Resident John Ferris has volunteered to improve village sidewalks
See also:
Village Board decides on design of triangle
Reservoir Road Done with Sue Kelly Grant
By John M. Benson
November 18, 2007
Pawling resident John Ferris and his company, Trigger Construction, have completed the improvements to the sidewalks in front of the Key Bank, and around the corner all the way to the bend in the road at Henry Street.
Ferris has done the entire job as a volunteer, as a gift to the Pawling community.
Mayor Rob Liffland and Chamber of Commerce President Peter Cris walked those sidewalks with Ferris last week, and thanked Ferris for all of his volunteer spirit and accomplishment.
Liffland and Cris also toured the work being done on East Main Street, up to and through the triangle at the entrance to the village, and around the corner and onto South Street.
Liffland said of Ferris, “John has donated the entire job here from the tracks, along in front of the Key Bank, around the corner and down Dutcher Avenue to where Dutcher curves to the right. They have installed the cutout ramp at the corner of Main and Dutcher, with the tread step that helps the blind to know they are at an intersection and about to step onto the street.
“This has been our goal in the Village of Pawling since the master plan was adopted in 1994, to make our community pedestrian friendly, and John Ferris is doing a great job in helping all of us to bring that about.”
Just since the year 2000, the Village of Pawling has built or improved the sidewalks all to the way up Coulter Ave. to Route 22, up Pine Drive to Kings Apartments, out Charles Colman Blvd. all the way from the village center to Lakeside Park, all the way up West Main Street to the triangle just before Murrow Park, along Memorial Avenue from Main Street to Smith Street, and now from Key Bank to the bend in Dutcher Ave., and out East Main Street to the triangle and around the corner onto South Street. Most of the work has been done with funding from Community Development Grants, or volunteers like John Ferris of Trigger Construction.
“John won the bidding and got the contract to do the sidewalks along Memorial Avenue. There was some money left over in the contract, so we got the county involved to see if we could extend the project onto Smith Street, and the county people gave the okay. So, John went ahead and improved the corners at both ends of Smith Street, at Coulter Ave. and Memorial Ave. It made it much nicer up at the intersection of Smith Street and Coulter Ave. He also put the handicapped ramps at both ends, so it is now handicapped accessible, and it is pedestrian friendly at both ends of Smith Street.”
Peter Cris spoke of the importance of the work, and thanked Ferris for his efforts: “The work John Ferris has done here is all so good and so important for the community. Thanks to Mayor Rob Liffland, and vendors like John Ferris, we are moving along with improvements in the community of Pawling. It is important to the quality of life for the people of Pawling, and it is important for the businesses of Pawling, that we make the village and the town pedestrian friendly for residents as well as visitors to our community. It is called more “partnering”, which is my favorite word.”
Liffland added, “We really appreciate the work Trigger Construction has done. They have done an excellent job. John and I were talking about the work that is going on in the village, and that is when I told him about the Pawling Community Foundation, how a lot of people are stepping up to the plate and what they are doing for Pawling. That is when John said he wanted to join, and wanted to know what he could do for the village and for all of Pawling.”
Pawling resident Ferris responded, “He convinced me to come in and join, to help him out in Pawling, to help beautify the community. We live in Pawling, too, and all of this makes it a lot better for our kids.”
Liffland said the next project he would like to undertake involves running the sidewalk all the way around from Main Street, out Dutcher Avenue, and up South Street to the entrance to the village at East Main Street.
As the mayor said, “John Ferris has gotten the ball rolling in the improvement of the sidewalk at the beginning of Dutcher Avenue, and the work being done on East Main Street will turn the corner onto South Street. Our goal is to construct the sidewalk all the way around, to connect the whole loop from East Main Street, down South Street, and back along Dutcher Avenue to West Main Street. Many people do that loop now, walking or jogging. South Street is village on one side, and town on the other side. Dutcher Avenue is actually a county road. So, we will be working with the Town of Pawling and the people at Dutchess County to get that done.
“And it will also happen, perhaps working with the town, to connect the loop from the four-way stop at Lakeside Drive to Murrow Park and West Main Street. We have the sidewalks now going out from the village center to Lakeside Park, and all the way to Murrow Park along West Main Street, so we can work to connect those for our residents.
“Our goal is to connect the entire community with sidewalks, north, south, east and west. It all goes back to our master plan that was adopted in 1994, the goal to make this community pedestrian friendly.”
The work on East Main Street includes the sidewalk along the Dutcher Golf Course, the renovation of the park area triangle, and the sidewalk around the corner onto South Street.
This job is being done under the 2007 Community Development Block Grant obtained by the Village of Pawling.
Liffland spoke of the assistance Pawling receives from County Executive Steinhaus: “We really want to thank County Executive Bill Steinhaus, because he understands how important the pedestrian friendly concept is to our communities, and he understands how important the greenways and pathways to our residents and our communities. He has a real big part of all this happening in Pawling, in the Block Grants we receive, and in his greenway vision for our communities to be pedestrian friendly.”
The triangle area is being expanded, as the road through the park has been eliminated, and the turn radius from northbound Main Street onto South Street has been softened to make the turn easier.
Peter Cris said of the plans, “There will a brand new “Welcome To Pawling” sign in the triangle. We are going to frame the outline of the sign with a uniform signage of the service organizations of Pawling. The interior will be reserved for special events, so that for example, the Chamber’s holiday celebration that we call “Decemberfest” would be in the interior of the welcome sign. It will be a Chamber sign, and people can submit to us the events they want to have written on the sign.”
Liffland concluded, “There will be new landscaping, with the flagpole and monuments and the bench all located in the park area where people can stroll around and enjoy it all. We believe that we have made the streets at this intersection much safer, and we have extended the park area by eliminating the drive that used to go through.
“As I said earlier, we have extended the sidewalk around the corner from Main Street onto South Street, and John Ferris has reconstructed the sidewalk at the beginning of Dutcher Avenue. Our hope is that we can connect those two with a sidewalk all along South Street and Dutcher Avenue, and complete the loop so that our residents can walk the area with safety and really enjoy it.”
|
