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[Cotuit]

Hyannis project breaks ground

By EMILY C. DOOLEY
STAFF WRITER
October 10, 2003

HYANNIS - Their shovels turned no sod, but Barnstable and state officials celebrated a groundbreaking project yesterday that will link the hub of downtown business with the sights of Hyannis Harbor.

By spring 2005, Hyannis will sport a new "Walkway to the Sea" along with improved sidewalks, street lamps and traffic signals along Main Street as part of a $4.4 million downtown improvement program.

The walkway was first envisioned for Hyannis more than 40 years ago but has been stymied over disagreements, funding and design issues.

"Is there anybody here who actually believes this is happening," Barnstable Town Council Vice President Robert Jones asked a crowd of nearly 100 people. "How many years has it been? How many hours?"

Starting at the Iyanough statue along Main Street in front of town hall, tourists and residents will be able to follow a brick path through the Town Green and out onto an overlook view of the harbor. Paved brick crosswalks to Aselton Park and the harbor beyond will lead people across Ocean and South streets.


Iyanough Statue at the Village Green, starting point of the "Walkway To The Sea."

"One of the things I kept hearing was, people would come and walk to town hall and say 'Where is the harbor?'" said park planner John Kissida, vice president of the Cambridge firm Camp Dresser & McKee.

Running the course of the path will be granite arranged in a wave pattern to show people the way.

"The idea of this was to get something built that would make the connections," Kissida said.

A second phase will look at the intersection of South and Sea streets, which has been a subject of debate over the years as ideas for tunnels and bridges to cross the roadway were bounced around.

Construction on the walkway project will not officially begin until next week, with Main Street work expected to begin two weeks later, Barnstable Project Engineer Stephen Seymour said.

The Main Street project will upgrade drainage systems, resurface the street, create new sidewalks and install more pedestrian-friendly crosswalks and traffic-calming features. No construction will take place during high-traffic times such as holidays and the summer.

"This always has been and hopefully always will be the heart and soul of Main Street," Town Manager John Klimm said. "We need to make sure it's the beginning of the revitalization and not the end."

The state Department of Housing and Community Development and the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction awarded the town $3 million in grants.
The remaining costs were covered by private grants and donations, with the town providing engineering services.

From Cape Cod Times

[tocoto]

This project sounds great, too bad there's no high rise component.  Now that it's off season, I've got to make a trip to the Cape and enjoy the old towns, without the crowds.

[Cotuit]

There's a 2 story height limit in Barnstable.  

[Scott]

Wow, Barnstable is pretty large to have a 2 story limit.

This looks like a really neat project

[Cotuit]

It's the 4th largest town in Massachusetts in area. It tends to sprawl. It's just about built out.

Town Size: 60.17 sq. miles of land - Rank: 4/351
Population: 47,821
Population density: 795 people per sq. mile - Rank: 127/351

I guess 795 per sq. mile isn't too bad. More dense than I thought.

[Cotuit]

Vision becomes reality as Walkway to the Sea debuts
By Cynthia Cole

At last ­ the Walkway to the Sea. The connection. Main  Street to the Harbor.

An idea that is touched with legend: It was more than 40 years  ago that Ben Thompson and Dexter Leen presented a similar plan  to Town Meeting, only to see it go down by one vote. As many  of us know, Ben was the genius who created Faneuil Hall Marketplace,  South Street Seaport, and Harbor Place in Baltimore. Dexter was  a philanthropic business man with a vision and passion for developing  Hyannis to its true potential.

Ben had many ideas about downtown. In the early 1990s, after  he'd retired and decided to devote his time to Hyannis, he had  visions of a park and performing arts center in the middle of  Main Street at High School Road, sending traffic around the square  and, of course, making Main Street two-way. He drew renderings  of Ocean Street as a pedestrian waterfront.

Some of these ideas never materialized for various reasons,  but the one that has stood the test of time has finally come  to fruition. The Walkway to the Sea is near completion and will  be celebrated on July 15.

Realizing a dream, a vision, a goal, does not come easily.  It would be impossible to name the hundreds of people, resources,  and meetings that have been a part of this exciting birth.

After the visionaries such as Ben and Dexter came the practical  banker folks from Cape Cod Bank & Trust, who saw the need  to acquire properties necessary for creating the walkway. A $40,000  gift from the Bank helped purchase the properties held by the Hyannis Area Chamber's economic development arm until public  money was secured to match the private investment.

Meanwhile, lots of hardworking folks developed a bigger, better  senior center with the additional benefit of making it possible  to remove the original senior center. Wayne Kurker removed all  the buildings, private and public, gratis. This was no small  task.

The next step was finding the money for the design and construction  of the walkway. The town's office of Economic and Community Development,  under the direction of Kevin Shea, hired grant writers Marcia  King and Cathy Lynch to come up with a proposal to the state.  One million dollars later, the Town had the money needed to realize  our dreams. But there was more work to be done. A private match  had to be made to secure the $1 million.

Thanks to the ongoing investments on Main Street and the Scudder  family's investment on the Harbor, the match was there. (The  Scudders also donated one of the parcels of land.) Writing a  grant of this proportion is not done without the help of lots  of folks, including the Hyannis Area Chamber and the Hyannis  Main Street BID.

After the funding was secured, a design team needed to be  selected, and this is a process unto itself. Camp Dresser and  McKee was chosen, and John Kissida was the landscape architect  who worked with various town departments, Steve Seymour, project  manager of the DPW, the Chamber, the Civic Association, the Historic Commission and the BID to create what you see today. The plans  were presented at many meetings and approved by the Hyannis Historic  Commission.

Work began in January of 2004 and will be complete for the  July Fourth celebrations.

The vision took more than 40 years to be realized; the most  recent phase, securing funding and completing the walkway, was  a mere year and half. Pretty amazing when you are talking about  public works projects and government funding.

Join us on July 15 for the celebration. The new Walkway to  the Sea is a spectacular site to behold. Festivities will begin  at 4 p.m. on Main Street, continuing down the walkway and winding  up at a reception at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum. We see the vision and it is real.

The writer is executive director of the Hyannis Main Street  Business Improvement

From The Barnstable Patriot