Weston residents challenge proposed safety access road to local schools

WESTON — Officials are proposing an access road they say will make it easier to get to the schools in case of an emergency, and while residents say another access point is needed, they question the proposed location.

The $35,000 access road is just one of the 20 proposed items within the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funds that the community will vote for on June 18. The gravel road would be added at the end of the Wood Hill Road cul-de-sac, creating a connection between it and School Road. It would be about 44 feet long and 14 feet wide.

“We’re trying to do something to protect our children,” First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor said. “This is about safety.”

Residents agreed with the sentiment but said studies should have been done first to ensure this was the best spot.

“We’re not against an emergency access way,” said Edward Migliaccio, who lives on Wood Hill Road. “What we feel should have been done is a study commissioned — bring on some engineering and traffic experts and emergency planning experts to evaluate what the best options are.”

Migliaccio said that the biggest point of congestion within the town is a stoplight near Route 57, close to Wood Hill Road, especially during the school year. He said residents have suggested officials look at other roads that are less congested in which to add the access road.

Fire Chief John Pokorny said he hopes the access road will never be used; but its purpose is for emergency vehicles to get to the school in case of blockage from other entrances.

He also said it is beneficial for Wood Hill Road residents because it creates another entrance if Route 57 is ever blocked and emergency vehicles need to get there. It also allows firefighters to pull from the water tank at the schools in case of a fire, as the town doesn’t have fire hydrants.

There are currently only two entrances into the school: Route 57 and Lords Highway. Pokorny said that there have been issues in the past getting to the school, especially during storms, when School Road is blocked off.

He, alongside then-Town Engineer John Conti, looked at ways over the last few years to come in from the back of the schools, but it is wetlands and would be almost impossible to get through there. He said Wood Hill Road works well as an egress because it is almost exactly in the middle of the schools.

“We have to create a system where the parents and people at the school are sure we are putting their safety first,” Nestor said.

Police Chief Ed Henion said the emergency medical services, police and fire chiefs meet once a month and discuss emergency planning. He said the emergency access road has been discussed as long as he’s been chief, which is at least five years.

“It’s in the right spot for us,” Pokorny said. “There really are not a lot of other options. This doesn’t involve anybody’s private property, road to road. There are some other streets in the area, but at the end of the streets is all private property.”

He said there is another piece of land off of Old Hyde

Road, but it would require a lot of trees to be removed, as it would be a longer pathway.

This proposal calls for removing a stone wall and some trees.

Pokorny also said it is difficult to get budgets for projects like this, and this project is cost-effective.

“I’d like to make [the residents] as happy as we can,” Pokorny said, “and I don’t imagine that it would change traffic on the road.”

A group of residents, including Migliaccio, have sent a letter to the selectmen with concerns about the plan, which Nestor said the board will consider.

Jim Maggio, who lives elsewhere in town, also said he is not against an egress, in general, but “This was done without any engineering studies.”

He also questioned the urgency of it since School Road has had two access roads for at least the 24 or so years he’s lived in town.

“(Families) move here for the schools, to send their kids to the schools with the hopes that they’re going to come home at the end of the day,” he said. “If you’re doing something that’s not guaranteeing or assuring increased safety, and you’re trying to just create an impression of it, well, that doesn’t help.”

He said it needs to be a solid, well-thought-out investment.

“I’m an advocate of doing something right the first time, and I just think they’ve missed the mark completely,” Migliaccio said.

Migliaccio said he would like to see the Board of Selectmen allow the town to vote on an emergency access road that is yet to be determined by professionals who evaluate what the best egress option is.

“If they come back and say that Wood Hill is the best option, we’d welcome it with open arms,” he said.

If the ARPA funds are approved through the vote, the next step is to go to the planning and zoning commission, which will include a drawing and plan from an engineer who will review the area. This is required for every town property where the use changes, Nestor said.

“If we find out that from planning and zoning that they do not believe this is a reasonable use for this project,” Nestor said, “then that $35,000 goes back into a restricted account that can be used for overages or... if we do it before 2024, we can reallocate the money.”

Maggio said that the community needs to be involved from the beginning in choices like this and the selectmen could have done a questionnaire on how to spend the ARPA money.

“If this is a reality,” he said, “that this is something the police chief and the fire chief proclaim as being critical, do the research, spend the money there, and don’t dilute the little bit of money that’s available with, I want to say, vanity projects.”

Migliaccio brought up the cost differences between the egress and a proposed pickleball court included in the ARPA plan, which is supposed to cost $100k.

Migliaccio said that some of the projects on the proposed ARPA list aren’t bad ideas, but items like a pickleball court and dog park shouldn’t be priorities if children’s safety is near the bottom of the list.