Consultant to Evaluate Future of Halstead Avenue

The Town of Harrison will pay a consulting firm $20,000 this summer to evaluate possible improvement projects to Harrison's busiest stretch of downtown.

The study will take a look at Halstead Avenue from the Rye border to St. Gregory the Great Church and will consider things like traffic and pedestrian safety, aesthetics, street light placement, curb placement, possible planting and other amenities. 

"They are going to look at everything," said Department of Public Works Commissioner Anthony Robinson.

Consulting firm Woodard and Curran accepted the bid and will develop a Master Plan for the possible improvements. The study will take place in three phases, starting with an evaluation of current conditions and possible areas for improvement. The second phase will include a presentation to the town board and other stakeholders. The final phase would include a detailed plan and the preparation of possible costs for the board to consider.

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The town expects to end up with a conceptualized idea of a project to improve the district, similar to the work done in West Harrison a few years ago, Robinson said.

"It's going to be essentially a road map to a final design," Robinson said. "Just to give us something that would say 'this would be a plan that we could use going forward',"

The town has no plans to break ground on a wholesale project immediately, but the study will provide an outline of how to make changes to Halstead over time, as the budget allows, according to public documents outlining the study.

After deciding in the 2012 capital budget two weeks ago, the board voted to add the $20,600 expense of the study to this year's contingency budget, avoiding bonding costs.