If Mother
Nature
would just
let up ...
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — If Mother Nature would be more cooperative, the town’s downtown road projects would be closer to finished.
Highway Superintendent Travis Sirrine said “The weather has been kicking us back.”
The sidewalks on both sides of Canal Street will be completed this week. From there, the crews intend to start on the parking lot off Main Street, next to the Congregational Church of Putnam.
The parking lot will be ground down, graded and paved. The start date for that is April 29.
Weather permitting, he said the town intends to have the parking lot done before the first First Fridays on May 3.
Town crews have already removed the scrub trees and bushes from Main Street to Livery Street. Sirrine said the lot was squared off at the church’s rear parking lot. The lot will be recurbed and replanted and new stripes will be added. He expects that the lot will gain three to five parking spaces.
The lot will be closed during construction.
Around May 6, after First Fridays, crews will — again weather permitting — start a repaving project for the whole downtown block.
The following streets will be milled down and paved: Main Street, Bundy Street, Livery Street, Lee Street and Canal Street.
Sirrine was not sure whether the crews would start on the side streets or Main Street first.
He said crews will be grinding at night and paving during the day. “The whole square will be done,” he said.
Any drainage issues will be addressed, for example replacing catch basins as needed.
He hopes it will take just a few days.
“If Mother Nature would smile on us, we’d have it done a lot quicker,” Sirrine said. “It seems to rain every couple days.”

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