BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

CANTON -- Canton village officials are continuing to progress on the Miner Street rehab project with the town and St. Lawrence University even with the COVID-19 shutdown in place.

Village Mayor Michael Dalton, Village Trustee Carol Pynchon and Village DPW Supervisor Brien Hallahan met with SLU officials Monday, April 20 to discuss the project.

"I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to move forward, and we accomplished what we wanted to do the last several months," said Hallahan at the village Board of Trustees Zoom meeting on April 20. "We had good responses from the university."

Pynchon added that the conversation between the university and the village was suggested by the Canton Complete Streets Task Force and the Canton Trail Committee and dealt specifically with the section of Miner Street from Clark Street down to the bridge where the town portion of the road begins.

Village and town officials discussed how to improve Miner Street and Miner Street Road since early last year.

The narrowness of the lanes along the entire stretch through the village and into the town, at just 18 feet in some spots, combined with a 55 mph zone in the town section, presents safety concerns, municipal officials have said.

Village officials have been specifically interested in increasing the line of site and lessening the curve in the road near SLU's Appleton Arena and softball field, which is regularly trafficked by college athletes for cardio training and those traveling to and from the campus.

"There are a lot of pieces of that puzzle that have to do with a grant that's being funded out for Miner Street Road, lot of safety issues. So we were glad to finally get them (SLU officials) at the table because Brien (Hallahan) is planning to begin resurfacing, or hopes to resurface this spring and summer," Pynchon told the board at the April 20 meeting.

"We're following up on the work of the town and conversations with Brooks Washburn to really work through what we can do with that road to make it as safe for drivers and people crossing it and all that," Pynchon said.

Pynchon said village officials had good cooperation from SLU officials at the meeting. "And Brien's got some homework and the team's got some homework," Pynchon said.

Last year, the Canton town board hired Brooks Washburn Architect P.C. of Potsdam for $9,800 to conduct an engineering study of the roadway. The village helped pay for the study. The town received $275,000 in state Consolidated Funding Application money in December for the Miner Street Project. The cost of the engineering study is reimbursable through the grant which the town has 5 years to spend.

The firm eyed a 1.2-mile section of the roadway, from inside the village at the Clark Street intersection out to Jingleville Road. Potential infrastructure improvements, notably for pedestrian and non-motorized traffic safety, were some of the work done by Brooks Washburn. The study included a survey done in two parts, one covering the village portion and the other that of the town mileage out to Taylor Park and looked at rights of way, culvert and power pole locations, said Canton Town Councilman Bob Washo in a phone interview later.

"The village section is pretty straight forward," Washo said, adding that the survey of that section is complete. Washo said the town is looking at the possibility of having National Grid relocate several power poles in its section to accommodate changes to the road proposed by the engineering study.

Washo said the village is planning to pay for the work on their section from Clark Street to the bridge from its general fund and is ready to begin work this spring. The town portion of the project is still in planning stages and Washo said construction on the town stretch is still about a year out at the earliest.

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