Town officials and community leaders making up the Delaware Avenue Improvement Group met last week for the first time.
The focus of the community meeting held Thursday, March 6, at Bethlehem Town Hall was to give an overview of the future design goals for Delaware Avenue and to discuss what could be done now by the community and business leaders to help with the beautification project as the town awaits funds from a federal grant.
“We’re here to work together in a partnership to see what we can do to improve the Delaware Avenue corridor,” said co-chair Jennifer Kilcoyne, who is also president of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce.
In June of 2012, town officials went on a walk with members of the Garden Club, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, and Kiwanis to see what kind of improvements could be made to make the corridor look more appealing. Kilcoyne said the group was now gathered to make those plans come to fruition.
The town was awarded a $1.2 million grant in January as part of the state’s Bicycle, Pedestrian and Multi-use Enhancement Projects initiative. The grant is through the federal Department of Transportation’s Transportation Enhancement Program, and the funds are expected to be used to turn the town’s Delaware Avenue Hamlet Enhancement Study into reality.
An overview of the project was presented by Rob Leslie, the town’s planning director, who also encouraged the town to apply for the grant in August.
The entire project is estimated to cost around $3.1 million. The TEP grant is for $1.2 million so the town will need to make up the remainder of the cost unless additional funding can be found through grants or fundraising. Construction is not expected to begin until 2015.
Suggestions made in the original plan include upgrades to sidewalks and the addition of bicycle lanes, as well as decorative lighting and better landscaping along the road.
In 2003, the intersection of Delaware and Kenwood saw improvements with new lighting, plant hangers and improved sidewalks. Town Supervisor John Clarkson said he had wanted to see this course of action continued and was prepared to put forth a scaled-back version of the plan until this grant became available.
It was previously suggested that the town would use some of the aesthetic suggestions in the study as guidelines for private property owners. Officials would work with business owners to start slowly implementing the plan through code changes. Some suggestions included requiring business signs to be more relative to their trade or instituting “hamlet” signs that overhang buildings. Officials would also like to see parking in the rear of buildings, entrances placed towards the front of buildings so they are more visible from the street and wider setbacks from the street to allow for outdoor cafes or courtyards.
Those ideas were once again showed to community members who attended the meeting. Clarkson asked how they felt about the changes and what could be done to entice business owners to participate in sprucing up their property. Garden Club and Delmar Progress Club representatives said it might be nice to have its members visit businesses and provide suggestion to owners about landscaping and natural beatification techniques.
The study also calls for the beautification of the railroad overpass to act as a gateway to the town. A partnership with the school district was suggested to have a mural painted by art students on one side of the Delaware Avenue Bridge overpass, with trees and a garden placed on the other.
Construction for the third phase of the Helderberg Hudson Rail Trail is expected to be completed this fall after federal funds are provided through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program totaling $3.637 million. The third phase encompasses the Delaware Avenue Bridge, with the possibility of some funds provided to help with aesthetics. Also targeted for upgrades would be several access points to the rail trail, which are within Bethlehem.
John Phillips, of Phillips Hardware, asked if there was a list of businesses available that members of the group could begin targeting.
Clarkson said no, but one could be put together, He also cautioned this was a project for willing participants and no business owner should feel like they have to donate or make costly improvements to their business.
“It will all work as long as we keep it voluntary and cooperative,” said Clarkson. “We don’t want to be in the business of telling people what they must do. We want to encourage them to visualize the things that they might do.”
The meeting left off with committee members asking to look for designs from other communities they might want to incorporate into the improvements project. The next meeting will be held on April 3 at 5 p.m. and is open to the public.