be a metal life-sized sculpture of a woolly mammoth greeting residents and visitors who access the city from the south.

The suggested mammoth is huge and a fitting symbol of the Ice Age Floods.

The huge beasts lasted until the last Ice Age some 13,000 to 17,000 years ago, and were about the size of today’s African elephants.

The Ice Age Floods theme will also be evident in the two new city parks and in signage along the proposed city trail.

Shelters are planned too that take advantage of the facilities in a Grand Avenue park.

Another of the more dramatic suggestions is a pedestrian/bicycle overpass near the southern entrance to the city.

Signage emphasizing that some rather dramatic things occurred here will attract visitor interest and help explain to them the unusual geologic evidence that they can see and enjoy.

The plan includes fountains, both drinking and decorative, plus small structures so patrons of the parks can shield themselves from the sun. And children could play on small fire engines and other such rides, both educational and just pure fun.

Picnic facilities and benches are planned to provide places for people to enjoy the two new parks and keep them there for awhile.

Proponents of the plan have even added comfort stations in both proposed parks, which will save people the need to drive to Safeway for relief.