Mount Kisco Streetscape Phase I to Be Done By End of Month; Phase II Next

June 15, 2022 Examiner Media Mount Kisco

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By Nora Lowe

Mount Kisco officials expect the first phase of the village’s ongoing streetscape project to be completed by the end of the month and Phase II of the work to begin later this year or next spring.

At the June 6 Mount Kisco Village Board work session, Village Engineer Anthony Oliveri and planning consultant Jan Johannessen presented a project update. The work is making functional and aesthetic renovations to areas of downtown.

Phase I includes the Shopper’s Park and Blackeby parking lots and part of Green Street, Oliveri said. Phase II will start at the intersection of Green and Main streets, run along East Main Street and end at Kirby Plaza, he said.

Village Manager Edward Brancati anticipates Phase I will be done by the end of June. Phase I will cost $2,286,221.99, he said during an interview with The Examiner. A bond resolution was previously approved by the board that authorized spending up to $5 million for all four phases of the work.

Phase II will cover just over one-third of a mile and is expected to be less expensive than Phase I since it doesn’t include landscaping. Since it involves a state roadway, permitting from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is required.

“We’ve actually already submitted a preliminary (plan) to them to start getting some comments,” Oliveri said.

He said that Phase II is likely to be bid this summer, with the work starting in the fall or spring 2023. It’s too early to estimate how long Phase II will take, Brancati added.

To keep things looking consistent, Phase II will use many of the same materials that are in the Shopper’s Park lot, Oliveri told the board.

“Typically, you’re going to see a band of decorative pavers, granite curbing and dyed gray concrete,” he said.

Additional crosswalks will be added at certain locations, including at the intersection of Green and Main streets and near the closed Mt. Kisco Movie Theater. Johannessen said there are a number of trees that are “breaking up the sidewalk” and those may have to be removed.

A few board members raised a couple of concerns to Oliveri and Johannessen, who both attended the meeting via video conference, about the project’s nearly-completed Phase I.

“Trustee (Karine) Patiño and I were walking on the pavers on the crosswalk part at Shopper’s Park the other day…during the rain, and they are kind of slippery,” recounted Deputy Mayor Lisa Abzun. “I was wearing sneakers, and she was wearing high-heeled shoes…I’m just really concerned.”

Oliveri assured the board that the Unilock pavers are slip-resistant and “is all done exactly as it’s installed in countless other applications around the state, around the country. The paver is used on sidewalks, on crosswalks, on pool decks. This is standard.”

Abzun said she was also concerned that the crosswalks appear to be getting darker and might eventually “blend in with the street,” endangering pedestrians.

Brancati and Oliveri acknowledged that this concern was raised by the DOT as well. Potential remedies include installing more crosswalk signage and lighting, using lighter-colored paver stone or continuing the concrete instead of installing pavers.

The streetscape project will also include a Phase III, from Green Street running south along East Main Street to Smith Avenue, and a Phase IV along Lexington Avenue.

Brancati emphasized that the entire project was estimated to cost $5 million.

“That’s what we put in our capital plan, that’s what the bond resolution from the Village Board included, and we’re not going to exceed that, so if we have to scale back a little bit in some places, we will, but we’re not going to exceed that five million,” Brancati said.