STRONG — Residents were informed by the Board of Selectmen about why a petition asking members to reverse a July 2011 decision has been circulating in the community.
According to Selectmen Chairman Jim Burrill, Mary White, who lives on Route 4, north of Chandler Road, is circulating a petition asking selectmen to reconsider their votes that closed the road to through traffic.
Burrill said White hadn’t gathered all of the signatures required to present the petition at Tuesday’s meeting. Each signature also needs to be certified by Town Clerk Betsy DuBois.
Selectmen reviewed the process they followed in making the original decision to stop through traffic on the residential road.
Of the 21 town-owned roads, only Mill, High and River streets allow through traffic, and the other 18 are dead ends.
Sandra Yeaton told selectmen that she had been the original petitioner to stop the through traffic. She recalled seeing a driver nearly lose control of his vehicle and crash into a residence. Yeaton said that although the speed limit was 30 mph, few observed the limit, and she had been scared for herself, her grandson and her neighbors. Chandler Road was not built to carry continuous year-round traffic, but it was used as a shortcut for people from other towns, she said.
“It’s not people from here,” she said. “It’s people from other places trying to get somewhere in a hurry.”
Several residents at the meeting questioned the reason for attempting to reopen the southern end of the road to through traffic after the lengthy process of public meetings and the vote to close it.
“I was under the impression that once the town voted on it, it was final,” said Steve Smith, a resident who lives on the road.
The next group of selectmen can reverse a decision, and a public vote wasn’t required by law, as only selectmen had the final authority to change a road’s status, according to state law, according to Burrill.
“It can be brought back,” he said.
Another resident, Gil Reed, said the town has about eight residents who live north of Chandler Road.
“Fiscally, it doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Mike Pond, who was not a selectman when the issue came to a vote in July 2011, said he had learned much since that time. The town won’t have to repave the road for another 15 years if it remains a dead end. That saves taxpayers money that can go toward other more urgent road repair projects.
“It’s for the greater good to leave that road closed,” he said.
Selectmen agreed they would listen to White and the other petitioners if they come to the next meeting.
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