With the help of a $10,000 grant from the Wildey H. Mitchell Family Fund, the Duluth Bethel now has a safe and accessible paved parking lot for employees, clients and other visitors.

Benefitting from unseasonably warm late fall weather, contractors were able to pave the West First Street lot, directly to the west of the Bethel, in early November. As the closest large parking area to the Bethel, and in a neighborhood where parking options are significantly limited, the smooth, asphalt covering is a welcome sight for a lot that for decades has been dirt and gravel.

“It’s already a huge, dramatic improvement–and it will be especially nice in the winter,” said Bethel Executive Director Dennis Cummings. “Before, we always had a lot of sand and dust being tracked into the building. In the spring, it would be muddy. In the winter, it would freeze and become icy.”

He added: “We appreciate the grant from the Wildey H. Mitchell Family Fund that helped make this longstanding priority a reality for all of the people who come to the Bethel.”

In all, paving for the lot, which winds along First Street and is about as large as a football field, cost $23,500, Cummings said. The project probably could not have been undertaken without the grant from Wildey H. Mitchell, a longtime foundation in the Twin Ports that now is a fund within the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation. For years, the fund has supported community projects and improvements throughout the Twin Ports region.

Part of the project involved reworking drainage systems in the parking lot to prevent pooling of water that created muddy conditions when it rained and ice in the winter. The area is complicated by old, underground utility systems, bedrock underneath the lot and First Street and a retaining wall that likely dates to when this part of Duluth was developed more than a century ago. The project also required extra review by the City of Duluth, partly because the city owns some of the property.

“So many things were attached to this project, but it’s done now,” Cummings said. “It’s a real improvement for the neighborhood and for the Bethel.”