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Show Maim Street closed f By GARY R. BLODGETT 1 r. : : 3 BOUNTIFUL Main Street in Bountiful will be closed until June 26 in an attempt to "catch up on lost time" and to complete the street paving project on schedule. City Manager Tom Hardy said that a meeting with Main Street merchants showed that the merchants mer-chants were in favor of the street closure "if the construction could be completed sooner with less inconvenience in-convenience to shoppers and to local businesses." Contractor Brad Green agreed with the proposal (to close Main Street) and said he could complete the paving of the concrete street in 30 days, beginning May 26. Mr. Hardy said the street will be completed on schedule but that there will still be some landscaping and sidewalk work to finish after June 26. Meanwhile, all Main Street stores will remain open and doing business as usual. Some merchants will hold sales during the construction construc-tion period as an incentive to local shoppers. O CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 C CLOSED X 7 4 Main Street in Bountiful is completely closed to traffic until June 26. Contractors hope to catch up on the beautification project that is due to be finished this summer. Main Street closed CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "Stores will be open and shoppers shop-pers are urged to use the east-west streets and the downtown parking lots for shopping. Also, several of the Main Street stores have rear parking and rear entrances for shopping convenience," said Mr. Hardy. He explained that the downtown Redevelopment Agency (RDA) project is up to two weeks behind schedule because of problems pertaining per-taining to utility lines under the street. "It was thought that the (utility) lines were much deeper than they are and this has caused some slowdown of construction," he said. Some merchants have reported a decrease in sales because of the construction project while others say they have held a steady pace of business to date. Mr. Hardy noted that Main Street will be a new concrete street from curb to curb. During construction, con-struction, there will be no through traffic or parking permitted on Main Street. In the beginning, through traffic was allowed with one lane each direction on the opposite side of the street from construction. Through traffic will now be restricted res-tricted to 100 West and 100 East Streets, the city manager explained. ex-plained. "Even after the street is paved we may have to restrict parking on Main for a brief period, but only in isolated areas where it may be necessary to complete a sidewalk or landscaping project," said Mr. Hardy. "But at that point, the street will be open to through traffic traf-fic and all other areas will be open to on-street parking." "We are receiving many favorable favor-able comments about the project and thus far are pleased with the way the RDA project is shaping up," the city manager stressed. Meanwhile, the newly renovated outdoor (bubble) pool has been opened for summer swim, along with the indoor pool on 100 East. The outdoor pool has a "new look" with more than 10,000 square feet of additional grass for lounging and a new, wider deck around the pool. A permanent structure will be placed over the outdoor pool later this fall, the city manager explained. |