BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer
SPOTSWOOD — More improvements will be made along Main Street, again on the county’s tab.
Mayor Barry Zagnit said the town received a $60,000 grant to make sidewalk and curb improvements in the area of Main Street west of its intersection with DeVoe Avenue. The money will also allow for improvements to the Memorial Triangle, and possibly for the purchase of street furniture for Main Street.
Zagnit announced the grant award during the Sept. 27 Borough Council meeting, and later said this is the third straight year the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders has awarded a Downtown Improvement Grant to Spotswood for work on Main Street.
Last year, the borough received a grant of just under $60,000, and two years ago it was given a similar amount. The previous grants allowed the borough to install sidewalks on a portion of the road, as well as to put down brick pavers between the curbs and sidewalks. The borough also was able to make landscaping improvements with the grant money.
“Our overall goal for Main Street is to enhance the area for pedestrians and make it more aesthetically pleasing to draw more people into the area,” Zagnit said.
The road represents the downtown, commercial section of Spotswood.
The borough is limited in how much it can do, however.
“We can only do so much because we have such a horrible traffic situation,” he said. “When you have traffic almost all day, it’s very hard to make the area pedestrian-friendly.”
In addition to being home to many Spotswood businesses, Main Street also is the location of the Spotswood Public Library and the Appleby School. The area will soon see more commercial development on the east side of the road.
This grant will pay for improvements for the section of Main Street to the west of DeVoe Avenue, Zagnit said.
In addition to sidewalks being installed with the past county grant money, cuts also were made in the curbs in order to make them more accessible to people with handicaps, he said.
“Every time we go into an area like that, we make sure it’s handicap-accessible,” he said, noting state law requires such action.
Zagnit said Spotswood applies for the grant every year, and that he received notice two weeks ago that the town was accepted. However, the town was awarded only about half of what it had requested.
He said officials will sit down with the borough engineer to figure out how much the project will cost and see how it can be scaled down now that it knows only half the funding will be provided.
“We need to see how far we can take this money,” he said.
He also said he wished to thank the freeholders for their support of the
project.