The long awaited refurbishment of Main Street in Castlebar will be underway shortly, the members of Castlebar Town Council were told last week at their monthly meeting. “We advertised for contractors in December and we have now gone through the notification period for those who were successful and those who weren’t,” town manager Seamus Granahan told the meeting. “The contract was awarded to Kilcross Construction and was worth €950,000. We will be meeting with them next week to work out a programme of work for the project and my intention is that once this is worked out I will bring together the councillors, traders and the Chamber of Commerce as to the time span and the programme of work and how it will affect different areas.”
Fine Gael councillor Brendan Henaghan asked the manager how long the project would take to complete. The manager informed him that the length would be known after the programme of work was agreed with the contractor. Cllr Ger Deere said that it was essential that the traders are kept up to date with the project. “There will be a person on the ground at all times who will liaise with the traders as to the progression of the project and how and when it will affect their business,” Mr Granahan replied.
Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston questioned the manager as to whether there would be local people employed on the project since it wasn’t a local contractor which won the tender. She was told the tender was given to the best applicant on a number of conditions and it was up to them who they employ, but the town council would be carrying out a lot of the groundworks on the project before the contractor came in.
