FROM THE SOMERSET REPORTER (NJN Publishing)
Thursday, August 10, 2006
MANVILLE -- The Somerset County Board of Freeholders recently announced the beginning of the next phase in the county's Economic Development Incentive Program grant-funded North Main Street Streetscape program.
Freeholder Denise Coyle, Economic Development Incentive Program liaison, hosted a press conference at which she discussed the current project that received $183,630 in funding to extend decorative pavers from the existing three-foot wide pavers along the curb to the building fronts.
Joining Freeholder Coyle were Mayor Angelo Corradino, Borough Councilwoman Kathryn Quick, and Economic Development Incentive Program Committee members Robert Wellbrock and David Weiss.
"The completion of the streetscape will improve mobility and safety, and also will improve the quality of life in the community through its aesthetic value," said Coyle. "Additionally, it will attract people into the downtown, which ultimately will increase the value of commercial properties along the borough's Main Street Corridor.
"Also, this improvement will create a pedestrian linkage within the southern downtown area, as well as link the area to the major commercial developments in the North Main Street Corridor."
The North Main Street Streetscape project is an extension of other streetscape projects that began in 2000 with the South Main Street Continuation and then the 2004 Brooks Boulevard Streetscape project.
The current project will encompass the west side of North Main Street from Norfolk Southern Railroad to Dukes Parkway East. It also will include additional work on Brooks Boulevard, which was not part of the original Brooks Boulevard Streetscape project back in 2004, when Manville received $136,350.
Included in the current funding is the addition of pavers to the parking lot of the municipal building, which has been completed.
This project also will provide a new sidewalk that will create a safe pathway to and from an-EDIP funded parking lot behind the municipal building. Manville received $125,000 under the North First Avenue Municipal project in 2003 for this work. And, it will bring improvement to the south side of Dukes Parkway.
Since 1999, Somerset County, through its Economic Development Incentive Program, has awarded Manville $1,270,380. Other projects included $190,000 in faade improvements, $167,000 in planning studies, $50,000 in redevelopment plan implementation, $18,400 in Special Improvement District funding, and $250,000 in traffic improvements.
The $50,000 in redevelopment planning allowed the borough to move ahead and develop a plan for the clean-up and reuse of the Rustic Mall on Main Street.
To date, $9,225,440 has been awarded to the six older boroughs in Somerset County and Franklin.
Topline Construction of Somerville was awarded the contract for this project.