KENT/NEW MILFORD — A years-long push by South Kent Road residents to ban Club Getaway-bound tour buses from the winding country road is finally seeing headway, and David Schreiber, who owns the all-ages resort, is thrilled.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, and we do have to work together, but it’s moving in the right direction, which is beautiful,” said Schreiber on July 3, a week and a half after the New Milford Town Council agreed to work with the town of Kent towards effective regulation for large commercial vehicles on the roadway.
Schreiber said he’s heard complaints from neighbors for fifteen years regarding buses shortcutting down the narrow lane and has tried “everything” to get the bus companies to reroute via larger roads, but his lack of jurisdiction outside the resort’s boundaries, as well as the fact that the affected road lies in two separate towns (with the state owning the Kent section), has made things difficult.
Club Getaway is a woodsy retreat center that offers youth programs, family stays and adult camps. It sits on South Kent Road just below its intersection with Route 341.
Buses coming from the south often choose South Kent Road for the final stretch of the journey, despite a recent adjustment to Google Maps – requested by Club Getaway – so that it no longer recommends the stretch of the road between Gaylordsville and Spooner Hill Road in Kent as a route.
Schreiber said that he was “touched” that Kent First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer turned up to the June 23 New Milford Town Council meeting to commit to finding a solution that keeps buses off that section of the road, where residents have complained about tight or impossible vehicle passes and scary moments walking the dog.
Schreiber said the recent progress has been largely due to a May 30 Facebook post in the Kent community group by South Kent Road resident Kristin Barese, who initiated communication between Lindenmayer and New Milford Mayor Pete Bass and presented the Town Council with a 145-signature petition calling for action, and one of his employees getting yelled at the Kent Station Pharmacy.
On June 26, Lindenmayer explained steps were already being taken towards that end: “Mayor Bass and I will work with our legislators to ensure we get the right routes marked appropriately while our two Public Works departments will work with CTDOT to mark roads and keep our local residents safe and the buses on track.”
“Shouting at one of my employees in public, especially, when they are not on the clock, is disgraceful,” Schreiber said in his own post in the Kent group, dated June 10. He also noted the employee, like anyone else working at the resort, had nothing to do with what routes the bus companies decided to take.
Reflecting on July 23, he described the incident as a boiling point due to “built up frustration,” but that the behavior was still unacceptable. “I want this to work, and I’ll do anything to make it happen, right?” he said, “but really, there’s a time and a place, you know — call me.”
Despite the ugliness, Schreiber said that he’s glad the issue “is all out in the open now,” and that progress is being made.
When all this is over, he hopes both the bus drivers and passengers alike will be glad to avoid the country-lane pace of South Kent Road. “It’s gonna be great for the community, it’s gonna be great for Club Getaway, and it’s gonna be great for Club Getaway clients,” he said. “It says on a GPS it’s four minutes shorter going down South Kent Road, until a bus actually gets on South Kent Road, and it’s ten minutes longer.”
