LEWISTON — Upgrades to the north gateway to Kennedy Park will get underway Tuesday, city officials announced Monday in a news release.

The project aims to complement housing construction across Pine Street, which will begin in 2025, and to fulfill plans to improve neighborhood gateways by beautifying the grounds and “increasing positive activities in Kennedy Park to create a more accessible, safer greenspace for all residents,” the release said.

The project will require the city to prohibit parking on Pine Street.

The north gateway project includes new lighting, drainage, benches, trash receptacles, cobble and brick paving, brick seat wall with planters, walkways and accessible ramps. New flora will include serviceberry, American elm trees, which are resistant to disease, and various grasses such as beyond blue fescue, blue upright switch grass and purple lovegrass. Also, an arboreal figure sculpture by Maine artist Hugh Lassen will grace the new entrance.

The project, which involves 17,000 square feet of landscaping, sidewalks and a new entrance, is being funded through a 2018 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant for $1.3 million. The work will run through September.

The Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant was awarded to the city and co-applicant Community Concepts. The organization and city are collaborating through the Healthy Neighborhoods Planning Council, which is working “to create a neighborhood transformation plan that focuses on making the Tree Streets Neighborhood a holistically healthier place where anyone would choose to live.”

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