Lower King St. re-do is put off until 2014; town will do South Greeley first, in 2013

January 27, 2012
by Christine Yeres

Last night the majority of the merchants on Lower King Street—and several of their landlords—came to the Community Center to learn whether the town board intends to conduct a major overhaul of their street this summer.  Several merchants had asked in the weeks before that they be spared such disruption so soon after the inconvenience of bridge construction.

The project, Supervisor Susan Carpenter informed them, has been put off for two years and will most likely be undertaken in 2014.

“Our engineers tell us it’s not realistic to think the job can be largely finished in July and August,” Carpenter announced, “and since we promised you last week that unless we could guarantee a summer finish, we wouldn’t undertake the project,” it’s postponed.

Instead, she explained, the town would now ask its engineering consultant, Dolph Rottfeld, to draw up plans for both the South Greeley / North Greeley Avenue and Lower King Street projects, then “chop up” the project into sensible pieces.  She confirmed that engineers have judged South Greeley to be the more urgent case, to be tackled in 2013.  “As the project is being staged,” Paderewski told the merchants, “we’ll bring you along, bring you in to see the plans so you know exactly what’s happening.” She encouraged them to add their email addresses to the sign-in sheet she had passed around.

Although relieved that the digging up of their street and sidewalks is put off, merchants were also disappointed that the planned aesthetic improvements—the re-do of sidewalks and curbs, lighting to match the new lampposts around town, street signs and the fashioning of a small park at the very end of Lower King—must also be put off.

Brito confirmed that the overall plan includes a stop sign the intersection of King and Greeley for traffic coming down the hill.  Sidewalks will match the segment of brickwork on view in front of the gazebo.

Susan Maher, proprietor of Breeze, asked whether she would have to wait for the overhaul to have the “DO NOT ENTER” sign at the curb—smack in front of her shop window—moved. Paderewski responded, “I’ll go down with the commissioner of public works and take a look.” Because Lower King is not a State or County road, the town has authority over the signs planted on it.

When the owners of Aurora, Breeze and The King’s Scribe asked whether they would have to wait three years for lighting at their end of the street, Mottel told them that lampposts would indeed have to wait, but that in the meantime, sconces on the buildings themselves had been recommended by consultants who worked on the downtown improvement plan.

Several merchants reported that their basements prone to water seepage.  Carpenter responded, “This is the type of thing we need to hear from you.  We want to hear from you.”  Several merchants, in response, asked that the town commit to educate the town’s residents— their customers—well in advance of any major disruptions.

Several merchants brought up the subject of a chamber of commerce, or lack thereof.  Carpenter encouraged them to organize themselves into one they said existed, sort-of, or to form another. “It’s not an easy job,” said Dawn Greenberg of Aurora.  Paderewski confirmed that the town’s new website, due to be unveiled at the end of February, will contain a merchant page.

“Let’s keep meeting like this”

Carpenter reminded merchants that the town board meets every week, alternating work sessions with regular, televised meetings.  “You’re always welcome at our meetings, and we’ll notify you when these matters that directly effect you come up on our agendas.”

“And we’ll continue to have meetings like this one as we move forward,” added Mottel.

[Related article: Merchants fret that planned repairs to Lower King will hurt business, NCNOW.org, 1/20/12]