Lot ready for paving
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — With the town’s “full dance card” of summer events looming, town officials are hopeful that the paving of the newly renovated and expanded commuter lot on Kennedy Drive will happen this week.
Mayor Barney Seney said he hopes the lot will be paved this week. Town Administrator Elaine Sistare was a little more conservative, hoping for “before May 31.”
The old lot had 112 spaces and plans call for, with all phases completed, 191 and that will include 15 electric vehicle charging stations. Seney said late last year he hoped that two of those could be fast-charging stations, he said. 
Part of the expansion is the town’s purchase of the Eversource property at the southern end of the lot last year. The entrances/exits have been reworked, the most significant being the closure of the entrance/exit closest to the Kennedy Drive/Rt. 44 intersection. The entrance/exit is now further down Kennedy Drive, to alleviate congestion close to the intersection.
Also of significance is the creation of a storm water management system. Before the revamp, storm water ran almost unimpeded to the Quinebaug River. There was a water/oil separator under the lot which until recently had been forgotten. The plans, by J&D Civil Engineers of Thompson, created a drainage system with catch basins and piping that runs under Kennedy Drive to a new catch basin at the end of the existing River Trail municipal lot north of the infiltration basin. J&D said, “It will intercept runoff and direct it to the infiltration basin instead of the runoff flowing into Kennedy Drive. Therefore, this runoff will also be fully treated prior to entering the (Quinebaug) river.”
The storm water management system is completed, concrete stairways are installed from the lot to Canal Street and concrete works in place include light pole bases and landscaping beds.
Seney said last year that the lot was built after the Flood of 1955 on land the town purchased from the American Legion.
The Legion’s post on Canal Street was recently demolished and a 4,400-square foot addition to Gerardi Insurance Hilb Group is under construction.

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Above: Filtration near the river. Left: Landscape/light pole bed. Linda Lemmon photos.

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