Press release/letter to businesses
Dear Washington and State Street Businesses:
Over the past two weeks, City leadership has held several meetings with the construction team and its
project representatives, to find options that will allow for use of a portion of the City owned lot on Alva
and Bank streets for customers of the adjacent businesses, while still allowing for the Police Station
building project to be completed to the scale and scope originally intended.
Providing patients and customers access to local businesses is a key priority for the City. This past week,
the City issued an emergency change directive to replace the current and proposed configuration of the
safety fencing.
To develop a positive solution, it is important to remember that both sides will have to compromise along
the way.
I am pleased to share the results of the change directive. In addition to added sidewalks, striping of the
adjacent City streets, as well as an added ramp in the existing parking lot, the site safety fence will be
moved in two different phases as outlined below as construction proceeds.
Phase I Parking Plan
As shown in attached drawing, the change directive will replace the safety fence footprint with a
configuration that re-opens the existing parking area in the southwest corner of the current City owned
parking lot just west of the Police Department building site.
The contractors are going to work as quickly as possible to install utility infrastructure under the ground
in the fenced in area in order to open the first row of parking by mid-June.
It should be noted that National Grid and National Fuel will be unable to complete their work on such
short notice. Therefore, the plan is for the contractors to connect empty sleeves and conduits to
accommodate future gas and electric work. Further fence adjustments may be required as utility
connections are made.
During this phase, the public will have access to a larger portion of the westerly side of the parking lot
than what is currently present. The only entrance/exit will be from Alva Place and this is expected to be
from about May 1 until about mid-June
Phase II Parking Plan
While Phase I work is wrapping up, contractors will reconfigure the safety fencing to provide parking
adjacent to the outline of the buildings on Washington and State streets. However, this reduction in our
construction site area will require us to close and take a section of Alva Place for our use, as shown in
the attached drawing No. 2.
The public will be left with the westerly and northerly edges of the existing lot and the related 2-way
drive lanes with entry/exit at the same inlet/outlets as is current at both Bank and Alva. This change is
expected to be in place from mid-June into next spring or summer, at which time we expect spaces on
both sides of the 2-way lane to become available.
The work will be initiated under Phase I with a Change Directive under emergency necessity, pending
approval of the USDA. This will allow the site contractor to proceed immediately under Phase I while
the architect and prime contractors sort out the myriad of remaining technical details and effects on
scoping and contracts, and associated costs.
Please continue to encourage your staff to park in the JC Penney lot across Alva Place. We also
encourage you to share this parking plan with your customers. We will gladly provide you with enlarged
copies of the parking map if needed.
We will keep you apprised as plans for both phases move forward. Thank you, for your patience as the
construction project proceeds.
Sincerely,
Rachael J. Tabelski
City Manager