KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – The Keystone Heights Streetscape 2020 project might be in for a name change soon now that the project’s start date has been moved to 2019.

With construction originally slated to begin in 2020, the Streetscape project aims to restore the original pedestrian-friendly personality to Lawrence Boulevard. As originally proposed the project would run from East Walker Drive south to Lakeview Drive on State Road 100.

“So, we saw that we had an improvements project lined up for a start date of Spring 2019 and because of that, we were able to roll the Streetscape 2020 project into that,” Keystone Heights City Manager, Scott Kornegay, said. “So yeah, the new start date for Streetscape is Spring 2019.”

According to Kornegay, the Streetscape 2020 project was slowly moving forward, but after Florida Department of Transportation officials identified the milling and resurfacing project for State Road 21 from the Putnam County line to north of Commercial Circle in the city, it proved more economical to roll Streetscape into the bigger project. This resurfacing project is part of the FDOT’s five-year plan.

Streetscape calls for paved shoulders in the construction area to be widened and mid-block crossings and bulb-outs will still be added. Signal and pedestrian improvements at the State Road 100 intersection are also part of the proposal.

Currently, all of this is in the proposal stage, but Kornegay expects all of it to come to fruition soon with a construction start date next spring. FDOT engineers will be available for questions at an upcoming open house tat the Keystone Heights City Hall on Oct. 25 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

In other city council business, the Keystone Heights City Council kicked off October as the Attendance Awareness Month for students in the city.

“As the Mayor of the City of Keystone Heights, I proclaim our city will stand with the nation in recognizing September as Attendance Awareness Month,” Mayor Karen Lake read from a proclamation. “We hereby commit to focusing on reducing chronic absenteeism to give all children an equitable opportunity to learn, grow and thrive academically, emotionally and socially.”

Clay County School Superintendent Addison Davis was present for the meeting and congratulated the council on its commitment to attendance awareness. He also touched on the importance of student attendance and movements like this that bring awareness to the issue in Clay County.

“We know that attendance is extremely important as it relates to education,” Davis said. “If students aren’t in attendance, they’ll darken our doorways and miss out on access to our great resources and teachers. We’ll never ever begin to elevate and continue to improve students and teaching within Clay County [without attendance].”

According to Davis, already the district is seeing increased attendance in McRae Elementary, Keystone Heights Elementary and Keystone Junior-Senior High, and as the school year continues, Davis expects those numbers to continue to rise.

“For Keystone to take on this from a collective and collaborative standpoint shows that you truly care about education and that you are ready to wrap your arms around this entire county and this community in order to elevate the instructional process,” Davis said. “Many thanks for what you’re doing and your commitment to education. We stand strong with you.”