By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT– The Board of Selectmen approved hiring BrightView to continue maintaining the Longshore Golf Course for three years yesterday over the objections of several residents who requested time to discuss reducing chemical applications and opting for organic pesticides.

Also at the meeting in Town Hall, the board approved hiring consultants Tighe & Bond to design sidewalk improvements along about a mile of Easton Road for $365,000.

At the request of Parks and Recreation Director Erik Barbieri, the Board green-lit hiring BrightView for $3,236,040 to cover three years. BrightView, a California firm with Connecticut offices, has been maintaining the golf course, but the previous contract with the firm expired.

When the town sought proposals from companies seeking the job, BrightView was one of only two that responded – and the only one that met the standards set – Barbieri said. But he said the company needed the town’s decision quickly.

“They need to know if they’re going to get this contract because they would need to move on to other places if they weren’t going to,” he said.

Residents, including Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members, asked the board to postpone the vote until the matter could be discussed by the community, including by the RTM.

“We cannot keep kicking the can down the road on the use of organic pesticides,” said Linda Prestegaard. “We need to take a proactive, serious action and not just (meet) the standards of the day.”

RTM member Jennifer Johnson (D9) said the issue is expected to be discussed at a Feb. 4 meeting of the Environment Committee, on which she serves.

Barbieri said BrightView intends “to try to increase organics and reduce chemical reliance. And that would be my goal as well.”

On the Easton Road sidewalk project, Johnson asked why the street was seen as a priority over 30 roads identified as part of the town’s application for funding under the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program. She also suggested that the project include bike lanes. Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich said the Easton Road project has “been in the works for many, many years,” before the Safe Streets program, and that it was a priority because it would increase access to schools in the area.

He said the strip to be improved with sidewalks is narrow, and will require easements from some private properties. It includes areas where trees have grown through sidewalks, and where a previous tree removal left stumps.

The improvements would stretch from Weston Road to North Avenue, including under the Merritt Parkway. The state has committed to pay up to $4 million for the improvements from the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program once the project is designed.

A section around Wisteria Lane will be exempted from the corridor improvement project but will receive a crosswalk for students to reach Coleytown Elementary School and Coleytown Middle School under another initiative, Ratkiewich said. 

The town applied for a $10 million federal grant under the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, but instead it received $895,200, for planning and demonstration projects. The sum, announced earlier this month by Connecticut’s congressional delegation, is an 80-20 matching grant, Ratkiewich said. The town’s share will be about $220,000.