New Castle to Restore Granite Curbing in Chappaqua Streetscape Project
The New Castle Town Board plans to restore more than 1,600 linear feet of granite curbing to the downtown streetscape project, one of the items town officials removed last spring after costs far exceeded estimates.
Town Administrator Jill Shapiro informed the board last week that it should move ahead to include the curbing everywhere sidewalks were taken out of the plan, including on South Greeley Avenue in the vicinity of Town Hall and on North Greeley Avenue up to Bischoff Street even though there’s no guarantee that some or all of the sidewalks in those locations will be built.
Shapiro said that while the town was optimistic to once again include some of the items it removed last year to trim costs, the granite curbing requires the longest lead time of all the items it must order, forcing the town to make a decision now.
It would also allow the town to pave the road in front of Town Hall and keep alive the hope that areas of downtown that don’t have sidewalks can have them installed if not immediately but at some point in the future.
“That allows us to pave our roads, the granite curbing is in place, worst-case scenario we’re not in a position to put all the sidewalks back,” Shapiro said. “That’s fine. We backfill with topsoil and seed it with grass or mulch. That’s fine. We can still walk on it but we have the opportunity to do the sidewalks in phases.”
Last May, more than $1.1 million of work was deleted from the streetscape project, including reducing the total amount of granite curbing from 7,763 linear feet to 6,125 linear feet. The curbing would put back nearly $90,000 into the cost of the project.
During the public outreach process leading up to devising the new Comprehensive Plan, residents supported having more sidewalks in town wherever possible.
“Anywhere we can put in sidewalks, I think we should,” said Supervisor Robert Greenstein.
The town is holding about $1.1 million in contingency funds for the project and another $1 million for unclassified purposes, which it has not yet dipped into, Shapiro noted. She said the nearly $90,000 restoration would come out of the town’s fund balance for now, since there are unexpected expenses that could still surface.
“I’m hesitant to touch this because we’re not far enough along with our excavation,” Shapiro said. “We haven’t finished the sanitary sewer, we haven’t finished our drainage, so I’m hesitant to go any further.”
She also told the board that the state Department of Transportation will send a compliance officer to walk with town representatives downtown to make sure any sidewalks and curbing that is installed is consistent with its ADA standards.
Late last month, the downtown infrastructure project. In December before the holidays, Con Edison completed its gas main work downtown, but in the past three weeks lower King Street has been closed from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. for overnight work to begin the installation of the new sanitary sewer system.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
