Cindy Lupica of Marmalade, Dawn Greenberg of Aurora; see plan of park on Lower King in “Read more…”
January 20, 2012
by Christine Yeres
The town board has included in this year’s capital budget funds to repair 100-year-old sewer and water lines under South Greeley as well as those under Lower King Street. Expert consultants have warned that both sets are badly in need of replacement within the next two years, but some merchants on Lower King are worried that their businesses will suffer.
When they presented their budget last fall, town board members expressed their intention to hold off on the South Greeley project, since the merchants and their customers had just endured a lengthy bridge construction process on their front sides and parking lot re-do in back. The board turned its attention instead to Lower King. Some merchants there, however, pleaded to have the project to Lower King delayed too.
In its work session on Tuesday, town board members reviewed the town’s plan for improvements to Lower King Street: redo the four crosswalks of the Starbuck’s intersection and add a stop sign, move angled parking from the north side of Lower King to the south side, redo sidewalks and curbs, add lighting and create a seating area at the very end of the street. Around $650,000 has been allocated for the changes. Since both South Greeley and Lower King have been diagnosed as urgent cases for repair, the board wants at least one of them to be done this summer.
Three merchants from Lower King attended the meeting and gave differing input to the board. Two were new to the block, one has operated there for eight years.
Cindy Lupica of Marmalade, in business for eight years, begged board members to spare Lower King merchants the disruption. They, too, she asserted, had suffered during the period of bridge construction and needed a respite now. “I really feel you need to give us a chance to get back some traction from customers,” she said. “It will really hurt my business if you start three months from now.” As it did with the parking lot redo behind the South Greeley shops, the town is attempting to accomplish the most dramatic of the repairs to Lower King during the summer months, when the population is low. “But I’d rather live another year with shabby sidewalks and get some confidence back from customers,” Lupica concluded.
Pocket park plan for end of Lower King
Dawn Greenberg, the owner of Aurora, the very last store on Lower King, and Susan Maher, who owns Breeze, the shop next door, share a landlord. “I’m new,” said Greenberg, “but I feel as though it’s so hideous down at our end of the street, with no lighting or anything and a landlady who won’t do anything [by way of improvements]. Let’s get on with it. I think it needs to be done.”
Maher, newest on the block, concurred. “I’m all for beautification,” she said. “I would love a beautiful little park at the end of the street. There are five new businesses on Lower King, so there will be an impact.” But, she noted, Breeze had only just opened in September, so she was less familiar with the disruption caused by the bridge. She was sure about the difficulty of the street sign that stands at the curb smack in the middle of her front shop window and hoped that in a redo it might disappear. Both women said that their end of Lower King is very dark at night and that they would appreciate some lighting.
Supervisor Susan Carpenter told the three women that “at some point you have to worry about whether the infrastructure will hold—if we have breaks, it really will put you out of business.” She and Town Administrator Penelle Paderewski assured the three merchants that if the project plans and consultants can be lined up quickly, the most disruptive work—the tearing up of the street surface—would be accomplished in two months, July and August, effectively done by The Return to School in September. And at no time, they promised, would the entire street be made impassible. Parking might disappear for a time, but there would always be through-traffic. Once the pipes are replaced, the street itself will be repaired. Next come sidewalks, then the park at the end.
Everything depends on whether the plans can be finalized and the consultants and contractors lined up fairly soon, said Paderewski. If these can’t be arranged so that the work is finished by end of summer, she told the merchants, then the board would likely put it off.
Copyright 2012 NewCastleNOW.org