Cedartown’s downtown Streetscape is slated for August 4, and will feature a ceremony with a host of dignitaries followed by an antique car and motorcycle show, food vendors and a live band.

“We are going to close a portion of Main Street and have a real street party,” Ramona Ruark, Main Street director said. “After the formal dedication, we will have a car and bike show beginning at 6 p.m. and a live band playing between 7:30 and 11 p.m.”

The event is sponsored by the Downtown Cedartown Association. The festival will include food vendors as well as at least one vendor of beer and wine.

The Cedartown Throttle Jockeys and the Freedom Seekers will team up to sponsor the car and bike show. Exhibitors can register at the Cedartown Welcome Center. The fee is $10 and plaques and prizes will be awarded to winners in various categories.

Entertainment will be provided by lead singer Scott Warren, a native of Rome,and the Booze Mountaineers. Warren has been writing and performing music for over 20 years.

The band features Bill Carroll on guitar, James Garrison and Chuck D. Harris on drums, and Clay Broome on bass. Warren calls his brand of music “folksy-rock, Appalachian inspired Americana.”

The group is a popular part of the night scene in Rome, playing at watering holes like The 400 Block Saloon at La Scala and the Harvest Moon.

City Manager Robbie Rokovitz said, “The city, state, and federal governments spent $1.6 million dollars to make our downtown historic district one of the most splendid and pedestrian friendly urban environments in America. We intend to celebrate the completion of this project and we want the whole city to come out and have a great time.”

In 2003, the City of Cedartown contracted with the architectural firm Jordan Jones, and Goulding, Inc. to develop a master plan for the downtown commercial district. From that initiative, a Transportation Enhancement Grant was submitted and approved in 2004.

However, delays were experienced during the process of survey, design, and local government approval.

Former Interim City Manager Tommy Engram found the project in limbo in 2008.

“It took a team effort from the City Commission and a lot of outside help to get the project funded,” Engram said. “Commissioner Larry Odom and Judge Dan Winn went to Atlanta and met with the Georgia DOT to lobby for releasing funds."

Engram said when the funds were secured, they found the approved level would be insufficient for the entire project due to inflation experienced during the long delays.

He stated the project was broken up into three phases to work around the shortfall.

Commissioner Scott Tillery secured the assistance of Congressman Phil Gingery to get federal recovery funding for Phase 2," Engram said. "Then, the city had to resubmit the TE grant for Phase 3 because the project had lingered too long,”

It takes just about as much effort and teamwork to fund a project as it does to build it, Engram said.