Published: April 02, 2008 02:34 am            

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM: Streetscape wrecked along East Ave., Main St.

Since spring hasn’t really kicked in yet, it’s not clear how extensive the damage is, but surely the eyes don’t imagine it all.

A good portion of the “streetscaping” along East Avenue and Main Street looks like it’s wrecked.

Grassy areas between road and sidewalk are pocked with dead spots, from East and Washburn Street to Main and Locust streets. In front of Fountain Plaza between Urban Park Towers and the municipal parking ramp, the grass is all but stripped away and the ruts are so deep that mud is pushed up onto the sidewalk.

It’s disheartening to city taxpayer Belinda Stoll, who took note of the damage while running the stretch recently.

“Will we have to spend $20,000 again to fix it?” she asked.

Stoll refers to the city’s undertaking of the expense, last year, to replace sections of sod in the right-of-way and landscaped medians on Main. About 7,700 square feet of sod was replaced.

The short answer to Stoll’s question about paying again?

Yes, according to Norman Allen, city director of engineering.

It isn’t snow or road salt that causes the problem, he added. It’s human activity — incessant pedestrian foot traffic and occasionally overzealous snow removal — and the damage to grass is “impossible” to prevent.

The mess at Fountain Plaza was made after the last snowstorm a few weeks ago, when an excavator operator went too deep, dislodged ice and tore up the grass with it.

“We will do sod replacement again,” Allen said. “It’s a yearly project.”

The city previously spent in excess of $3 million revamping Main, the street and landscaping.

When the Common Council OK’d the sod replacement expense last year, it asked Allen to report on the cost and feasibility of artificial turf by this spring.

That may not happen so soon, Allen said Tuesday, because even if turf is feasible, the money to buy and install it is not there. The soonest it could be is the 2009 city budget.

“I probably will investigate it this year, as part of a long-range plan” for maintaining the streetscape, he said.

That’s fine, according to Mayor Michael Tucker, who said it was understood, when the city agreed to the Main Street redesign plan, that live accents would be harder to care for.

“It’s a challenge; it’s labor intensive, but it’s worth it,” Tucker said. “We got an extra person (on the highways and parks department payroll) so we can take care of Main Street. We’ll get on it.”

So far this spring, the landscaped medians — which were not universally favored because of perceived maintenance demands — look fine.

        

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