NSDPW’s plan never implemented by town

I read the article in The Call regarding the condition of the sidewalks on Smithfield Road, White Parkway and Summit Street and the lack of effort to upgrade them. I would like to clarify that efforts were being made back in 1999 by the North Smithfield Public Works Department to work with the R.I. Department of Transportation to upgrade those specific streets. Originally, the North Smithfield DPW was asked to put together a plan to upgrade the roads and sidewalks in a three-phase multiyear operation. After reviewing the condition of the roads and sidewalks on the three roads, it was determined that the sidewalks on Smithfield Road were the priority. With that in mind, the other streets would be repaired in the following years. Since Smithfield Road was a state highway, North Smithfield DPW put together a preliminary plan for Smithfield Road that would allow representatives from DPW to meet with RIDOT engineers to see how RIDOT and NSDPW couldwork out a plan to make the repairs to the Smithfield Road sidewalks. The intent on the part of the town was to ask RIDOT to put the repairs into RIDOT’s Capital Funding program, and the funds the town would have budgeted for the project were to be redirected to work on Summit Avenue and White Parkway. As a part of the meeting with RIDOT, the town was going to ask if there were grant funds available to subsidize the town’s end of the project, thus reducing the amount the town would have to fund. Unfortunately, politics entered into the project, and the funding for the work was directed only for work on Summit Avenue and the plan to coordinate the work with RIDOT was tabkled. In the following years phases 1 and 3 of the project were never funded and the meetings with RIDOT did not occur. Bottom line, the North Smithfield Public Works Department had a plan, but it was never fully implemented by the town. Kaczorowski is the former North Smithfield director of public works.