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captions, page 4:
Sidewalk Woes
Grove Street sidewalks are cracked, run through with grass, worn down to nothing or heaved up. Replacement of the sidewalks is coming up. Linda Lemmon photos.
Projects
coming
to fruition
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The projects are lining up and it’ll be a busy November — or spring, depending.
A surveyor was working last week around Eversource’s former transformer area adjacent to the town’s commuter lot on Kennedy Drive.
That is related to the town’s intended purchase of that small lot to expand the town’s soon-to-be revamped commuter lot. Elaine Sistare, town administrator, said Eversource is proceeding with its due diligence for the possible sale. They have to put together all their appropriate easements, for example, an air easement for wires that might go over the little lot after the town buys it.
Meanwhile, the town is proceeding with finalizing the redesign of the commuter lot. One of the key elements is that the entrance that is very near the intersection of Rt. 44 and Kennedy Drive will move away from the intersection, keeping down congestion and bottlenecks.
Back in January, the conceptual plan drawn up by J&D Civil Engineers LLC of N. Grosvenordale, called for 195 parking spaces. The whole lot would be reworked, including the exits/entrances. The conceptual plan showed 20 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, relocated handicapped parking spaces and possibly another set of stairs next to the Centreville Bank stairs to get to the Main Street/Union Square area. In addition some landscaped strips dot the plans. There will also be stormwater improvements. It will likely be spring before construction can begin on that lot, she said.
Meanwhile Sistare said the state Department of Transportation approved the award for the redo of the sidewalks on Grove Street. The state must OK it because Grove Street is a state road, Rt. 12.
The project includes removal of existing sidewalks and curbing and construction of new Portland cement concrete sidewalks with monolithic curb and sidewalk ramps along portions of South Main Street and Grove Street between the intersections of Front Street and Killingly Avenue.
Sistare said they need to get everything signed. “I suspect that this will wait until spring.”
Meanwhile, outside the new Putnam Public Library, the creation of a playscape is on the “we hope for November” list. After the play equipment is in, a pour-in-place rubber material “ground” will be poured around the equipment, locking it in. That material will last decades and is ADA compliant, she said.
The play scape will measure 20 feet by 40 feet. The cost for the equipment and the rubber “ground” is $175,000. The rubber material is tinged in “Putnam Blue.” “If the material is delayed, it may be spring before that project is done,” she said.
Also in November, and also at the Municipal Complex, Sistare said the bathroom doors that were ordered have come in, after a 10-week wait. The original plans for the new Putnam Municipal Complex had doors for the four bathrooms (one men’s and one women’s on each of the two floors). But COVID rolled around and they instead dispensed with the doors and the entrances to the restrooms were open, like at an airport. The town decided to go back to doors. The town hopes to install them in November.
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