A rendering of what W. Water Street between Main and Front streets in Hellertown will look like following planned streetscape improvements.
As a main entrance to downtown Hellertown borough, the W. Water Street corridor needs a little bit of love, council members decided Monday night.
Council awarded a nearly $400,000 bid for a streetscape improvement project to Kobalt Construction Inc., of Pocono Summit, that will transform the area between Front and Main streets from something of an asphalt jungle to what it hopes will be an area with a more welcoming aesthetic.
Included among the improvements will be the addition of street trees, decorative paver crosswalks, decorative brick sidewalk borders and construction of a low masonry wall near Water Street Park that will bear the name of the park and welcome visitors to the “Borough of Hellertown.”
The masonry wall will be similar in appearance to one that is located next to Borough Hall at the northeast corner of Main and Water streets.
This sign on a low masonry wall along W. Water Street will soon help welcome eastbound visitors to the Borough of Hellertown.
Handicapped accessible sidewalk ramps will be installed along the corridor in conjunction with PennDOT’s replacement of the Water Street Bridge in the summer of 2019.
Council opted not to award a bid for the optional installation of 16 decorative streetlights–similar to those that are located around Hellertown Borough Hall–citing both their expense and the longer-term cost of maintaining them.
“I’d rather see us (fund) Gregory (Park improvements) and the enhanced sidewalks than put (money) towards lighting that we’re going to have to take care of in a much more significant way,” council president Tom Rieger said.
“The conduit’s going to be there, so if we found another (funding) opportunity we could certainly go down that route,” he added.
Council’s next meeting will be held Monday, May 21 at 7 p.m. in the second-floor meeting room at Hellertown Borough Hall, 685 Main St.
