Sound System on Tap for Historic Downtown Murrieta

Parade-goers in Historic Downtown Murrieta will no longer have to fight to sit near a loud speaker.

By the end of the summer and in time for Murrieta's next scheduled large event, its annual parade, a sound system should be installed. Murrieta City Council last week awarded a $212,000 contract to Temecula-based Fiber Light Communications to install the system.

Fiber Light was the lowest bidder among six bids ranging up to $371,297.

Not just for parades, the system will feature 27 speakers along Washington Avenue from Kalmia Street to Ivy Street. It will be capable of playing CDs and MP3s to entertain visitors to the downtown area.

"It has been a long time coming," said Annie Borel, former president of Historic Downtown Murrieta Association who nows serves as a board member. "We are very excited because we actually pushed for it. It has always been part of the plan for Historic Downtown."

Borel became a downtown merchant when she purchased in 1999. She told Patch she remembers when the first slew of improvements were made to Washington Avenue around 2001. That included sidewalks, diagonal parking spaces, lighting and signage.

The sound system project finally made it onto a list of capital improvement projects that was approved by city council in 2011. It will be paid for out of allotted funds received from Riverside County Redevelopment Agency, according to a staff report.

The system will be constructed to "minimize impacts to existing devorative improvements," according to the staff report.

The project will start no later than June 25 and will be done within 25 working days—five weeks—of work commencing.

Borel said from what she has learned, the sound system will have the capability of broadcasting parade announcers from two different locations, giving parade-goers timely information as entries make their way down Washington Avenue.

"This just adds to the ambience," Borel said. "I hope to see there is music being played year-round."