Laconia's Scenic Drive to be fixed next spring

Scenic Drive looks out over Lake Winnipesuakee but drivers and riders haven't had much time to enjoy the view. The roadway is in such lousy shape you take your eyes off it at your own risk.

But City Manager Eileen Cabanel announced last night that — "after quite a bit of lobbying" — she has persuaded the Public Works Department to reconstruct the Weirs area road from Centenary Ave. north to Watson Road next spring. Moving the road up on the priority list — determined for years now by a computer software program that relies on cost-benefit analysis — is going to mean scrambling to find an extra $100,000 in this (fiscal) year's budget but Cabanel advised she now knows of one specific place to look.

The manager advised Council that repairs to the membrane covering the old city landfill off Rte. 11-B — near the Gilford town line — are now estimated to cost $100,000 less than the originally estimated $245,000. Additionally, she said, the city has been working with Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter's office to have the Federal Emergency Management Agency pick up 75-percent of the tab because the damage to the containment membrane was done during the big storm last April.

No vote was taken, but Mayor Matt Lahey and the six councilors were generally nodding their heads that fixing Scenic Drive sooner, rather than later, was a great idea. "It definitely is needed," said Lahey.

Cabanel said the almost $550,000 cost of fixing Scenic Drive has been what has been keeping the project from getting to the top of the priority list. "That alone would be half our (annual) road budget," she said.

Public Works, she advised, will have about $350,000 left in its 2007-2008 road repair budget come spring and adding another $100,000 from another source will be enough to get Scenic Drive work done.

Scenic Drive plays a key role during Motorcycle Week, as all the bikes traveling (one-way) north on Lakeside Avenue have no choice but to continue up Scenic and then Watson and exit back out onto Rte. 3 between the Tamarack Drive-Inn and the Broken Spoke Saloon.

Council also adopted a temporary traffic order that will allow for Elm Street — from Hickory Stick Lane to Parade Road — to be closed to through traffic on Thursday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to allow for paving. Lahey quipped that the dirt road that is in place in that part of town now is smoother to drive on than the old pavement was.

Lahey also noted that the recently paved Academy Street in the South End "looks outstanding".