FOREST CITY - Main Street in Forest City looks like a disaster site.
Heavy construction equipment lines the street, sidewalks are torn up, temporary ramps lead into shops and traffic snarls around the work zone.
“It's a big disruption actually for all the businesses on Main Street but it needed to be done,” said Maryann Corey who owns Bloom, an accessories store on Main.
“It's definitely an inconvenience but every town goes through it so,” said Joy Zazzera, the manager of Zazzera’s Supermarket on Main Street.
Right now borough officials are in the process of installing a much needed storm drain under those sidewalks along Main Street, which is also busy Route 171, to stop flooding when storm water runs off the mountain behind it.
“Behind these buildings is a mountain so obviously when you got rain and that kind of stuff so this has been a long time coming,” said Corey.
“They have nowhere for their storm water to go so part of this project, we put a pipe, we came through to relieve them,” explains Forest City Council President William Orasin.
But while it's headache now, there's going to be a big pay off in the end.
Once the storm drain is installed, the borough plans to redo all of Main Street.
“Really start a revitalization project,” said Orasin. “Put in new sidewalks, put in lighting, put in electric posts, really make it nice so it's somewhere that's attractive, somewhere that people want to come and open a business.”
“They're going to the ‘treescapes’ and flowers and all that, so it's just going to take time but the borough's got a pretty good plan going forward some grant money and all that available so,” said Zazzera.
“It will look just as nice as Carbondale. They've done a lot for Carbondale and hopefully it will turn just as nice as that,” said Andrea Demianovich.
The borough hopes to have the entire storm drain installed on Main Street sometime in the next six to eight weeks. Then it will move on to the street beautification project.
