Trinity Audioplayer ready...
Ken Immler grew so tired of waiting for elected officials to “fix the damned roads” in Fraser’s industrial park, he never thought the repairs would be made.
So Immler, president of the Fraser Industrial Association — a group of nearly 130 businesses in the city operating under a public-private partnership — worked to bring the city, state, and private industry together to form a deal.
The result is a $16 million cost-sharing agreement that financed a transformational road-paving project that left the industrial neighborhood’s streets looking like new.
Stakeholders involved in the project — business owners, contractors, engineers, and city officials — gathered in the rain Friday morning to celebrate the completion.
“I never believed we would actually get this project off the ground,” Immler said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the event.
“I initially started with wanting to fix a damaged part of the road. I never thought we would actually get this far because I knew it was going to be much more money to do it the right way. But once we got going, I said I wouldn’t get in the way to stop it.”
For nearly as long as anyone can remember, the road sys...