The Quaint Main Street business district in Wickford is getting upgrades to the sidewalks, curbs and drainage systems.
Federal grant helps pay for continuing upgrades
One of North Kingstown’s best-loved villages is undergoing a facelift aimed at making it safer and ensuring it remains a vibrant commercial district.
Wickford, the waterfront village known for its boutique shops and historic residences, will receive continued upgrades to its sidewalks, curbs and drainage pipes, thanks in part to a $500,000 grant from the federal government.
Secured by U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee as part of a federal transportation bill, the money will help fund the $1.9 million worth of improvements to Main Street in Wickford. The town recently completed similar renovations to Brown Street, the other major road in the village.
According to Philippe Bergeron, the North Kingstown public works director, the renovations will encompass about a half-mile radius, from Route 1A to the waterfront.
The project will essentially go “house to house,” he said, along historic storefronts and homes. Much of the energy put into the project will focus on fixing sidewalks, many of which are cracked and “pretty deplorable,” he said.
“There has been more or less an understanding that the residents would maintain the sidewalks in front of their homes,” Bergeron said. “Some have and some haven’t.”
According to Town Manager Richard Kerbel, the sidewalk repairs were necessary to address safety issues. Several times per year, he said, the town receives claims from people who have injured themselves walking in the village.
The project also will address drainage issues, Kerbel said. Rainstorms often create large puddles in Wickford, and the water does not discharge properly into Wickford Cove. The improvements to the system will aim to draw sediment out correctly.
Other renovations during the facelift are expected to include the replacement of curbs and the addition of street lamps designed to recall the village’s earlier days. New trees will be planted, with “structural soil,” a specially formulated “tree-friendly” dirt.
The town has scheduled a series of meetings on the improvements for this month. A contractor is expected to be chosen for the project by year’s end, with the work expected to take two to three years to complete, Bergeron said.
The issue of sidewalk renovations in Wickford is a sensitive one for residents and business owners in the region, according to Dale Grogran, a former North Kingstown town council member and owner of two stores in the village.
Although the town tried to make the improvements as uninvasive as they possibly could be, there was some disruption to pedestrian traffic during the Brown Street renovations, said Grogran, who owns The World Store and Nautical Impressions.
So far, she said, the town has worked with neighbors and abutting businesses to address concerns. During the Brown Street portion of the revitalization, the improvements were scheduled during the off-season, to avoid dramatic impacts on business from tourism.
In the end, Kerbel said, the town hopes much of the work will be unnoticeable. That was the case with Brown Street, he said.
“There was a lot of controversy when it happened, but now that it’s done, you don’t hear people talking about it,” Kerbel said.
Aside from the safety issues that Kerbel and Bergeron outlined, however, Grogan said the renovations are key to making sure the 19th-century village remains vital to the region. She said visitors to Wickford – a mixed-use area that has organically evolved since its inception, –
often tell her that the village is how they pictured New England, in their minds.
“Stores come and go and economies rise and fall,” Grogan said. “But there has always been a market in Wickford.”
