(Additional photograph below.)
An array of new parking spaces are available today on part of the land occupied by a former city-owned parking garage on Merrimack Street
Ahead of schedule, drivers actually began parking there Tuesday afternoon even as workers took down the fence around the newly paved and lined 130-space parking lot on the left side of the former Herbert H. Goecke Jr. Memorial Parking Deck. Mayor Melinda E. Barrett told WHAV the promised spaces opened a few weeks ahead of schedule and also add eight handicapped parking spaces in front and 35 longer-term spaces along the north and west walls that were once part of the deck.
“We’re hoping that it will be employees of businesses on Merrimack Street or people that have some long-term business or work,” she said.
Haverhill Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury Jr. notes the remaining spaces are intended for short-term, “turnover” use for the many gyms, physician and dentist offices and restaurants. No overnight parking is allowed in order to accommodate winter snowplowing. He notes recently added public parking in the West Street lot behind TD Bank and the added angle parking along Bailey Boulevard continue to fill the need for all-day parking by business owners and staff.
The new temporary lot is bordered on the left by the, what was once, the downtown side of Pecker Street, but affectionally called the Burt Barrett Memorial Walkway alongside what was once Barrett’s Menswear, owned by the mayor’s family for decades. On the other side, plans now move forward for demolition of the former Pentucket Bank main office to make way for developer Salvatore N. Lupoli’s 660-space parking garage.
Pillsbury said the temporary parking plan has rolled out “smoothly” and concerns, such as parking for patients at Pentucket Medical, for example, were addressed ahead of time. “The garage is job one, and then we’ll be working on the plaza area and making sure that begins as well,” he explained.
The mayor explained contractors had waited for the power to the bank building to be terminated—which took place last Friday—so they can begin work there.
Other than the side and back walls of the Goecke Deck, which will eventually be removed, the only major portion of the garage still standing comprises the front stairs and terracotta, salvaged from the Daggett Building on the site and placed there 50 years ago. Barrett notes the intention is still to save as much of the fancy clay work as possible, but the city’s Public Works Department has said they were installed in such a way they could be damaged during removal. As a safeguard, Barrett said, she consulted with the creative community and retained artist Josh Mingles of Haverhill to lead an effort to make tracings for history.
“They’re going to take impressions and then try to remove them. They feel they can take a few of them out with no problems, but there are a couple that are really tightly in there,” she said.
The former parking deck planter, built originally as a fountain, in the same middle section is also being check for hazardous material. The mayor added lighting will also be added to the temporary parking area.
All of the temporary parking lots and related infrastructure costs are being paid with a state $6.6 million MassWorks grant secured for this purpose.
Workers from J. Derenzo Co. remove temporary fences around the 130-space lot along Merrimack Street in downtown Haverhill. (WHAV News photograph.)