Paving continues in village; parking an issue
By Erik Pekar, Town Historian
Great strides were made last week toward completing the paving project on Route 149 in the Village of Granville. After the first paving attempt was milled away on April 30, East Main Street was repaved last Monday, May 3, completing the paving east of Main Street. On May 6, most of eastbound Route 149 (going up-street) was fully paved. This started at the ramp diverging from the Route 22 bypass, up Quaker Street to West Main Street, and terminating roughly in front of the Gold Trout, just yards away from the Main Street bridge. The pavement has a base layer, with two main layers applied above; the base layer was also applied to southbound Quaker Street from the corner with West Main Street, down to in front of Walgreens.
Westbound Route 149 (downstreet) was paved on May 7. This also included the connection to the village owned portion of Quaker Street north of West Main Street, and the same for the connection to the bypass between it and the aforementioned ramp. After the pavement settled, double yellow center lines were painted on the paved sections of Route 149 along Quaker, West Main, and East Main Streets.
The connections to several side streets along the Quaker-West Main portion of the project, and a couple more on the East Main portion, will be next in line to be paved. After this is done, and the remaining pavement markings are applied to the highway, the Route 149 paving project in Granville will be done.
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The state DOT plans to work on improving the sidewalk curbing on Main Street and making the sidewalk ramps to crosswalks more accessible. Hopefully, the plans will include more crosswalk signs, like the ones installed last fall at the new crosswalk near Edwards Market. This would improve walking conditions on Main Street.
At present, parking on Main Street is done by parallel parking. Another proposal made to the state for changing Main Street, strongly advocated by Mayor Paul Labas, is reverse-angle diagonal parking. This parking system is similar to regular diagonal parking, such as that used in Poultney. The difference between regular and reverse is that in the regular diagonal system, one drives into the parking space, and blindly backs out into traffic, while in the reverse diagonal system, one backs into the parking space, and can see traffic when driving out of the parking space.
Granville previously had diagonal parking on Main Street, from the 1910s until circa 1945, on the north side of the street from the corner with North Street to roughly at the Farmers National Bank building (now the Granville Town Hall). Around that time, the state Department of Highways mandated for no more diagonal parking on state highways; Main Street was state Route 22 at the time, and the parking system was changed to parallel parking. Main Street is still a state-maintained highway today, as Route 149.
The reverse angle diagonal parking may increase the number of parking spaces on Main Street. While it would take some lane room from the highway, this would partly be mitigated by in turn taking some of the wide sidewalk on the north side of Main Street.
The news of the reverse diagonal parking proposal was met with mostly negative response, from community members and business owners. One area resident said it was a “bad idea”, wondered what “the point” of the idea was, and asked that they “leave the parking and [the] businesses that are there alone”. Another resident noted the existence of the village’s Main Street parking lots and suggested to “park there [at one of the parking lots] and walk, like we always have if we can’t find parking.” The proposal was evidently made without consulting Main Street’s business and building owners first, as at least one business owner was taken by surprise at the prospect of losing their outside dining area.
Granville’s Main Street already offers decent parking. In addition to Main Street proper, there are two village parking lots, with ample room: one next to the rail trail near the Station House, and another off Main and Church Streets. Granville’s Main Street is also not suited for diagonal parking, as is different than other streets with diagonal parking systems, such as Poultney’s Main Street. Granville’s Main Street is hilly and narrow for the west half, before flattening out and widening out until it meets North Street. Poultney’s Main Street, on the other hand, is about as wide as Granville’s is at North Street, from its west end to the light at Route 30; it is also flat for that entire distance. Diagonal parking would also back up through traffic on Main Street, as traffic waits for a driver to attempt to reverse and turn into a reverse diagonal parking spot. In addition, no business or building owner has asked for such a change to parking on Main Street.
The reverse angle diagonal parking proposal favored by Mayor Labas hinged on a grant application made within the past year. The grant was not approved; parking on Main Street will remain the regular parallel parking system for the foreseeable future.
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What’s Up Dawg’s closed its doors on April 30. This eatery on Quaker Street was opened by Vinnie and Julie Covino in October 2012, with a specialty of hot dogs. The major standout of their hot dogs was the special secret meat sauce. The business became renowned in the area for its hot dogs, although it also had other fare, such as burgers, wings, and quesadillas.
Another distinction of What’s Up Dawg’s was the collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia. When the business opened, there were a few pieces of memorabilia. Over time, people donated pieces, and within a few years, the walls and shelves were full of Coca-Cola memorabilia through the years.
What’s Up Dawg’s was a popular eatery in Granville and it will be missed. May the Covinos enjoy the years ahead and have the best of luck with their future endeavors.
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