After four years of patient work, the town has finally released for bid the project to improve town center parking. So by the end of November, the one-half acre parcel the town owns at Knothe and Boston Post roads will have a new paved parking lot with space for 27 cars. And as part of this contract, the successful bidder also will remove the three awkward landscape bump-outs that currently separate parallel parking spaces along the Town Green’s northeastern edge.

When Route 153/Westbrook Place was converted from one to two-way years ago, the bump-outs were conceived as a way to soften the road edge with landscape trees next to the Town Green. The bump-outs were built and the trees planted—but with insufficient root space in each bump-out, the trees died. So the bump-outs’ advantages, a softening of the road edge next to the Town Green, was now outweighed by its disadvantages: fewer parallel parking spaces and added difficulty for those using the indented spaces and for the winter’s snowplows.

Removal of the Westbrook Place landscape bump-outs, installation of a new straight curb, and re-painting of parking spaces along the Town Green to add three more were tasks included in the Town Center parking improvement plan.

The town announced the availability of the 450-page bid package for the Town Center Parking Improvements Project to contractors on Sept. 26. Bids are due back by Friday, Oct. 14.

Since the town used two grants from the state’s Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP), the state agency had to pre-approve the project package before it could be released for bid. Town Planner Meg Parulis received confirmation of that State Department of Economic & Community Development approval and the town placed and posted the project advertisements.

The town plan for adding public parking for Town Center was initiated in 2010 when a promising nearby property was up for sale. To pay for town purchase and clean-up of the property, the town sought and received a $250,000 STEAP grant. Knowing the parcel required some remediation, the town negotiated a purchase price of $150,700. The purchase deal closed in 2011.

Once the town owned the land and finished the removal of contaminated soil, the town’s Public Works department laid down gravel so it could be used for temporary parking. As soon as it was prepared, the land was being used as a temporary parking lot by workers and patrons of town center businesses.

In 2013, the town sought and received a second STEAP grant to support engineering design and construction of a new permanent parking lot on the parcel. Some of these grant funds were also used to support town purchase in 2016 of a sliver of land from the abutting property owner, First Niagara Bank, to square off the parking lot parcel. This parcel allowed the town to add about 10 more parking spaces to the plan. As part of this plan, the contractor will build a culvert in the channel between the town and the bank property.

Parulis is optimistic that with the bid opening set for Friday, Oct. 14, construction on the lot could be completed before the asphalt plants close in early November.

“I hope we can get the basic parking lot infrastructure in this fall. The landscaping would have to be completed though in the spring of 2017,” Parulis said.

When the project is finished, the town will have 27 new permanent parking spaces in the Knothe Road/Boston Post Road lot and three new parallel parking spaces along Westbrook Place.