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Grasmere General Store to suffer again
Curb that were removed a day after installation to be re-installed again in Spring
January 5, 2007
 GOFFSTOWN - After installing - then removing - curbs at store's entrance, DPW plans to re-install them again in the spring.  

Imtiaz Saheed, owner of the store, confirmed that in the spring, a new 18-foot curb - complete with sidewalks, will be installed in the middle of the current 30-foot entrance, leaving store patrons with two, 11-foot wide entrances.  Both of those entrances will be within the circle itself.

When first "completed", construction of the Grasmere roundabout left only a single entrance to the store, a narrow mid-circle opening that required drivers to come to nearly a complete stop in the middle of the circle, and make close to a 90-degree right turn to enter the store's parking lot.  It was only after owners Imtiaz & Fizza Saeed complained to the DPW that a portion of the newly-installed curbing was removed the next day and the entrance to the store was widened to its current 30 feet - still all within the narrow circle.

Back on Wednesday, December 7th, the day the original curbing was installed, we entered the new circle from the west.  As we rounded our way around the circle and attempted to access the store's parking lot, we arrived at the only available opening in the curbing.  In order to enter the store parking lot, we were forced to come to a complete stop (prompting the vehicle behind us that had just entered the circle from the east to slam on their brakes) to make a 90-degree turn, with our right-rear wheel climbing over the new, asphalt curbing to get into the store's parking lot.

Seems to us that installing a 20-foot curb & sidewalk, then removing it the next day, was nothing more than pour planning and a complete waste of taxpayer monies.

Now, DPW is coming back in the spring to install another 18-foot section of curb & sidewalk?

The Grasmere General Store, a family-owned business, has already suffered sizable  losses over the weeks during construction of the circle.  Worse, the Saeeds said they were originally promised by DPW that the curbs in front of their store would only be an inch or two tall, allowing patrons - as well as delivery vehicles - easy access to their store.

How delivery vehicles will gain access after this second, "new" curbing is installed is a total mystery to us.  

Grasmere General Store has suffered enough.  We say leave well (or worse) enough alone.

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