After nearly two months of upheaval in Chatham’s downtown core, expect everything to get back to normal, or close to it, this week.
Paul Shettel, co-chair of the Historic Downtown Chatham BIA, said the sidewalk construction which has been underway since early July, is expected to all but wrap up this week.
“They’re a week ahead of schedule,” he said. “They’re working hard and want to get it done.”
Connie Beneteau, BIA manager, said the crews have been great.
“They’re working so fast and the guys are so nice,” she said.
Shettel said new garbage cans are coming to King Street as well, and the benches, which had to be removed during construction, will return soon too.
“A lot of the benches have been refinished. They look like new,” he said.
Beneteau said the only concerns she heard in regard to the construction related to those benches.
“The only complaint was why did the benches all come down at once,” she said. “We had one bench accidentally bulldozed so we decided to take them all down.”
Shettel said the new King Street garbage cans would improve the look downtown and even send the crows looking elsewhere for their next meal.
“A truck will have to lift and empty them. They have a permanent lid which will release at a 45-degree angle,” he said. “This will help with the crow problem.”
About two dozen of the new garbage cans will go in on King Street. The side streets will have the old garbage cans that have inserts that have to be manually removed.
Shettel said there would also be a number of new bicycle racks installed in the downtown as well.
