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Greenport authorizes bond for road projects, mayor says plan can be modified

A proposal to bond $800,000 for a variety of road and sidewalk projects was unanimously authorized by the Greenport Village Board on Thursday, but Mayor George Hubbard Jr. said the village reserves the right to modify the plan if needed.

“We will authorize a bond to get the money, but the plan is not set in stone,” he said. “It can be modified and changed as we’re doing it.”

He said authorizing the bond is the first step for the project.

Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said she took a tour of the areas in question and found much of it to be “a work in progress.”

At Thursday’s meeting, resident Ken Ludacer said the widening of Main Street between Bay and Central avenues is unnecessary and “a project I can only guess came into being due to the complaints of a handful of village residents who were probably not very good drivers.”

He said this section of road has been narrow for at least 25 years.

Mr. Ludacer’s wife, Virginia Ludacer, also expressed concerns. Her antique store, Beall & Bell, is on Main Street where the village has proposed widening the road.

She suggested the board take a walk with some business owners and show them what’s planned.

“You’re going to have the street two feet closer to my building. That’s not something that makes me particularly happy,” she said. “Losing trees doesn’t make me particularly happy.”

She suggested making Main Street one-way heading north from Front Street to the intersection of First and Webb streets.

Mr. Hubbard said northbound cars wouldn’t be able to get back to Front Street under that plan. He said the trees being removed on Main Street are tearing up the concrete with their roots.

The widening and repaving of Main Street will be done in the fall, Mr. Hubbard said. The road will be repaved from Claudio’s to Townsend Manor Inn.

The concrete work will be done first, and the paving work last, he said.

Other projects proposed under the bond include repairing the aprons on the two firehouses, putting new curbs and sidewalks on South Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues and repaving that section of road, completing unfinished paving on Third Street, and new curbing and sidewalks on parts of Sixth Street and Wiggins Street, and repaving Broad Street.

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Photo credit: Krysten Massa