By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — After three hours of discussion — focused mainly on a project to upgrade the intersections of Cross Highway with Bayberry Lane and North Avenue — six committees of the Representative Town Meeting agreed to support three appropriations Wednesday night.
The joint RTM committees voted to recommend:
- A $313,500 appropriation for a traffic study and design plan to improve the safety of the two Cross Highway intersections.
- Funding of $237,000 to improve drainage on the Longshore Golf Course greens.
- A $25,000 allocation from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funding to develop a job-search support program at the Westport Library.
The panels’ recommendations were forwarded to the full RTM for discussion and a possible vote Tuesday, Sept. 6.
The most controversial topic on the agenda was the Cross Highway intersection improvement plan.
The problems, some of the RTM members said, could be fixed simply with better police enforcement of speed limits. Others questioned why those particular intersections, and not others in town, are being given priority.
“I don’t think $310,000 is going to solve the problems of Westporters not using just plain common sense to obey the rules of the road,” commented Jack Klinge, a District 7 member of the Health and Human Services Committee. “I have a hard time understanding how $310,000 is going to solve the driving problems of Westport residents.”
“We will be paying about $300,00 for one-half mile of this road,” agreed Richard Lowenstein, a District 5 member of the Public Protection Committee.
Lowenstein and others suggested the town first should put together a comprehensive traffic plan based on comments at nine meetings on traffic issues held in each RTM district earlier this year by First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker. After making a campaign promise, Tooker organized the meetings beginning in March, gathering complaints and suggestions from residents on traffic problems in their districts.
The Cross Highway project includes a traffic analysis of the intersections and the area surrounding them, and would produce a proposed design plan for the intersections, according to Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich, who presented the plan at the meeting.
When Ratkiewich discussed the plan at the August meeting of the Board of Finance — which unanimously approved the expenditure — he said, “Luckily, no one has gotten killed, but we are really worried,” about the stretch of Cross Highway.
Three main options under consideration are: better signs aimed at reducing the number of drivers who fail to stop at the intersections; a traffic roundabout that would direct traffic differently around the intersections and installation of traffic lights.
It is possible, although not likely, that traffic engineers conducting the study also could propose another plan, Ratkiewich said.
There have been 21 accidents at the two intersections in recent years, and the accidents have become more serious, according to Ratkiewich, although there have not been any fatalities.
The intersections’ nearby location to Staples High, Bedford Middle and elementary schools makes it even more important to improve safety in the area, he said.
“Everybody’s kids go to middle school and high school,” Ratkiewich said. “This is important to a lot of people in town.”
Wendy Batteau, a District 8 member of the Library, Museum and Arts, Committee, said the Cross Highway intersections are on the southern edge of her district and she gets more complaints and correspondence about the dangers there than any other issue.
“This is just a terrible stretch of road,” Batteau said.
Others, including Claudia Shaum, a District 5 member of the Public Protection Committee, said all of the town’s serious traffic problems should be reviewed as the basis for a townwide strategy before selecting one to address.
“Yes, that intersection needs to be fixed, no doubt,” Shaum said. “But a one-off isn’t in the context of anything else —we have a larger problem.”
By tackling one problem area without considering other traffic issues in town, she said, “I’m afraid …we may be wasting the time and the effort.”
After several hours of discussion, Planning and Zoning Commission Chairwoman Danielle Dobin — who said she attended the committees’ Zoom meeting “as a concerned citizen” — said the need to improve safety at the Cross Highway intersections, especially for pedestrian safety, had been discussed for several years, first when James Marpe was first selectman and now with Tooker.
“It is not an easy problem to solve, but it is not an intractable problem, it just requires some patience and some financial support of the town,” Dobin said. “This is in everyone’s district — anyone who has a child at school.”
After Dobin’s input, the RTM’s Public Protection, Public Works and Finance committees voted in favor of recommending the Cross Highway project appropriation to the full RTM, with two members — Klinge and Lowenstein — voting no.
Jobs-search program supported
The joint RTM committees also voted to recommend a $25,000 appropriation for the Westport Library and Department of Health and Human Services to develop a job-search program for the unemployed and underemployed.
The program, which would be administered by the library, would hire a part-time job counselor to work with people needing to improve their employment status, and would connect clients with other organizations to provide support services for the underemployed.
Funds to hire the counselor would come from Westport’s ARPA funds, allocated as pandemic relief by the federal government.
“There has been a significant uptick in individuals looking for a better job,” since many jobs were lost during the pandemic, said Elaine Daignault, director of the town’s Department of Human Services.
Her department gets many requests for support for unemployed people, but the time needed to review resumes and analyze available jobs in the community is too time consuming for the town’s social workers and requires someone with specific knowledge in employment support, she said.
The jobs program could also help employers in Westport staff up in a tough labor market, she said.
Several RTM members asked what would happen to the program when funds ran out since ARPA funds are a one-time appropriation. Additional grants could be found, Daignault said.
“The program seems like an absolute necessity,” commented Seth Braunstein, of District 6 and chairman of the Finance Committee. He recommended the program be funded in next year’s town budget.
The committees voted unanimously to recommend the appropriation be approved by the full RTM.
Funds to upgrade golf course drainage
The joint RTM committees also voted unanimously to back another appropriation of $237,000 to install drainage on the greens at Longshore Golf Course.
The project is part of the town’s five-year capital plan, Jennifer Fava, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, told the RTM committees.
The drainage project, if the appropriation is approved by the full RTM, will start in October and take about one month to complete. The golf course can be used while the new drainage system is installed, Fava said.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and currently teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.
I’d like to reiterate my perspective on the proposed 1/3 million dollar expenditure of taxpayer money for a “Cross Highway Intersection Improvement Plan”. No doubt that the number of traffic accidents at the Cross Hwy/Bayberry & Cross Hwy/North Ave intersections has raised legitimate safety concerns that the Town should investigate and address.
However in my experience, when a significant problem is identified, a “root cause analysis” is imperative for any changes to be effective at mitigating or resolving the issue. Decided changes and strategies should be targeted at identified cause(s). Yes, there have been accidents – likely too many accidents – at these locations. However during Town commission and committee meetings, no information about these accidents has beeb presented. I imagine that our Police Department has pertinent information regarding each of these 20+ incidents and I imagine that they might have some insight into the causation of each of them. Perhaps there are patterns, or identifiable causative factors that we can be used to focus our deliberations of what should be done.
Why have we seemingly not consulted our police department/traffic advisors to formulate a rectification plan before spending over $300,000 on out of town consultants?
For example, is it not possible (even likely) that the following accident causative issues have been at play:
Hurried drivers; Distracted drivers; Failure to completely stop; Speeding drivers
In my personal view, the problem on Cross Hwy is that it is heavily trafficked through a residential neighborhood with drivers who are almost always in a hurry. In addition, it is a conduit to schools, recreational facilities, access and a bypass to the Merritt Pwy, and a cut through to Post Rd and I95. No “Study” will improve this geographic and the traffic volume.
Drivers who speed, drivers who “roll through” stop signs or believe they mean “Yield”, and drivers who are either distracted or impaired will not be deterred by a “Study”. They are more likely to be deterred only by enforcement of the law and real risk of penalty.
Some say that the problem is that the STOP signs are not sufficiently visible. If the accidents prove that a causative factor, then clear away any obstacles. Make the signs larger. Add lights to the signs. Add a sign informing of the STOP approaching sign.
If the accidents show that drivers do not stop, then add a speed hump just before the STOP sign to force the car to slow down.
If the drivers are impaired or distracted – well, only law enforcement can help with that.
If accident data shows that drivers are speeding, then add those radar speed feedback signs.
A well advertised police commitment to traffic enforcement might likely help as well.
Even installing cameras at these two intersections will help determine cause and fault if an accident occurs – this can be a deterrent as well.
Throwing money at a perceived problem makes some people feel like they are “at least doing something”. However it is far better to first identify and qualify what needs to be fixed – and THEN decide how best to quantify and utilize any targeted expenditures. I believe that our police department can provide the direction we need to take. This should be our first step prior to spending a single taxpayer dollar. Without a foundational root cause analysis determination, we are unnecessarily paying others to do what we should first be doing ourselves – and we are not incapable.
Speeders & ignored stop signs are the big issues but the cause is even more relevant; Alcohol & Drugs how do you stop that?
Curiously just beyond the map on Cross Hwy towards Sturges is a line-of-sight issue @176 where 66 police reports I reviewed
is a huge hill right at the road in a sharp turn preventing drivers to even anticipate it the curve mush less another vehicle or driveway exit. It’s an easy fix If just to the town property line it was shaved for line-of-sight in the curve I’d bet it would reduce or eliminate those last 66 accidents.
Forgot to add and subtract;
ADD-I’ve walked that corner (Cross & Bayberry) for 15 years everyday and watched them clear all the accidents
Subtract- all my typo’s, apologies
Mark
As I alluded to, if impairment (eg. substances, dementia) &/or distraction (eg, cell phones) have been causative the police reports should verify that. Before any taxpayer funding is approved to “study” this issue, we should at the very least do our own due diligence with the information at hand.
Anything less is irresponsible and insulting to the Town taxpayers who will be involuntarily footing the bill.
AND all the potential remedies I mentioned to mitigate the problem can just be done anyway as they are easy to do, can only improve the situation.
I don’t argue with your noble process, but I did read (and pay for) 66 police reports for just that one point on Cross Hwy and saw the aftermath of many if not most of the accidents in the last dozen years. (The most puzzling on the corner of Bayberry was witnessed by a friend who watched a car hit a runner after it stopped for the stop sign. After she hit the pavement she shouted “You didn’t have to hit me”). One good trend I see is corner properties now end at a 45 degree angle to the intersection near the stop signs, this creates a line of sight before the stop sign like on the corner of Bayberry & Cross (as long as they keep trimming the growth on a timely basis below 2 ft.). One problem is at the North East corner of Cross & North Ave. has a stone wall comes so close to the intersection it prevents line of sight. One accident at the curve near 176 I named “the Flying Prius” that story is probably in the annuls of insurance company history ( fortunately nobody died). The sooner these reports get done, the sooner we can have reports done for recommendations, the sooner the town will allocate funds to make improvements, the sooner it will save lives. Hurry! it will take years. We argue about spending money rather then saving lives.