Maple makeover

The long languishing Maple Avenue project may soon come to a swift conclusion.

According to Julie Scully, the village’s public relations officer, the New York State Department of Transportation has given the village the approval necessary to put work on the project out to bid. The roadwork necessary to bring the road back in line with the village’s standards includes replacing curbs and sidewalks, installing decorative lighting, beautifying the area with new bushes and trees, streetscaping, and repairing the blacktop itself.

“In the past, the village improved one-mile of roadway per year,” said Mayor Francis Murray in his State of the Village address on Mar. 3. “However, with the help of our Department of Public Works, we will be improving approximately three to four-miles of roadway in 2014. Due to state funding, Maple Avenue was slowed down. However, I am committed to bringing our own ‘Fifth Avenue’ to Rockville Centre in 2014.”

The village will open the bidding on March 27, and Scully said the project is top priority. The village’s goal is for the Board of Trustees to approve the award by early April and to begin construction immediately afterward, with the hope of completing the project by the end of the summer.

“All of phase one is done,” said Murray. “All the infrastructure is done. Miles and miles of new water lines and electric work. We’ll be good for the next hundred years.

“The [St. Patrick’s Parade] will be back at Maple Avenue next year,” he added. “Without a doubt.”