Downtown businesses open despite road construction

Date: 7/28/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- Mayor Michael Bissonnette's statement before a standing room only audience of downtown business owners on Wednesday in the City Council chambers could be seen as a bit of understatement: "There's a heck of a lot of roadwork in downtown."

Over the next several years, Front Street -- which has already been started -- will see a full-depth reconstruction. Most of Center Street will also be reconstructed and other downtown streets will be repaved.

Bissonnette said the design work for the replacement of the Davitt Bridge should be done in 2010 with a two-year construction period. Unlike the Deady Bridge, there will be no temporary span, he added.

Downtown merchants and property owners expressed concern about the impact the roadwork will have on their businesses. Already with the decreased parking for City Hall employees due to the Front Street re-construction, several merchants said city workers are taking up parking spaces that had been used by customers.

Bill Campbell's restaurant, Soup's On, is on the ground floor of the Starcyzk Building across from City Hall. Due to the employees using the parking spaces, he told Bissonnette, "I'm losing a ton of business."

Campbell said his business is 80 percent take-out with customers relying on the parking places for quick pick-ups. He said if the two spots in front of his restaurant could be just for 15-minute duration that might help his business.

If he doesn't get some solution to the parking crisis, he said, "I'm not going to last."

Representatives from Ames Privilege and the American Legion Post #452 offered free parking for City Hall employees during the construction.

Chicopee Chamber of Commerce President Gail Sherman stressed that downtown will be accessible during the construction period.

"During construction it's going to be a challenge," Sherman said. "Ultimately, it is a good thing and everything will be renewed."

Richard Trembly, the manager of the Fruit Fair supermarket, asked about access to the store during the construction period. He was concerned about detours around the store that would prevent customers from being able to access the store.

Trembly also noted that construction workers had parked their vehicles in spaces in front of the store, blocking potential customers and that police officers working at the construction site have prevented motorists from driving to the store.

City Engineer Steve Fredericks said that as long as there is enough room around the construction on Front Street, the city would try not to use a detour that might affect Fruit Fair's business. Fredericks added that police officers working at the site have been told that if drivers tell them they are going to Fruit Fair they should be allowed in. Both he and Bissonnette agreed to speak with the police to remind them of the situation.

The first segment of the Front Street job -- the section from the City Hall to Grape Street -- should be "squared away," Fredericks said, sometime in September.

Bissonnette said there have been delays on the Front Street construction due to the discovery of trolley tracks, telephone boxes and storm water run-off pipes that all must be removed.

Bissonnette said the city is hoping to be awarded a $600,000 Smart Growth grant that would be used for additional parking in the downtown area. He said one potential site for new parking would be the former Market Square billiards hall.

"If I had my druthers, I'd take out Market Square this fall, but I can't," Bissonnette said.

Bissonnette said the road improvements are part of an over-all plan to encourage business and residential growth in the downtown area. He wants to attract workers from Baystate Medical Center who park in the lot on the site of the former American Bosch facility on Center Street shop and buy homes here.

He noted that a review of the credit card receipts for the Munich Haus restaurant show that 75 percent of the diners live outside of Chicopee.

"People will come here. It is clean and safe," he said.

Fredericks will be posting construction and traffic updates on the city's Web site -- www.chicopeema.gov.