ATHOL – Residents with questions about the upcoming work on Freedom and South streets can attend a forum on Thursday to get more information.
The pre-construction meeting will take place at the Athol Senior Center in Lord Pond Plaza at 3:30 p.m. on July 24. The meeting is required under rules governing the Community Development Block Grant that Athol received for the project.
The $950,000 FY24 Community Development Block Grant for Athol was announced by Gov. Maura Healey’s office in August of 2024. The remainder will be used to cover contingencies and applied to administrative costs.
“This is Phase 2 of that neighborhood revitalization project,” said Public Works Director Dick Kilhart. “The first phase was Canal and Lumber streets which, with the exception of a few remaining items, is pretty well wrapped up. This second phase includes sidewalks, road reconstruction. They’ll be adjusting structures on both South Street and Freedom Street. Freedom Street currently has no sidewalks; there will be versions of sidewalks on that portion of Freedom Street coming off of Main Street and intersecting with the work that is being done at Lord Pond Plaza.”
The Freedom and South streets project is being done by Taylor Davis Landscape & Construction of Amherst. Town Manager Shaun Suhoski signed a contract with the company for just over $800,000 earlier this week, according to Kilhart. He noted that several public meetings have been held leading up to the project’s start.
“One of the common questions that normally comes up is, ‘They’ve taken up the sidewalk at my driveway entrance; am I going to be able to get out and go to work in the morning?’ And the answer to that question is yes, they will be able to get out,” Kilhart said. “Under the contract, the contractor is required to allow them to navigate through there and maintain traffic.”
Kilhart added that Thursday’s meeting is also an opportunity for residents to get accurate information regarding the work.
“With social media today, sometimes things get spoken or posted about and the information may not be accurate. So this gives folks a chance to see the face of the contractor. If they haven’t before, they also get a chance to meet Eric Smith from the Planning Department and Paul (Raskevitz) and me from the DPW….It’s good to have more communication so people can understand what’s going on.”
Kilhart said road closures shouldn’t be a major issue in the neighborhood.
“There will be some times where people will have to traverse through and around construction equipment. Anytime you have construction, you have disruption,” he added. “But the contractor does have a traffic plan and if they need officers, that’s all part of the contract. But during my time here, all the projects have gone pretty smoothly, and we expect this to be the same.”
The DPW chief said work on the project should get underway soon. He said Taylor Davis has been given potential locations for use as a staging area.
“There is a deadline under the grant for the project to be completed by the end of the calendar year. Here in Athol we try not to do any paving after Nov. 15; we like to pave when the weather is still nice,” Kilhart added. “And while there is some construction work and some sidewalk work, there really isn’t a lot of trench work to do. It’s mostly surface work that people will see and it should go relatively quickly.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.