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05/22/2019 08:40 AMThe Guilford Safe Streets Mobility Task Force now has a chair and appointed members. With personnel and leadership now in place, the task force can get to work on issues that have both divided and united Guilford residents.
Selectmen established the task force in April 2018 following many heated debates over the likes of the Shoreline Greenway Trail (SGT), the proposed Nut Plains Pathway, and pedestrian safety in general with the hope that a task force can help guide a more orderly and transparent approach to similar issues and efforts in future.
The committee is tasked with taking a broad look at pedestrian safety and transportation across the whole town. Plans for the committee were set in motion after the Nut Plains and SGT debates and after numerous residents came forward with petitions earlier this year asking for sidewalks in certain areas in town. First Selectman Matt Hoey said the plan will address all concerns raised and will focus on pedestrian safety including walking, cycling, and pushing of strollers, as well as concerns related to cars such as transportation and traffic-calming solutions.
At the time the task force was established, Hoey said at least 15 people had volunteered for the committee. While the charge of the committee is not yet set, he said the goal is for the committee to be large enough so that it can look at several issues and offer all opinions equal representation. Hoey said town staff such as the police, town planner, and town engineer will be made available to the committee for when input is needed.
Hoey previously said appointing people to the task force had been delayed because he had struggled to find a person to chair the task force. However, earlier in May the Board of Selectmen (BOS) appointed resident Sam Gerritz as chair.
“This has been long in the making but we are finally here, largely because someone stepped up and is willing to serve as chair of the taskforce,” Hoey said at a BOS meeting on May 20. “Sam has agreed to do it and Sam has been active in this community for a number of years in a variety of capacities and he also has a genuine interest in pedestrian safety largely because at one point he used to commute to work by bicycle.”
After bringing Gerritz on board, Hoey said he reached out to the people who had expressed interest in being on the task force. He said most were still interested and on May 20, the BOS appointed Jim Bussman, Bill Eggers, Sam Gerritz, Dolores Hayden, Helen Higgins, Mary Jo Kestner, Louis Mackall, Sarah Prown, Eliot Reynolds, Metaxia Samsel, Kimberly Schmid, Melissa Shaw, Tim Sperry, and Sarah Williams to the task force.
When asked by fellow board members if the group of volunteers represented all sides of various pedestrian issues, Hoey said yes.
“Yes, I am fully comfortable,” he said. “We have folks who were in favor of the Nut Plains Pathway and people who were opposed to it, people who were in favor of the SGT and folks who were opposed to it. We have individuals who are concerned about walkability and sidewalks who presented petitions. We have folks who are concerned about the Route 146 corridor and the speed in that area so we have a wide sampling.”
The final committee charge is currently being hammered out, but Hoey said the hope is that the committee—which has access to $350,000—will be able to provide information and guidance that leads to actual results.
“The original rational for putting that [funding] together was basically for the possibility of three potential uses: a facilitator if need be, because this is a large group and there are a number of issues that need to be tackled; a consultant for something like engineering; and then demonstration projects,” he said. “So often in the past committees or task forces like this have done a great deal of work, put a volume together, and then it sat on a shelf.”
Selectmen reminded residents that the task force meetings will be open to the public and that all sections of the community will be asked to weigh in on various issues. Newly appointed chair Gerritz also reminded residents that, due to the time of year, the committee likely won’t be holding any big public information sessions over the next few months.
“This town tends to get pretty quiet in the summertime, so in terms of planning bigger public events I am thinking the fall,” he said. “So we will spend the summer getting the committee rolling.”