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Guilford Town Parking Lot to be Renovated in 2016

After years of wear and tear, the parking lot located behind Whitfield and Water streets will be completely redone in early 2016, according to First Selectman Joe Mazza.

The project, which had struggled and failed to get off the ground for years due to a lack of funding, will be made possible by a $446,000 grant from the state.

“It is a project that we had envisioned doing in years past, and we applied for funding for several years and were unsuccessful and now we were finally successful in getting funding,” he said.

While the state of the pavement in the parking lot has been the primary concern for many residents, Mazza said the renovation of the lot will be very comprehensive.

“We are going to reconfigure the parking a bit, putting in sidewalks; install lighting to mimic the lighting on the Green; putting in a center rotary, which will have some plantings; and we will also include some lighting in the rotary,” he said.

Mazza said a new fire hydrant will also be included in the rotary to improve safety in the area.

“Then the final piece of reconstruction would be the paving of the entire lot,” he said.

The town met with the landlords of the properties surrounding the parking lot on Dec. 16 to introduce the plan and get their feedback.

“It went well,” Mazza said. “We have a little bit more tweaking to do, and I think we are going to meet with them in another week or so.”

Mazza said the town engineering department will take into consideration the landlords’ suggestions before they meet again.

“Once we conclude that meeting, we will prepare bid documents and then go out to bid,” he said. “We will go out to bid sometime in January so depending on weather, we would start the project somewhere in late February.”