SPRINGVALE — There’s been an ongoing desire to make some visual improvements in the village for the last several years, as recommended by a study back in 2007. Now, with a couple of road improvement projects in the offing, that effort to install new, attractive streetlights and make other advancements in Springvale is taking on a new urgency.

A state and local reconstruction of Pleasant Street, from Carl J. Lamb School to Main Street, began this week, and the state transportation department plans to pave Main Street ”“ Route 109 ”“ roughly from the U.S. Post Office to the Shapleigh town line, in August.

Once the new roadways are complete, it will be a good many years before anyone wants to tear them up to move streetlights or make other changes. At the same time, the city budget is tight, said developer Lionel Sevigny. With those factors in mind, he and a contingent of more than 50 Springvale business people and residents is planning to take on some improvements themselves.

“It’s great that a group of people got together as quickly as possible to plan this,” said Mayor Maura Herlihy, noting the imminent road construction projects. “This is great. It would have been difficult for the city to come up with the resources.

“In the future, (similar projects) will likely take efforts like this,” said Herlihy. “People tend to overestimate the government’s ability to do it all.”

Sevigny pointed to the streetlights in the village that, except for a few he’d replaced near his own property over the past few years, are set in the sidewalk, subject to getting banged and broken by the sidewalk plow because there isn’t enough room for the plow driver to get around them. The improvement plan includes purchasing new, attractive streetlights with the same theme as those along the roadway through the mills in Sanford; installing new conduit; and securing easements from property owners to place the lights close to the sidewalks, but not on them.

Other plans are in the works as well, including sidewalk improvements and a project being adopted by the George E. Poirier Council 2755 Knights of Columbus and its subsidiary, the Springvale Social Club. That plan involves acquiring and tidying up a neglected, pocket-sized park next to the social club, and replacing a chain link fence with a more attractive decorative fencing system ”“ a project valued at about $5,000.

Sevigny plans to purchase a piece of city-owned property behind an apartment building he owns on Bridge Street for $50,000 and has secured the council’s property subcommittee recommendation to spend $25,000 from the purchase price to help buy streetlights and $25,000 to create a park on the property. The full council still needs to take a vote on the matter.

Sanford Institution for Savings has committed $10,000 to the Springvale plan, said Sevigny, and the William Oscar Emery Trust, which must be used for beautification projects, pledged $25,000 toward the project. An ongoing effort is seeking to work with village residents, businesses and banks to pitch in, he said.

Chamber of Commerce President Richard Stanley is supportive of the project, and he said his presence with the group is two-fold, since he is a Springvale resident himself. The chamber’s mission is to help existing business, he said earlier this week, and a more attractive village core will fuel that effort.

As part of the road construction project, the city has negotiated with the state to include traffic-slowing devices in the block near Nasson Community Center’s Little Theatre. The devices are scored and then painted red to look like brick, but are flush to the road, unlike conventional “bump-outs.”

Sevigny, outlining the plan to use private money and grants to fund the improvements, said the model might be how such projects get funded as municipal budgets tighten.

“It’s almost a model that will need to be done in the future,” said Sevigny.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or [email protected].