Cedar Street Bridge celebrates market's grand reopening
Cedar Street Bridge manager Stacey Mueller, marketing director Leilani Williams, and Carousel shop owner Shery Meekings and her husband Scott, along with other tenants and family members gathered to cut the ribbon and symbolically re-open the bridge at a Saturday event.
Photo courtesy GREATER SANDPOINT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
SANDPOINT — The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce welcomed a new Chamber member: The Cedar Street Bridge Public Market.
The chamber and the market celebrated the location’s grand re-opening under new ownership and management Saturday, April 27.
Manager Stacey Mueller, marketing director Leilani Williams, and Carousel shop owner Shery Meekings and her husband Scott, along with other tenants and family members gathered to cut the ribbon and symbolically re-open the bridge.
New owner Joseph Worth has worked to collaborate with Muelle and Meekings, to re-establish the bridge as a vibrant landmark. The team wants the Cedar Street Bridge to be a gathering place for the community, serving as everything from a place to enjoy treats to a go-to spot for shopping to a place for families to enjoy arts and STEM activities.
Since his first visit to Sandpoint in 2020, Worth previously said he has gained a passion for the building through his friendships with Mueller’s and Meekings’ families — and learning about some of the challenges the bridge faced and the integral role it played in the community.
Through finding out that the structure was for sale, and developing family-like relationships with Mueller and Meekings, he realized that purchasing the bridge while still residing in Dallas was possible.
The purchase was finalized in late February and the team immediately began working to bring the bridge back to life.
Next comes the spinning wheel of color, Mueller said, which is how she describes what the group is trying to achieve.
“If you take a wheel and you color it with all these different colors, like a rainbow … and you cause that thing to spin and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh there are so many colors,’ and it’s just going,” Mueller said previously. “That’s kind of what we’re trying to create here, having all these wonderful gifts and talents, businesses, the nonprofit — have all that here so everyone can taste and see all the wonderful things that we have to offer here in Sandpoint. There’s a place and a space for everyone.”