Project closes old Moose lot

Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray has announced that changes are going to be taking place in regard to the old Moose Lodge parking lot and the Jackson/Walnut Street parking lot projects, beginning immediately.

No more open parking will be allowed on the Moose lot along Market Street (between Franklin and Washington streets), beginning Monday, Aug. 18 until construction is completed.

Meanwhile, the Jackson/Walnut Street lot will see decreased parking availability beginning Monday as Gibraltar Construction, Indianapolis, brings in its construction trailer and staging equipment for both lots.

The two surface lots are to be developed in lieu of a previously proposed $3.4 million downtown parking garage that twice produced construction bids way above estimates -- nearly $1 million over estimate initially and then $750,000 too high in a second bidding attempt.

Gibraltar Construction offered the lowest of three bids -- $1,135,000 -- that were submitted for construction of the surface lots a block south and west of the square.

The two-lot project carries a 150-calendar-day timetable with an original projected completion date of Nov. 1 that will be skewed by a one-month delay to readvertise the funding through Indiana Housing Community Development Authority.

This spring the City of Greencastle received approval of the IHCDA for $1.86 million in grant money for construction of the new parking lots in a pair of downtown locations.

The funds approved by the IHCDA now will go toward construction of surface lots on property purchased from the Moose Lodge earlier this spring, as well as the site once designated for the parking garage on property bounded by Jackson, Walnut and Indiana streets.

The Moose property -- comprised of everything east of the lodge and bounded by Washington, Market and Franklin streets a block west of the courthouse square -- will provide a second new downtown surface lot in lieu of building the 146-space parking garage that had been part of the city's original $19.2 million Stellar Grant effort.