 Happening between Division Street and Caroline Avenue, Pikeville Second Street will soon see major developments as the city plans to remove sections of asphalt for brick pavers. Thursday, Mountain Top spoke with City Manager Phillip Ellswick about the project. Yeah, on our second street corridor from Division Street down to Caroline Avenue, we're going to be removing the asphalt that's in that area and replacing that with brick pavers. It'll be much like the pavers that are on the plaza at the Appalachian Center for the Arts. And the goal of that project is to make that area more pedestrian friendly, to make it more aesthetic for events and things of that nature. You know, a couple of things too that we'll be doing is instead of the street just being straight, it's going to kind of meander as a traffic calming pattern. Just slow speeds down and make that safer for pedestrians to be out there. We're also adding some little bump outs to increase our sidewalk space. Those are perclets and we'll have some benches there and some landscaping, things like that. So, you know, the goal is to attract more pedestrian traffic to that area to support the retail that's located on Second Street. At Pikeville Medical Center, we believe that together we can make a difference in the fight against cancer. We are proud to have patients who have experienced successful outcomes over many years. As always, we believe in the power of faith. Pikeville Medical Center, where cancer can be defeated. With an official start date of February 7th, the city hopes to have everything completed before the Hillbilly Days Festival. During that time, the city will ensure that residents have access to businesses. The project will be done in phases, so the first phase will be one block and then the next phase will be a second block and traffic will be able to pass through those areas in some way. That's still under discussion as to how that will work. But, you know, certainly during construction in those phased areas, there won't be parking outside the shops or the businesses located there. But we have talked with our contractor and we have ensured that the sidewalks will remain open at all times. So if someone's coming and they want to go to Umean Pottery, the sidewalk will be open to get there. The city is also placing signage downtown that reminds people that the corridor is still open for business and how you can access those businesses. And we'll be advertising that in the paper as well, that this corridor is still open for business. Please come visit and pardon the construction. Again, construction on 2nd Avenue is expected to begin on February 7th. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Courgel.