During its meeting last week, the Select Board gave the green light to Town Engineer Lisa DeMeo to apply for the Shared Streets and Spaces Grant to improve pedestrian safety.
According to the Commonwealth’s website, the Shared Streets and Spaces Grant program is administered by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. It is identified as a funding program that supports quick-launch improvements to public health, safe mobility, and strengthened commerce in Massachusetts municipalities.
The program funds municipalities and public transit authorities so they can quickly implement improvements to plazas, sidewalks, curbs, streets, bus stops, parking areas, and other public spaces.
The grant will provide a maximum of $250,000 and the improvements should be completed by Dec. 31, 2025. DeMeo said that all applications to this grant must align with these goals, be implemented quickly, be low-cost, and include elements from at least one of the allowed project types.
“Lynnfield’s application does all of this,” DeMeo said. “The elements that we target in this are bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, new or significantly improved widened sidewalks, and new or improved pedestrian crossings.”
Through the grant money, the Town will work to improve the crosswalks and handicap ramps on Main Street in front of the Centre Congregational church, Summer Street, and Lynnfield Public Library, among others.
“By putting this grant in and proposing this work here, we are not impeding on anything that the Town Hall renovation is working on,” DeMeo said. “This is not redundant or redoing anyone else’s work.”
The board approved for the Town to apply for the grant. Its members agreed that the grant would align with the Town’s recent work of improving and renovating various offices and the War Memorial.
“It’s a perfect fit,” Select Board Chair Joe Connell said at the meeting. “This is a great project and meets all the criteria.”
