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Rendering
This is a rendering of how 88 Main Street in downtown Putnam would look after renovations. The design was donated by New England Designs Inc. of Mansfield.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- Although the one bid received for architectural and engineering services for the renovation of 88 Main Street came in "100 percent" over, progress is being made on reworking the parameters of the project to allow it to move forward without rebidding.
Community and Economic Development Director Delpha Very said the town is currently working with state officials to allow the town to move some of the grant funding earmarked for architectural costs over to construction costs. The donation of an architectural work, including a new rendering of what the building would look like, will allow the money that would have been used for that service to go to the construction bottom line.
So now the minimum amount required by the state for architectural and engineering services can be applied to just engineering, leaving more state grant money for construction, she said. Town officials hope renovations might start in the spring.
New England Designs Inc. of Mansfield, including Kevin Tubridy and Karl Norton, donated a new rendering of what the revamped building would look like.
Very said the new rendering reflects an 88 Main architecture closer to what the building looked like originally when it was built in the 1800s.
Bruce Dexter II, of Dexter Properties LLC, recently said plans for the four-story building in the center of downtown, include an Italian restaurant on the ground floor, a lobby, elevator, possible retail shops and a restaurant on the Main Street level and a “boutique” style hotel/inn on the top two floors.
Very said the town is trying to be very innovative. "This helps move the project along in a more formative way," she said. "There's so much excitement about this. There's a good community spirit," she added.