Free Press Article

It appears that due to a miscommunication that the Main Street Report scheduled for Wednesday October 18th 2006's edition of The Trumansburg Free Press did not make it to press! The MSP apologizes for any incovenience and is happy to present the article here on the blog.

***NOTICE***
Please note that the following article is presented exactly as it was submitted to the paper on Sunday October 15th 2006. There have been no changes to it to reflect alterations in construction and the construction schedule. It is presented here as a courtesy to blog readers and of The Trumansburg Free Press.

With fall’s chill approaching and crews trading in their orange shirts for orange sweaters the talk around Trumansburg recently has focused on construction completion. At the last construction update meeting (10/05/06) new sidewalk superintendent Terrence Rearden remained confident that all work could be completed by the expected October 31^st 2006 completion date. However, he did mention that construction remained dependent on two critical factors. The first, and the one crews can do the least about, is weather. The second factor, however, can be controlled. Street teams can only begin to place curb and sidewalks once all the utility connections are completed in an area. This is for safety reasons as teams do not want to work over exposed gas lines. NYSEG subcontractor Dekatherm is charged with completing all the utility connections and their individual progress affects overall project progress. For example, curbing subcontractor Geneva Curb was supposed to place new curbs along the north side of Main Street on Wednesday October 11^th 2006, but had to reschedule due to incomplete utility connections. However, Geneva Curbing was able to make the best of that situation and began to install curbing on Friday October 13^th 2006. By the time you are reading this article, crews should have filled the trenches on both sides of the new curb helping finish up that side of Main Street.

At the aforementioned construction meeting the Main Street Project (MSP) and the Village, along with Economy Paving and C & S Engineers, resolved to pressure NYSEG to double their crew’s efforts in town. NYSEG responded to this call and brought more workers into Trumansburg all last week. At the time of this article’s submission Dekatherm crews were just past the Trumansburg Liquor store. Only after Dekatherm completes all the utility connections can street crews come to shape up the new Main Street. Dekatherm will continue making some utility connections past the Masonic Temple, but the extent of the new sidewalks will not change.

Any and all Village resident are welcome to come by the MSP Office in the Village Office building and take a look at the plans, but as completion approaches, one can see the future look of Main Street by observing the day to day progress. The un-filled arches on the south side of Main Street will be filled in with bricks. Following up on the brick update in the last Main Street Report, it now appears that the engraved bricks in our first wave order will not arrive in time to be installed by crews. All the brick inscriptions submitted between 2002 and June 2006 were ordered and will arrive in early November, but this is past the expected completion date. As the status of our second wave of brick remains unchanged (Remember the deadline is December 31^st 2006) the Village will install both the first wave bricks and second wave bricks together in the summer of 2007. In the meantime, crews will install un-engraved bricks there to act as placeholders until next summer.

The recent work on the sidewalks along South Street and the retaining wall by the Cayuga Addiction Services building certainly do help enhance the looks and safety of Main Street, but they are not formal parts of the MSP construction. The sidewalks on South Street are financed by a private effort spearheaded by the Methodist Church and John and Martha Ullberg and the retaining wall is backed by Gregg Hoffmire. The MSP thanks these citizens for their personal efforts in enhancing the character of the Village.

All MSP Communication Pathways remain open throughout the end of construction. Even as the weather gets colder the MSP will continue to hold its 8am Tuesday morning meetings on the Village Office porch; with a back-up indoor location, of course! Our blog is constantly updated and is the best way to get up to the minute information on construction and the project. You can visit the blog at: http://mainstreetproject.blogspot.com/. You can always call the MSP at 607-387-4471 and feel free to leave a voicemail if no one picks up as the MSP voicemail is checked seven days a week. Hope to see folks taking advantage of these communication pathways as construction nears completion.

-Andres Perez-Charneco

***NOTICE***

Please note that the preceding article was presented exactly as submitted to the paper on Sunday October 15th 2006. There were no changes in it to reflect alterations to construction or the construction schedule. The MSP posted the article here as a courtesy to the readers of the column and The Trumansburg Free Press.