Some love the project and some hate it, but mention of the word "streetscape" out loud while walking down Main Street and you will be sure to hear an earful of very strongly held opinions.

The "Streetscape" project is the revitalization of Main Street in downtown Wareham, planned under the guidance of the Community and Economic Development Authority (CEDA).

Preliminary construction on the first phase of the project, which extends from the Post Office to Center Street, began in November of 2011 and is slated to finish by the end of June.

The project aims to make Main Street more pedestrian friendly, said CEDA Director Salvador Pina, by widening the sidewalks, making them handicap accessible, and installing what are known as "bump-outs," or rounded out portions of sidewalk that extend out into the street with the intent to slow down traffic for pedestrians crossing the road. (Hired this year, Pina was not involved in the design of the project, which began years and at least two CEDA directors ago.)

Kristine Hastreiter, owner and chef at Gourmet & Gourmand, an artisan bakery located at 219 Main Street, has had nothing but bad luck since the project started.

The biggest sales of the year for her bakery, Hastreiter said, take place during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. That is when 75% of total business is conducted, she said.

During Thanksgiving of 2011, shortly after the project began, the sidewalk in front of her business was dug up, Hastreiter said. During Easter of this year, construction again blocked off the front of her store.

Because Gourmet and Gourmand does not have a rear entrance like other businesses on Main Street, explained Hastreiter, customers had trouble accessing her store during those crucial weeks.

"It has brought my business on the brink of disaster, which took me nine years to build," said Hastreiter, who opened the bakery in 2003.

Traci Medeiros, owner of The Gallery Consignment Shop at 247 Main Street, does have a rear door entrance to her store — one that she painted "lipstick red" to attract customers once she realized that construction was beginning on Main Street, she said.

Medeiros also lost business because of the project, she said, but is concerned mainly about the problem of parking, a problem made worse by the loss of parking spaces to "bump-outs," she explained.

Medeiros said that customers like to park in front of the stores that they visit, get the items they want, and then leave.

"If there's not a spot right out front [on Main Street] or right on Merchants Way, my customer will drive by," said Medeiros.

"The way it's set up, I think it's going to be a big challenge for parking, a big challenge for emergency personnel, and I think people may find alternative ways to get around town because they want to avoid the narrow road," said Medeiros, later adding: "I really do think it's going to look fantastic, I just don't think it's going to be vehicular friendly," Medeiros said.

Pina said that there were only four parking spaces that were lost due to the project, however. He said the project was designed according to legal requirements to ensure that traffic could flow unhindered and safely along Main Street.

Pina said that a vehicle such as a snow plow would be able to successfully plow the road. "It does require a different technique for plowing, but it can be done," Pina said, noting: "we're not the only town in the U.S. with bump-outs."

Though he feels that the bump-outs are manageable, Pina said he reduced the size of one bump-out on the corner of Center Street and Main Street when residents complained about the difficulty of turning between the two streets.

"We asked the contractor to reduce the size of the bump-out because people were uncomfortable with it," said Pina, even though "the engineers had designed the roads to meet the codes."

Ultimately, Pina said, he understood the difficulties being faced by the businesses during the construction, as well as the concern for parking.

Pina said that he is trying to address both issues by putting forth a repaving project that he hopes will increase the number of parking spaces available at the town's Pezzoli Square parking lot, located between Eastern Bank and Frankenstein's Hot Dogs on Main Street.

Money that will be spent on that was previously slated to repave the two streets leading into Merchants Way from Main Street with a special resin that would make the streets look like they were covered with brick, Pina said.

Because it was learned that the special resin was not suitable for those two streets, Pina said, Pina and the CEDA board decided to spend that money on repaving and rededicating Pezzoli Square.

The square will be rededicated sometime in July after the Swan Festival, Pina said. A new plaque will be displayed, which will draw attention to the parking area, the updated sidewalks, and the downtown businesses. The area will also get a new flagpole.

Pina also said that he is planning to put up two new parking signs that will direct drivers to the currently underutilized square.

In addition, Pina said he is working with Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School students, who will design wooden signs to hang from businesses. The town will purchase the signs, which will look as though they are hand-carved, Pina said. Installation of the signs will be paid for by the individual business owners.

Demetrios Kalkanis, the manager of Minerva's Pizza on Main Street, which has been in business since 1969, said that though the construction has impacted his business, he is hopeful that the end product feel more like downtown from the old days.

"It's a little bit of inconvenience for the present, but hopefully it's … moving forward," said Kalkanis. "Anything we can do to improve Main Street and downtown, I'm all for," he added. "Bring back a little bit of Wareham … when we were the place to be."

Regardless of whether someone likes or dislikes the project, noted Interim Wareham Village Association President Anthi Frangiadis, residents should not think that the project will make or break downtown Wareham.

"I see it as one step," said Frangiadis, "one step in the process of revitalizing Main Street."

Frangiadis, who noted that the Wareham Village Association has just moved into its new office at 245 Main Street, said that many things needed to be done in order to attract businesses to the downtown area.

Ultimately, Pina said, the Streetscape project is a necessary step in building a space where people want to come and shop. Pedestrians are supposed to feel "safe" while walking the sidewalks, and vehicles are supposed to drive by slowly so that drivers will notice the businesses.

"More pedestrians means more traffic to the stores," Pina said. "If they don't feel comfortable crossing the street, they are not going to walk down there."

Pina added: "You have to set expectations that you can build business downtown, but it starts with infrastructure."

Medeiros wondered whether Wareham residents are ready for that kind of pedestrian-centered change. "As much as we may want to be like Falmouth, we're not, we're not there yet," Medeiros said, referring to the busy shopping area down-Cape.

But, Medeiros said, if people were ready for the change that Streetscape entails, she would be all for it.

"I think if the proper steps are taken to keep the parking situation under control … and if [Pina] can change the mindset and get more commerce down here … different types of commerce, more of the cute quaint shops to fill in with the cute quaint "streetscape," then we'll have a marriage," she said.