The Minuteman spoke to Town Engineer Bill Hurley and some of the approximately 16 to 20 meeting participants.
Hurley said that in order to meet state requirements for a $250,800 federal grant that will be used to build approximately 3/4 of a mile of sidewalk, the town is obliged to hold these public informational meetings, as well as to get approval from the Boards of Selectmen, Finance, Education, the Representative Town Meeting, and the Department of Public Works. Those approvals have been received.
The state is encouraging sidewalks in its Safe Routes to School program. According to Hurley, and sidewalk enthusiast and Realtor Ken Camarro, sidewalks are a health and safety matter, because they encourage people to walk and walking fights obesity.
Camarro also thinks that walking builds community within a local neighborhood, encouraging people to get out and meet each other.
The new sidewalks will extend along the north side of Unquowa Road from Barlow Road to Sturges Road, which already has sidewalks. It is hoped that this will encourage teens and pre-teens to walk to Fairfield Ludlowe Middle and High Schools and to Tomlinson Middle School as well.
More sidewalk will line the east side of Mill Plain Road from I-95 to Unquowa Road. Round Hill Road will get sidewalk at either end. The southern end close to the Post Road will get 616 feet of sidewalk from Hillcrest to Walls Drive and the other end of Round Hill will get 671 feet of sidewalk from number 1486 which is near College Park Drive, to Mill Plain Road.
At least 16 people showed up for the meeting and at least one, Kristen Shah, of Mill Plain Road, said she was wildly in favor of sidewalks, telling the Minuteman she had three small children and "We're forced to walk head-on into heavy traffic."
Five residents of Round Hill near Mill Plain showed up and the four the Minuteman spoke to were not at all happy with the prospect of sidewalks.
Some felt that since there was already a sidewalk on the other side of Round Hill, there should be a crossing guard to help children cross. However, Hurley told the Minuteman that this would not be practical as it was dangerous to cross Round Hill.
He pointed out that there is now a crossing guard where Mill Plain and Round Hill, and Duck Farm Road more or less come together.
The Board of Education policy is that children who live within 3/4 of a mile of a school, must walk. Riverfield Elementary School is a short distance south of this nearly three-way intersection.
A survey was taken of the immediate northern Round Hill neighborhood and Hurley told the Minuteman that 30 of the 40 responses thought a sidewalk would be a positive.
However, those who wanted sidewalks lived on Lawrence Road or Woods End Road, the streets that feed into Round Hill.
As the Round Hill property owners said, "They won't have to shovel."
A town ordinance requires property owners to shovel a sidewalk within 24 hours of a snowstorm. Round Hill resident Peter Trupp said he was going to be 60 years old in another year and he didn't want to plow or shovel.
Barbara and George Carroll live on Unquowa and Barbara said, "My husband's getting older. We have 120 feet (of future sidewalk) that we'll have to shovel in winter."
"What happens when people get really old and can't shovel? I am concerned about that ... Do we just shovel one strip or pay someone?" asked Carroll.
Carroll, like other residents to whom the Minuteman spoke, said they rarely saw children walking to school. Whether that will change after sidewalks are built remains to be seen. Hurley said that the state requires follow-up data to determine what effect, if any, the sidewalks will have.
The Round Hill residents were given the choice of having a sidewalk that bordered the street or one that was one foot from the curb. Some homeowners will do it one way and some the other. The result, said Carolyn Linsey, will be "a meandering stretch and, aesthetically, it's going to be a nightmare."
Linsey also noted that she will lose four trees, three dogwoods and a 200-year-old oak when the sidewalk is built. Trupp will lose a weeping cherry and a dogwood on his property, each one planted when a child was born, either 24 or 30 years ago.
The sidewalk will be five feet wide to make it ADA compliant, Hurley said. Linsey pointed out that the state does allow narrower sidewalks when it is warranted, but said that she had called the state, town, and the central school office and each said it was someone else's decision. Except Hurley, who said the decision had been made and it was not going to change.
"I just don't think my front yard is big enough for a sidewalk. It will probably be 20 feet from my house to the sidewalk. I'm losing privacy," said Trupp.
He did admit, as did others, that the town engineering department had been very nice. "They're trying to make it as easy as possible."
"There's no choice and no recourse," said Trupp. "I feel like it's being forced on us."
Hurley said, "If I get the opponents to at least tolerate them (sidewalks), then I think it's okay."
"This wasn't done on a whim. There's a lot of work involved. It's been a thought-out process," said the Town Engineer.
Hurley hopes that the last details can be worked out in time for the project to start in September.
The engineer drew a map of the eventual diamond-shaped loop that the sidewalks will create. Starting at Unquowa and Barlow Road, the loop will traverse Unquowa to Sturges and south to Mill Plain. Turning north on Mill Plain until it hits Round Hill, the loop will go south on Round Hill - Fairfield University is being required to build a sidewalk there - to Barlow and back to Unquowa.