Watertown
Lawmakers Back Emerson Place Project
Tuesday,
April 09, 2002, 3:54pm
Members of the Watertown City Council decided to take a risk
Monday night in hopes of improving a section of the city.
Lawmakers agreed to put up $20,000 to help Neighbors of
Watertown pay for initial architectural work and appraisals for
the Emerson Place project on State Street.
Right across from the Great American supermarket, Emerson Place
has long had a reputation of blight.
The idea is to redo the entire area so that when the project's
done, you won't even recognize it.
The group, Neighbors of Watertown, wants to tear down a couple
of existing buildings and fix another one up.
The whole thing would cost close to $4 million.
But, the project's future is up in the air because Neighbors of
Watertown was unable to acquire the properties necessary to
proceed.
"We have some minor hurdles to overcome with assembling
all the parcels for the project and a setback on the funding,
but none of those are death dealing blows to the project,"
said City Manager Jerry Hiller.
In the end, City Council decided that while the group looks for
alternate funding sources, lawmakers should support the project.
"It's going to clean up the neighborhood, if it goes
forward," said Councilman Peter Clough. "Hopefully
it will."
The city will get back the $20,000 if the project is completed.
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