You need a scorecard
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The juggernaut that is Putnam progress.
The town received about a million dollars in good news last week. 
The state Bond Commission just approved funding for sidewalk improvements between Grove and South Main streets. The Community Investment Fund 2030 Round 8 funding included $1,579,791 for Putnam’s Sidewalk Safety Improvements project.
Lots of paperwork to be done before there’s construction including more design work, approvals by the DOT, the Board of Selectmen’s acceptance of the funding, bids and more. 
A couple months ago Economic and Community Development Director Mary Ann Chinatti said construction may start in the spring. She believes it would be a one-construction season project.
The total cost of the project is $1,610,403. The balance would be the town’s share, surveys and plans. 
Plans call for a complete redo of the sidewalks on seven streets between Grove and South Main streets: Bradley, Center, Chapman, Fremont, King, Pleasant and Seward streets. Some of the streets only have a sidewalk on one side of the street. Most of the sidewalks are old and cracked and heaving up.
The project will involve removing concrete and bituminous sidewalks. There will be 5-foot wide sidewalks poured with curbs, plus sidewalk ramps, catch basin top replacements, patching driveways, warning strips, topsoil and turf, resetting mail boxes and more.
“This is such a great project,” Chinatti said. “This will greatly enhance foot traffic and address so many issues.”
The town hopes to move the antique hitching posts still gracing the sidewalks in that area to the proposed Union Square Park.
The Good Word from D.C.
The proposed work on the town’s Peake Brook water plant is moving through the federal government budget process. The town put in for about $1 million dollars for the project and Chinatti is “thrilled” that, according to the Grants and Special Project coordinator for U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney’s office, the figure that’s survived in the Agriculture subcommittee’s bill text is $938,000. Often requests are slashed. “This is rare,” she said. “I’m so thrilled it’s almost intact.” Courtney’s coordinator, Julie McGrath, told the town that there should be an update in mid- to late June.
The 30-plus year old building on Peake Brook Road, according to CDM Smith, Inc., needs repairs and upgrades and replacement of some equipment. Equipment, piping, controllers, gear boxes, filters need replacement. The engineering report also called for replacement of the backup generator, among other things. 
A couple months ago Chinatti said the entire project would cost $4.5 million. The Water Pollution Control Authority’s Brian Lynch has put in for $2.5 million in bonding and he’s asking for the $1 million through the USDA Department of Agriculture Community Services program. Then the town would have to contribute $250,000, which the WPCA has in its budget. 
Lynch has been working on this for more than a year, she said.
Fingers are crossed that the near-$1 million appropriation survives and is part of the federal budget (maybe) done by October.
Rt. 44 Sidewalks
On the other side of town, the town received some positive comments from the state Department of Transportation on its updated plans to continue the School Street sidewalks up to Walmart. One challenge was solved by the proposal of a prefabricated pedestrian bridge at Little Dam Tavern Brook. Chinatti said this project is in preliminary stages. Syl Pauley, NECCOG’s engineer who is preparing the plans, will incorporate DOT comments into the plan. Then DOT reviews the plans again. This project is nowhere near the “apply for grants” stage. Chinatti estimated ¾ of a mile as a rough estimate on the length of the project.

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