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captions, page 7:
top: Owen Tarr Sports Complex
Lower left: Mill/Providence Street
Lower right: Marshall/Providence Street
'Pocket parks'
to bloom on
Providence
Street
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
By summertime three sections of Providence Street will look a little more friendly, a little more inviting.
Using a federal grant, three "pocket parks" will be created on Providence Street, helping to make businesses and more along the street more of a destination, according to Community Development Director Delpha Very. Part of a long-term plan, the three "park" renovations will help the Providence Street area serve as an inviting gateway to the other northeast towns which use this commercial district. It is part of a comprehensive design for Providence Street, she said.
The small park at the corner of Marshall Street and Providence Street will be enhanced with more greenery, benches and pathways. the corner of the Owen Tarr Sports Complex will get spruced up with greenery, a new sign and some revamped fencing. The third area, the town parking lot on Providence Street near the former Viens Pharmacy will get a jolt of greenery, shrubs, a walkway. Very said the placement of greenery will necessitate the redefinition of the parking spaces. In all three of them, Artistic Stamped Concrete Inc. has donated an impression of the town's waterfall logo in the concrete.
Very said the project is funded by the Redevelopment Agency through an older fund, a federal Urban Development grant. The total cost, for design and renovation, is $129,000 with the town's Department of Public Works assisting. She added the town is waiting for some state permits before the work begins.
The "pocket park" work is only part of the effort to restore the Providence Street commercial district to its classy glory days. Zoning regulations are getting a look, as well as design guidelines and an examination of the concept of parking behind stores. "It's a big project and we're looking at funding opportunities," she said. "We want it to be comfortable for walking and with a viewscape we can all appreciate," she added.