Orangetown Working on Pearl River Sidewalk Project

Nearly three years ago, the Pearl River Chamber of Commerce began work on replacing the sidewalks on Central Ave. and Main Street.

The Pearl River Chamber of Commerce first proposed the project, which includes the sidewalks on the south side of Central Ave. from Pearl River Hook and Ladder to Main St., and from that corner on Main St. to Franklin Ave. and pursued federal funding. 

"The Pearl River Chamber of Commerce and (Congressman) Eliot Engel's office were able to secure a $250,000 grant," Orangetown Highway Department Superintendent James Dean said. "They were notified the money is available, but they are not a municipal entity. The municipality of Orangetown has to put the project together and bid out the construction work."

"In October it will be three years since we started this," said Pearl River Chamber of Commerce President Kevin Hardy. "I'm glad to see this coming about."

The work on the project continued Tuesday night with a public information meeting, which is a requirement of the funding. Orangetown retained the consulting services of Lochner Engineering to handle the applications and paperwork. Lochner is also handling the sidewalk work on Route 340 in Orangetown. 

Transportation Engineer Kyle Snyder represented Lochner Tuesday and explained that preliminary work such as data collection and surveys have already been done. The public will have 10 days to offer comments before things can move forward. The public contact for the project is Stephen Munno, senior administrative assistant with the Orangetown Highway Dept. He can be reached by phone at (845) 359-6500.

"Part of where we are and why we're here today is if there are any comments, we'd like to handle them now and make sure the design is going to be of the most benefit to every one of the stake holders -- The town, the business owners, the residents of the surrounding area -- to make sure the end product is worthwhile," Snyder said.

It is also to meet the requirements for the money, which would take up 80 percent of the cost of the project. The money goes through the New York State Department of Transportation, which will have to approve the final plan. 

"In the scheme of things, it's not tremendously large, but it's important to the businesses of Pearl River," Dean said.

Dean explained that the project to renovate the sidewalks on the north side of Central Ave. in 2005 was done mostly with town money, so the process was very different.

"There are strings attached and a lot of points you have to meet," Dean said. "The DOT has to be satisfied."

Orangetown's engineers in the DEME are also involved in the project. They are putting together the drawings that will be submitted to the DOT.

The town will hire outside contractors to do the work. Dean said he hoped bids would go out by next spring so the work could be done during 2013.

The curbs and sidewalks will be replaced. Dean said the concrete pits in which the trees along the streets are currently planted will be replaced by structural soil, which should give the trees more room to grow and avoid some of the sidewalk damaged by roots with nowhere to go.

"The trees you see now are in concrete boxes. They are basically coffins. They grow to the edge and can't go any more," Dean said.

The fate of the trees currently in place is one point of contention.

"We've come to a consensus after a lot of discussion that it would probably be better if the trees were out," Hardy said. "On reason is the age of some of the trees. We are going to have all this work done and trees that are going to be dying, especially on Central Avenue. We'd have an opportunity to match the trees planted on the north side."

Angelo Raffa spoke at the meeting and opposed the removal of the trees on South Main St. 

Councilman Tom Diviny said it was important for the public to be informed regarding the decision to remove and replace trees. He added that there were complaints from chamber of commerce members about the town "killing trees" during the last project.

Snyder said that any comments from Tuesday’s meeting or the 10-day period afterward would be taken into account in the next phase of the planning.