Town panel reviews $2 million plan to improve Pleasant Street sidewalks

Mike Burns, a town staff member, presented a set of design alternatives on behalf of the town and its consultant Apex for pedestrian improvements along Pleasant Street between Silver Street and Main Street. He said "$2,000,000 in funding for these improvements were approved at the 2022 annual town meeting."

The project focuses on three problem areas where mature street trees, narrow travel lanes and on-street parking create substandard sidewalks. Burns described five alternatives for the stretch between Silver and South Mill streets, ranging from a "do-nothing" option that rebuilds sidewalk surfaces to alternatives that would remove trees, remove a parking lane, or relocate sidewalk alignment behind trees with potential property impacts. "Alternative 5 would remove the sidewalk from the west side of the roadway, preserve the street trees on that side of the road, but it would require utility poles…