So far, so good in Wyoma Square

LYNN – Diane Miller is in the prediction business. And the Wyoma Square psychic said it?s easy for her to look ahead and assess the outcome of this summer?s Wyoma Square reconstruction project.?It?s going to be a very big improvement,” Miller said as she looked out her small storefront window at workers building sidewalks and new traffic islands in front the 7-Eleven store.Miller has operating Psychic Readings by Diane in Wyoma Square for more than four years and said the business center where Lynnfield Street, Broadway and Parkland Avenue intersect is overdue for safety improvements and other upgrades.?It needed a face-lift,” she said.Since spring, Melrose-based D&R General Contracting has rebuilt roadbeds, sidewalks and curbs from Boston Street through the square to Cowdrey Avenue and Bacheller Street.With the work scheduled to last into the fall, D&R started sidewalk reconstruction work in mid-July, and workers are focusing on traffic island sidewalk projects, including a sidewalk bordering the building where longtime Wyomas Square businessman Richard Covert sells air conditioners, dryers and other household appliances.Covert said D&R?s nighttime construction schedule earlier in the summer provided daytime traffic and parking relief.?The sidewalk work is the only time we were inconvenienced,” he said.Newhall?s Liquors owner Nick Patel praised his customer?s loyalty during ongoing construction and said they have helped him weather reconstruction that caused him different degrees of inconvenience.?Some days it is worse and on some days it is better, but my customers came in even when it was tough,” Patel said.With the city poised to launch the Wyoma Square municipal parking lot reconstruction project, Patel is looking forward to having more long-term parking behind his business and fewer drivers parking all day in the short-term spaces in front of his store.?It will help a lot,” he said.The contractor ripped out sidewalks and built new sidewalks and curbs on Broadway from Boston Street to Magnolia Avenue last year. Sidewalk and roadway construction undertaken this year will stretch into 2016 with some landscaping work, Hall said.The $4 million project has several objectives, including widening the turn off Broadway onto Magnolia and widening the corner of Broadway at Lynnfield Street to ease turns onto Lynnfield.D&R reconfigured Broadway traveling south from Wyoma Square to Boston and Chestnut streets so drivers will eventually use two travel lanes with a lane reserved for parking.Rosa Valera, owner of J.R.V. Multi Service, likes the new, wider sidewalks in front of her business and hopes traffic flows more smoothly through the square.?They have spent so much money, I hope it is an improvement,” she said.