Last spring, Canton Woods Senior Center lost use of 20-plus parking spots due to buckling pavement in its back lot. Eighteen months later, the center will finally receive a new lot, thanks to a $60,500 Community Development Grant, which the town of Van Buren applied for in the spring of 2011 and received this year.
According to Jason Hoy, Van Buren’s in-house engineer, the construction will include milling the old asphalt out of the center’s two parking lots and replacing it with new asphalt.
“There are some areas that will require excavation and placement of a new stone sub-base,” he added.
Receipt of the grant requires a 25 percent match from the municipality, which can include in-kind services. Because the center is run through an inter-municipal agreement between the village of Baldwinsville and the towns of Lysander and Van Buren, each of the three municipalities will contribute to the match, which is $20,500.
“The two towns and the village will provide the trucking of materials, the excavation and sub-base,” Hoy said, adding the milling and paving would be done by a contractor.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 10, depending on the weather. Once underway, Hoy said the parking lot should be finished within two weeks.
Canton Woods serves as an activity center for senior citizens residing in greater Baldwinsville area. It also serves as a hub for numerous vital programs such as Meals on Wheels, B’ville Express and senior outreach programs. Since the center will have limited parking while the lots are under construction, Ruth Troy, director of the Canton Woods Senior Center, is working on a plan to minimize disruption of the center’s programs.
Stay tuned for more details, which will be published in an upcoming edition of the Messenger.
