CLYMER — Town Board members discussed updating sidewalks and the park pavilion during their recent April meeting.

The town’s sidewalks have been discussed for a while. Repairs will be assisted with American Rescue Plan Act funds, with $90,000 allocated specifically for the project.

“I reached out to (Chautauqua County engineer) Lex Brumagin, who helped us out with the sidewalks and design process last year,” Town Supervisor Brian Willink said. “He’s offered to help us again this year. I spoke with Lex last week and he was reviewing his specs from the sidewalk project and, basically, I also spoke with the Department Of Transportation and we weren’t sure because we left kind of the downtown area not connected.”

Willink said parts of the sidewalk in front of the Dutch Village Restaurant, TV store and flower shop were not done last year because the town was told by the DOT that they would take care of it.

“So that was last year,” Willink said. “We did what we wanted to do, and I was still a little leary about this whole project because they were in last fall and did a bunch of measurements, surveying and they talked about a big … project including sidewalks.”

Willink was told by a DOT engineer that the project would happen in 2026 and that if they were thinking about sidewalks to not hold any back because the DOT would handle it. He said that he would like to focus on doing sidewalks from in front of Neckers Company General Store to around TeCroney Dairy Apartments. He also mentioned doing one on Mohawk Street by the corner of the school.

The town has also been awarded a grant to help with the sidewalk project.

“When Lauren Sharp was here at this meeting a couple months ago, talking about the ag districts she came up to me after the meeting and said, ‘You were talking about sidewalks, there’s a grant that might work for Clymer if you want to apply,'” Willink said. “It wasn’t a lengthy process so I applied. We’ve got some money.”

The town was awarded an additional $10,000 for their sidewalk project. The state is also talking about expanding the sidewalks and filling in the parts in town that were not done, all the way to the west at Clymer Hill Road and through town on both the north and south sides. There has also been talk of a sidewalk on Clymer-Corry Road to the town park. Additionally, there has also been a discussion of moving the sidewalk in front of Neckers Company and making the parking area in front of the store smaller, which Willink said he was not a big fan of.

“When you plow snow, the snow’s just going to end up on the sidewalk, whereas now, it’s elevated and up and out of there,” Willink said. “But the DOT realizes that it’s going to be a major project to try and replace sidewalks through there, so if they can do the easy way they might do that, so that’s up to us to make sure they don’t do that.”

If everything goes to plan the town will be pouring concrete on the planned sidewalks later in the summer.

In other news:

¯ The pavilion in the town park is in need of repairs. Posts need to be replaced and the roof is becoming shaky. The pavilion itself is around 50 years old. A discussion was held whether it was worth putting more money into the same pavilion or replacing it. Highway Superintendent Scott Triskett is going to continue to work on a report for next month.

¯ A water engineering study has been ongoing, and the town was not awarded money for this year. They were originally promised $3,000 by former Congressman Tom Reed, but the money was taken away when Reed resigned. This has impacted other places as well. The water system in town is 60 years old and has not been updated much.