AMHERST — Town officials may combine upgrades to the town common downtown with needed work to its neighboring parking lot, a move that would cause less disruptions for the public but delay completion until 2019.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said last week that the decision to pursue refurbishing the North Common in front of Town Hall at the same time as improvements are made to the Main Street parking lot brings efficiencies and minimizes disruptions for the public, but also means uncertainty about whether the project can be complete next year.
The work should be done between June 1 and Aug. 15, which Bockelman describes as a “very tight time frame.”
“The best time for us to do the construction is basically from June to mid-August,” Bockelman said.
But designs for the North Common are still in development, and along with the Main Street plans, will need to go through a number of boards and committees for approvals.
North Common, which is situated between the two parking lots at Spring and Main streets, is best known for the site of events, such as the recent Merry Maple celebration and the weekly peace vigil that began during the Vietnam War, along with the annual Veterans Day commemoration.
With $590,000 in Community Preservation Act money, the town could put more benches on the North Common, replace the 1960s-era tree boxes made from railroad ties and fix the bare soil that has caused exposed tree roots and created tripping hazards.
In the Main Street parking lot, where parking spaces are directly in front of Town Hall and close to numerous merchants, a resurfacing will take place. This will follow the town redoing the Spring Street parking lot in summer 2011, where the weekly Amherst Farmers Market is held during the growing season, and the Amity Street parking lot, repaved and enhanced in summer 2016.
Bockelman said the Main Street lot work will include putting in new lighting, fixing the sidewalks and restriping parking spaces.
There will also be discussion about whether the entrance from South Pleasant Street should be removed, meaning access will only be from Boltwood Avenue. Bockelman said some vehicles cut through the lot to avoid the traffic signal at the intersection of South Pleasant and Main streets, causing a potentially hazardous situation.
In addition to the work in downtown that may happen next summer, Groff Park in South Amherst is still expected to be improved in mid-August.
A splash pad, new pavilion and new playground will be built late summer and ready for public use in 2019. Bockelman said the idea is to have Groff Park be used until the school year begins.
More than $1 million will go toward the project and having the town’s first spray park replace a wading pool that was demolished.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.