It hasn't worked. Passing trucks still swallow pieces of their conversations. The TV volume is up a couple of notches. The explosive whoosh of truck brakes and blare of horns wakes them. In the past decade, there has been a renaissance of restoration.
People are in sort of a disbelief at the traffic that travels on the two-lane street through here.
The concerns of the Hilterbrans and some of their Main Street neighbors is a common theme among city residents who are trying to grapple with Lebanon's rapid growth, up 32 percent since 1990 to an estimated 13,800. Fear that development will overrun the city's historical character sparked the recent formation of a grass-roots group dedicated to preservation, the Lebanon Conservancy Foundation. Main Street, as the most accessible connector between Interstates 71 and 75, has shouldered much of the increased traffic accompanying the area's development. Some Main Street residents propose putting the expansion project on hold and moving forward with completing a bypass that is intended to divert truck traffic. If traffic follows the bypass, residents argue that a Main Street expansion isn't necessary.