Phase 5 of Main Street's 'streetscape' project is being planned for, the continuation of a project that has gone on for many years to beautify Main Street.

At the Jan. 9 Board of Selectmen meeting, selectmen voted unanimously to award the design contract for the fifth and final phase. The bid for the project is $48,000, which has not yet been appropriated for use. There will be a public hearing on the design and planned modifications to the street in the near future.

The first phase of the Village Streetscape Design Project began eight years ago. The project, which is funded completely by federal/state Community Development Block Grants, paid for road paving, benches, sidewalks, crosswalks, light poles and the installation of “bump-outs,” which are areas of sidewalk that extend into the street in an effort to make pedestrians entering vehicles and crossing the street more visible to drivers.

Phase 5 will tackle from Chapel Street to the town green. There will be no bump-outs in phase 5, however.

"When I hear the word bump-out, you couldn't get my vote if your life depended on it," said Selectman Patrick Tropeano. "Someday when I lose my mind I'm going to take a machine and I'm going to rip every one of those bump-outs out just by driving down the road."

Though no more unpopular bump-outs will be added, there will be additional traffic markings, warning strips, street lighting and handicap accessible walkways.

It could be several years before phase 5 is completed, said Town Administrator Derek Sullivan.