A blighted lot will soon become a municipal asset now that the town has awarded a contract to move forward on the Main Street Connection Park.

The site of the former police station will be turned into a public parking lot with grass on the rest of the lot following last week’s town decision to award the bid to construct the facility to Schumack Engineered Construction Company, Inc., for a bid price of $395,624.

The future public park and parking lot site has been vacant since the town demolished the police station that once stood there. Despite the prime location opposite The Kate, the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) over the past two years had parked its commercial trucks and trailers there and used it for temporary dirt and fill storage.

This parcel was never cleared by Zoning Commission for this use, however, and commission members at a December 2016 meeting chastised the town’s representative, calling the site blighted and in violation of town zoning rules.

The Town Engineer Geoff Jacobson was at that meeting to support the town’s request to modify the 2015 Zoning approval for the Main Street Park Connection. Since the first bidding of the project in 2015 resulted in bids higher than the budget, the town wanted zoning approval to complete the project in phases, with the goal of having the smaller scope of phase one fit within the town’s funding budget.

The Zoning Commission voted to phase the project over several years on the condition that the town eliminate all existing zoning violations on the site before any construction work began.

The scope of the first phase includes grading, drainage, and paving of the 31-space parking lot; planting of grass in undeveloped site areas; and installation of stone planters, benches, and a timber guide rail and posts along the north side of the project site.

Once completed, the new parking lot will provide additional public parking for patrons of Main Street businesses, of the Kate, and of events on the Town Green. The new benches will provide a place for walkers and shoppers to stop and rest.

In the second phase, the town would complete the linear park connection between Main Street and Lynde Street, and improve the site for public recreation by adding more trees and landscaping, among other improvements.

The construction costs will be offset by a $500,000 Small-Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant the town received in 2015.

First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., said he is hopeful that Schumack will start mobilizing equipment and materials to the site by the end of May. The project’s timeline calls for the project to be done about two months after the groundbreaking.