Plan for sidewalk, crosswalk by shopping plaza

Only about seven people attended a special town meeting at Town Hall on Friday, Sept. 19,  to discuss repairs to a Gay Street sidewalk. The plan for the new crosswalk project was approved and is now expected to move forward.

The handful of voters approved  construction of a new 270-foot-long sidewalk on Gay Street (across from the shopping plaza) that will stretch from Union Savings Bank to the filling station.

The project will also include a painted crosswalk from the bank to the post office.

“The idea is to ensure better pedestrian safety in that area,� First Selectman Malcolm Brown said in an interview after the meeting. “There have been accidents where people have turned in and out of the shopping center at an excessive speed. Three years ago someone sustained a broken foot in that area, walking down the street.�

Brown said the crosswalk will have a sign in the middle of it reminding drivers to stop for pedestrians.

The speed limit on the road is 30 miles per hour. However, Brown said most drivers do not abide by the speed limit.

“Because the shopping center is at the bottom of a bowl [where the roads that lead to the shopping center are going downhill from both directions] people tend to speed and they don’t come downhill putting on their brakes or going slow,� Brown said. “They are speeding where people are walking at the shopping center. The problem is not the speed limit. The real problem is that people just do not observe it.�

The project, which has been in the works since 2005, will cost the town approximately $40,695.

However, according to Brown, the cost of the project is 100 percent reimbursable by the state under the Local Capital Improvement Program.

The cost is slightly higher than originally estimated.