The past 12 months have been an exciting and tumultuous time for the U.S. and the world at large — and Dowagiac has not been excluded from that trend.

The year 2016 marked the changing of the guard for many crucial Cass County leadership positions. The Dowagiac area also experienced important growth, and loss, and was the epicenter of events that captured headlines, both locally and nationally.

In the last several issues, the editorial staff with the Dowagiac Daily News has counted down its list of the top 10 stories of the year. Stories were selected based on several factors, including newsworthiness, reader interest and community impact, both short- and long-term.

Capping off the list is the top story of 2016:

1. City overhauls downtown with Commercial, Division streets project

As city leaders have been fond of saying, “As the downtown goes, so does the city.”

With that philosophy in mind, Dowagiac officials have spent nearly three decades improving the city’s central business district, from moving the state highway out of downtown in the 1990s to building a new office complex at the corner of Front and Main streets in 2014.

This year, city hall took the next step to enhance the district, in a move that has been in the works for years.

Beginning in July, the city broke ground on its project to overhaul Commercial Street as well as portions of Division Street, building a new parking lot and displays for public art as well as repaving most of the Commercial roadway. After several months of construction, officials welcomed the public to a grand opening of the new Commercial Street on Dec. 1, with former Downtown Development Authority Chairman Fred Mathews joining Mayor Don Lyons for the first car ride through the new parking lot.

The new parking space is the key feature of the project. Along with other lots built in the last several years, a total of 37 new parking spaces now exist for downtown residents and visitors.

Commercial Street was also made more pedestrian friendly through the project, with new brick paving laid down on portions of the roadway to slow down traffic. Crews also built a new traffic island at the intersection of Commercial and Division, designed to improve visibility and better control the flow of traffic.

Improvements to the aesthetics of Commercial and Division were also a priority of the project, with crews installing several roadside pillars on the two streets. These structures will be used to hang pieces of public art, made visible at night through the lights installed on the pillars.

Several parking lots on Division were repaved during construction, and given more defined parking spaces. The lot once occupied by the Goerlich Building — demolished in late 2015 — was also converted into green space, with a small wall built that will also be used to display public artwork.

Dowagiac leaders have been planting the seeds for the construction project for the last several years, purchasing old buildings along Commercial and Division in preparation. These structures were torn down in summer, prior to groundbreaking.

The changes are intended to spruce up the appearance of the entryways into downtown.

“This project has gone a long ways toward putting Dowagiac forward as a truly progressive city,” said Mayor Don Lyons in his remarks during the ribbon cutting ceremony.