Trustee Paul Wandel opened the conversation, seeking an update on the wider Route 20 renovation project at a Board of Trustees workshop Wednesday.

“They’re moving along,” Department of Public Works Director Scott Marsh said. “They plan on getting all these bumpouts done in the next few weeks. They have to be done by October.”

The New York State Department of Transportation is overseeing the project on Route 20, a state-administered road which is also Main Street in Fredonia. The road will get repaved and some culverts will be replaced, in addition to the installation of the bumpouts at certain intersections. The bumpouts are elevated and jut into the road shoulder in order to give pedestrians a clearer view of oncoming traffic.

The current estimated completion date of the entire project is Christmas Day, according to an interactive online map containing NYSDOT projects. A direct link to the project website returned a “404 Not Found” page Thursday.

Trustee Michelle Twichell subsequently asked Marsh about plowing the bumpouts. “How is that going to work when the (DOT’s) plow comes down the street, are they going to be able to swing in around those bumpouts to clear the snow or are you going to have to do it?” she wondered.

Marsh replied, “We’ve plowed larger spots, we’ve dealt with them — they’ve been there for years now. But yeah, it’s going to be a little harder going out.”

The always safety-conscious Mayor Michael Ferguson then reminded people why the bumpouts are going in at all.

It’s “our goal to try and make this safer” for pedestrians, he said. “When you see people standing in those elevated bumpouts, by law, you’re supposed to stop and let that person cross. It’s not an elective, it’s by law.”

Ferguson has repeatedly complained at village meetings about vehicles not stopping to let pedestrians use crosswalks. “I watch hundreds of people breaking that law, and it’s just going to drive me crazy until (the bumpouts are) finalized,” he said.

Twichell then asked about maintenance of a new island placed in Route 20 adjacent to Fredonia Central School.

“The crosswalk part, we take our sidewalk plow out there so we’ll probably make a pass over it,” Marsh said. “There’s not going to be any maintenance involved because it’s all concrete.”

“Again, why that was there is because you have children crossing there,” Ferguson said.