Village looks forward to 2015

From fire trucks to finishing Maple Avenue, the Village of Rockville Centre has lots of plans for 2015.

After nearly two years of work, the construction on Maple Avenue is nearing completion. The road has been paved, and the planting of new trees began on Dec. 19. Streetscape work — the planting of flowers and bushes and the installation of new benches — will be completed next spring.

The village plans to continue improving roads and their surroundings. “In the past, the village improved one mile of roadway per year,” Mayor Francis X. Murray said in a statement. “However, under my leadership, we are improving approximately three to four miles in 2014 and will continue that in 2015.”

Officials are seeking grant money to add lighting to the downtown area. “The village is hoping to begin to improve the streetscape on Park Avenue between Merrick Road and Lincoln Avenue,” village spokeswoman Julie Scully wrote in an email. “It would include new lighting as well as sidewalk repairs.”

There are also plans to renovate Village Hall. On Nov. 3, the Board of Trustees approved $405,000 — from bonds — to fix the roof, gutters, eaves and fascia, a horizontal band that runs around a roof edge. This work, which will be done by Rockville Centre-based Talty Construction Inc., will take at least six months.

Level G Associates, a parking design firm, is working to redesign municipal lots 4, behind the post office, and 9, behind Cannon’s Blackthorn and El Mariachi. The redesign would add 10 to 12 parking spaces in each lot. “Several of the parking lots in the downtown area are in need of improvement — the village wants to be sure they are efficient, well lit, and otherwise attractive,” Scully wrote. “Visiting the downtown is a parking experience as well as a retail/restaurant experience and the mayor wants to make sure that visitors have a positive experience. We chose those lots because we thought they offered the greatest opportunity for improvement.”