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Historic Richmond Town Breaks Ground on Museum Upgrades

By Nicholas Rizzi | November 10, 2015 3:00pm
 The museum broke ground on the about $8 million project that includes fixing their roadways and sewers.
Historic Richmond Town Groundbreaking
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RICHMOND TOWN — Historic Richmond Town broke ground Tuesday on an $8 million project to repair and improve utilities on the museum's campus.

The project — funded by the city and Borough President James Oddo — will repave several roads in the center of the museum grounds, add new lighting to the streets, install new water mains and put the museum on the sewer system.

"This project is the foundation of our future," said Ed Wiseman, executive director of Historic Richmond Town. "It's going to be a bright future."

Wiseman said the work will give some parts of the museum a much needed facelift and pump new life into the campus, which remained unchanged for decades.

"It sort of remained static and dead," Wiseman said. "You can't be dead and serve the public."

Work will repave Center Street, Tysen Court and Court Place on the campus with fine granite chip pavement and replace all of the sidewalks with concrete that will be tinted to simulate bluestone, a Historic Richmond Town spokesman said.

Aside from the roads, the plans also call for moving electrical, cable and telephone lines below ground and put all the homes on the same meter.

"A project that started out about sewers and roads is really taking on a much more important significance," Oddo said.

"This is a key moment in making sure Historic Richmond Town is alive and flourishing for years to come."

The project is part of a $12 million push to repair various spots on the campus, including $88,500 granted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the summer to repair the Basket Maker's House that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy.