Town won’t put center lines on scenic road
NEW MILFORD — After a months' long debate, the town has decided not to put center lines on Long Mountain Road — a scenic road.
At this week's Town Council meeting, the vote against line striping was almost unanimous — with all but one council member out of six — Chris Cosgrove supporting the center lines.
The issue regarding center lines originally surfaced after the local traffic authority recommended putting double center lines on the road — citing safety and liability concerns.
While Long Mountain Road had a single line down its middle prior to being repaved, single center lines are no longer allowed to be put down.
While town attorney Randy DiBella initially expressed concern over not striping the road, after doing more research, he later said the traffic authority does not have exclusive authority to decide to stripe the road. He also said there would be no increased liability for the town if the town doesn't stripe the road.
Residents fight center lines
Prior to the vote, during public comment, resident Andrew Harvey, who lives on Long Mountain Road, said he was concerned that lining the road would lead drivers to speed.
“The main concerns of residents and road users of Long Mountain Road are the speed and lack of consideration of traffic,” Harvey said. “This affects drivers as well as walkers, sightseers and cyclists, when speeding traffic does not allow them room when passing. Not having lines will encourage drivers to slow down, to pay attention to their surroundings and to take greater responsibility for their actions behind the wheel.”
Resident Kevin Umeh brought up the town's scenic road ordinance when arguing against adding lines.
"The town has long spent a lot of time and energy in putting together the scenic road ordinance and I suspect that's because an important part of this town and its character is the mix of environments of which the more rural, scenic areas are meant to be preserved by the scenic road ordinance,” Umeh said. “That's part of the point of the town and part of the attraction.”
Other concerns
However, Cosgrove, whose vote supported striping the road, said he feels it would be safer to put lines on it — based upon the opinion of the other entities who weighed in on the issue.
“Every department that we depend on to make this decision — DPW (Department of Public Works), our roads committee, the traffic authority... they've all said it's safer to stripe it,” Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove said he recently drove down Barker Road — a scenic road that has a line on it.
“I don't think it takes away any of the scenic value of that road,” he said.
He also recalled an experience he had recently when driving on his own road, where he thought he could have potentially gotten into an accident.
“One night a few weeks ago, on a very foggy evening, we're driving down my road, which I'm very familiar with. There's kind of a sharp turn. And I'm thinking as I'm approaching this turn I'm thankful I've got a line there because if there's someone coming around the other way and I'm over the center, I could be in trouble.”
After the meeting, Harvey told Hearst Connecticut Media he was very happy with the town's decision.
“It is an important step for seeing New Milford's leadership reaffirming their commitment to preserving the rural heritage and the scenic roads of this town,” Harvey said. “This was a real test case for that. The other thing about it is that this is just one of the scenic roads in town. There's a groundswell happening now, among scenic road residents and users.”
Recently, the town has been in debate about making Cherniske Road — another scenic road, one lane or two lanes.
“So we are carrying forward from a good starting point here,” Harvey said.
“The main concerns of residents and road users of Long Mountain Road are the speed and lack of consideration of traffic. This affects drivers as well as walkers, sightseers and cyclists, when speeding traffic does not allow them room when passing. Not having lines will encourage drivers to slow down, to pay attention to their surroundings and to take greater responsibility for their actions behind the wheel.” Andrew Harvey, New Milford resident