The village of Pinehurst plans to do some maintenance work and make minor improvements to the downtown sand parking lot beginning Monday, weather permitting.

The work involves permanently removing the center aisle of parking spaces at the end of the lot closest to Given Memorial Library and Tufts Archives and rearranging the tire stops along the outer edge to make better use of available spaces.

One entrance and half of the parking spaces will remain available during the project, which should take two to four days to complete.

Village Public Works Director Walt Morgan said the work is necessary because of the continued deterioration of the lot surface.

“We have received so many complaints about ruts,” Morgan said.

The improvements are being made in an effort to make the lot more user-friendly and easier to maintain.

“When we get finished, it will be a lot neater and a lot easier to maneuver through,” he said.

Morgan said the center aisle, coupled with the haphazard organization of the outer tire stops, make it difficult to maneuver through the parking lot.

The changes will also permit village staff to maintain the lot better with more frequent grading and dragging to keep it in better shape.

The village has proposed an improvement plan for the sand parking lot and the Village Green that hit a snag earlier this month when the Historic Preservation Commission denied issuing a certificate of appropriateness for the project.

These improvements are not associated with the recently proposed enhancements to the lot that are now in limbo.

The village reworked that plan but has yet to say if it will submit it to the Historic Preservation Commission or appeal the commission’s ruling to the Board of Adjustment.

Contact Tom Embrey at (910) 693-2484 or by email at tembrey@thepilot.com.