ELLENVILLE – Glenn Gidaly and Adam Woodburn of engineering firm Barton & Loguidice appeared at the village board meeting on Monday night to present their proposal for reimagining Liberty Square in Ellenville.

"The village applied for some money through Congressman [Maurice] Hinchey," said Gidaly during his introduction to the presentation. "It was an economic development grant a number of years ago. We applied for $300,000 and we got $294,000, so we were close."

The plan calls for several revisions to the layout of Liberty Square, which is just off of Canal Street, and features as its centerpiece the "Boy with the Boot" fountain that has become synonymous with Ellenville. Among the changes will be the addition of "textured" and colored crosswalks, mountable (or rounded) curbs, more benches and pedestrian-focused areas, and the use of bluestone in the triangular island where the Boot Boy sits.

The changes will also result in reduced parking on Liberty Street itself, a proposition that many in the audience for the presentation found to be very positive. Many residents said that a constant problem was the danger of car-related accidents in the Liberty Street-Post Office area of Liberty Square. Gidaly explained the goals of the plan and its reduced emphasis on car-parking.

"One [goal] is to increase pedestrian mobility in the village, pedestrian safety, to make the village exciting looking, [and] to kind of reinforce what the merchants are doing downtown," he explained. "The village's merchants have made an investment downtown, and the village wants to work in partnership with the merchants and also make an investment downtown."

In explaining the "textured" crosswalks, Gidaly and Woodburn said that, in order to create them, asphalt will be removed in the places where crosswalks will be added, mixed with a dye, and put back down. The surface of the newly colored asphalt will be molded to resemble bricks, but will actually be level with the rest of the asphalt, allowing for ease of plowing.

Work is tentatively scheduled to begin this spring, and is planned to be completed before the annual Blueberry Festival, which is held in the village every August. The construction, of course, will not be without its headaches.

"There may be a week-[long] period where it's going to be very difficult to get down Canal Street," said Gidaly. "All we can say to you is that whatever contractor we work with is going to be told that it has to be done quickly and correctly."