by Alyssa Vera |
Patchogue Village is taking steps toward connecting East Main Street to what they envision to be a bustling arts hub on Terry Street to the south.
First on tap is a project to extend a walkway connecting the two streets.
“We’re going to line everything up over the wintertime and move forward immediately in spring of 2018,” said Village Trustee Susan Brinkman.
On Oct.3, a $58,000 grant was approved through the Suffolk County Downtown Revitalization Citizens Advisory Panel, which will help fund the planning and construction.
Brinkman is spearheading the project that involves extending the existing Roe Walkway — which runs from Main Street between Toast Coffeehouse and Stanley’s Furniture — through the back parking lot to Terry Street where the Artspace Lofts apartments are.
“We’re going to continue the walkway right where we had the new arch put up. It’s going to extend straight through the parking lot over to Artspace,” she said.
The village will lose about 10 spaces in the process, but Brinkman says it’s worth it.
“The walkway will be safe enough for people with strollers and wheelchairs to get from one side of the parking lot to the other,” she said.
The village is contracting with Paverart LLC; which is able to create artwork on pavers, according to Brinkman.
Designs have already been selected for the use of five different pavers, which are round and six feet in diameter. The Patchogue Arts Council is also putting out a call to artists to add an even more artistic element to the walkway.
Revitalization will boost the potential for foot traffic to Terry Street, where the Artspace apartments share a building with the Patchogue Arts Council and Plaza Cinema and Media Arts Center.
There are also plans afoot in Village Hall to establish an arts district across the length of the roadway to Rider Avenue, and the village is looking at the possibility of zoning changes to encourage artists to live and work on Terry.
Marian Russo, the village’s Community Development Agency executive director, said she hopes the walkway will draw people from Main Street to discover more about the downtown.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to host larger events in the walkway area, that don’t require the closing of Main Street,” Russo said.
The Community Development Agency is matching the $58,000 with another $59,498.
The total estimated cost of the walkway extension is $117,498, Russo said.
“It’s really wonderful that [Patchogue has] so many different facets that we’re able to tap into,” Brinkman said.
“The Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District, the CDA, and the Village; we all work together in collaboration to be able to bring projects like this together.”
