|
|
Timely grant adds to ambience
Centereach civic amasses $100k to complete street light installation
|
Centereach resident Bob Millé has helped secure a $60,000 Suffolk County downtown revitalization grant for the Centereach Civic Association.
A grant awarded in response to a proposal submitted by Millé, a civic member since 1986 and a Middle Country resident since 1969, will enable the civic to finish a street lighting project that began about a year ago. To date, seven decorative street lamps have been installed along Middle Country Road, according to Millé, and the county grant will allow for the installation of 18 more.
The decorative lights, Millé said, will make the hamlet "a more walkable area" by providing a "more inviting" atmosphere. Since the county's downtown revitalization grant program is slotted to be suspended in 2010 due to budget cutbacks, this year's opportunity "was my shot to get it done," the Centereach resident said.
"I'm just happy to have been able to get something done," Millé said. "This will finish the job for decorative lights for our downtown, so I'm pleased with it. It's a good deal, long term."
In addition to the $60,000 county grant, the civic will also receive a $35,000 Town of Brookhaven downtown revitalization grant in the form of in-kind services. Councilwoman Kathy Walsh (R-Centereach) explained that the town will provide for the installation of the street lights and any maintenance thereafter. Having decorative lights on Middle Country Road adds to the "downtown feeling" the civic has been trying to achieve, Walsh said, noting that there has been "good feedback" from the community so far.
Diane Caudullo, president of the Centereach Civic Association, said, "Decorative lighting adds to an area a sense of place, which has been the focus of everything we have been working on." With the installation of continuous sidewalks on Middle Country Road also under way, Caudullo said the new lights will "provide an added safety feature as well as an ambience that invites people to want to walk. This will be the final phase of decorative lighting as we only want the lighting in an area that we are defining as our future downtown."
Acknowledging that lighting alone "does not make a downtown," Caudullo emphasized that the civic group, which is also contributing $5,000 to the lighting project, is working closely with many property owners to determine which types of buildings and businesses best accommodate the needs of both the owners and the community. "Together, we can attract community-friendly businesses into an attractive, welcoming shopping center," she said.
The civic president applauded Millé's efforts in securing the grant. "We have applied before for similar funding and have been denied," Caudullo said, "but Bob studied other successful grant requests, revamped our original proposal and resubmitted for the next round of grants. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Bob and to also thank the Suffolk County Grant Committee that saw our project as a worthy investment."
In anticipation of finalizing the lighting project once funds became available, the civic last year requested permits from the state Department of Transportation for all the lighting fixtures, according to Caudullo. "That proved to be a very wise move," she said.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Copyright 2010
(631) 751-7744 | news@tbrnewspapers.com | www.northshoreoflongisland.com | About |
|
| |
|
