FARMINGTON – Selectmen will hold two public hearings Tuesday. One hearing is on proposals to revamp Church Street and improve Cony Street, the other is on updating and revising the town’s comprehensive plan.
The hearings are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Municipal Building in the selectmen’s conference room.
For the upgrades on downtown roads, the town proposes to apply for $150,000 through the Community Development Block Grant Community Enterprise Program.
The money comes from the federal government and is administrated by the state.
The town would not have to match the money, Town Manager Richard Davis said Friday.
The upgrade to Church Street, between Java Joe’s and the county courthouse parking lot, calls for several changes including making the street one way from Main Street to High Street and adding a sidewalk in front of Church Street Commons, the former Knowlton-McCleary building.
The sidewalk would move the traffic away from the building to give pedestrians a safer place to walk as well as provide handicapped accessibility to the building, Davis said.
Making the street one-way would change the traffic pattern, putting angled parking on the right side of the roadway, which would increase downtown’s parking by five spaces, Davis said.
The proposal would also improve lighting on Church Street and Cony Street, which runs between Anson and Church streets, to encourage people to use the Anson Street parking lot.
Davis says that lot is underused.
“We’re hoping to get people to park up there and walk down here,” Davis said.
Improvements would also be made to the alley between Renys and The Homestead Bakery, Davis said.
The proposal would also include a historic walking tour, if there were enough money left in the grant.
Following the hearings, selectmen will take up a Fire Rescue Department request to consider proposed apparatus charges for false alarms/malfunctions and to discuss a firetruck replacement proposal, among other items.
Comments are no longer available on this story