Utility work done, bridge to close soon
By Erik Pekar, Town Historian
The right-of-way clearance phase of the Church Street bridge replacement project has been completed.
The bridge had been set to close on June 16. Three other utilities had cleared their lines from the bridge right of way. Verizon did not start work before June, and on June 14 it was announced that the bridge closure would be delayed for at least two weeks to allow Verizon time to relocate its utility lines. Verizon began work the week of June 16.
By late June, the estimated completion time had drifted to as late as the start of August. Crew scheduling issues on the part of Verizon accounted for the delay and uncertainty regarding a project completion timetable.
The situation improved in early July to the point where on July 5, an estimated completion date of July 16 was announced. By the evening of July 14, only one of Verizon’s utility lines was left crossing the Church Street bridge. However, the black boxes on the lines had been removed. The remains of the last line, and the utility poles, were removed on July 15.
The completion of Verizon’s utility line relocation work concludes the right-of-way clearance phase, which had begun in late January.
With the utilities cleared, it is only a matter of time before Washington County announces a new bridge closure date. On the day the bridge is closed, the detour signs will be unveiled. If bridge replacement work starts this month, it would take about 90 to 100 days, and would conclude around the end of October.
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The honor banners of the Slate Valley Military Honor Banner Project were taken down over July 13 and 14. The committee decided to take the banners down for the summer; among other things, this was to prevent complacency regarding the honor banners, so those banners wouldn’t lose their special significance among Granville people. The banners will be put back up in October, along with new banners that have been ordered since May.
A new decorative look is on Granville’s main roads. The Granville banners went up on July 15. There are five types of banners. The first four banner types were commissioned during the summer of 2019 by the Village of Granville, and first put up in the fall of that year. The first has “Colored Slate Capital of the World” and a photo of a man splitting slate. The second has the message “Welcome to Granville, New York” with the welcome message and town name separated by Eugene Fairbanks’s watercolor painting of Main Street. The third has a photo of the Telescope Casual Furniture water tower, with the text “Home of Telescope Casual Furniture Inc. – Since 1921.” The fourth has a photo of the Memorial Chime Clock, with no text. The fifth type of banner was commissioned during the spring of 2020 by the Granville Masons. The banner has “Granville Lodge #55 – Chartered 1796” below the Masonic compass and straightedge symbol.
The Granville banners are a welcome addition to Main Street, as they were last year. The five types of banners presently in use are only on Main Street and around Veterans Memorial Park. There is still room for more banners, and more possibilities for banner subjects, including those promoting Granville institutions such as the Pember Library and Museum and the Slate Valley Museum, and another industry banner for Saint-Gobain.
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Paving work continues. Washington County repaved County Route 12A; as of Friday, they had not painted any road markings.
In the village, full sections of Morrison Avenue, South Maple Street, Rawson Avenue, Berkowitz Drive and Lions Lane were milled, as well as sections on one side only of Irving Avenue and Potter Avenue. All the milled streets or sections of streets were scheduled to be paved this week.
The repaved streets were chosen by the Village DPW for repaving. Last year, due to a reduction in road repair funds coming in from the state, only East Potter Avenue was repaved.
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