By Matt Riiska

Summer is over and I think we missed fall. Leaf peeping has been almost non-existent, with the maples’ colors almost gone and the oaks changing quickly. The Norfolk Rails to Trails “Tour de Forest” is planned for this weekend, October 27, and there is a prediction of snow. Great.

We have two projects that are now in the early design stage. River Place Bridge is in the preliminary phases of the engineering process. The Bridge Committee has met with potential engineering firms, and the paperwork has been submitted to the Connecticut Department of Transportation for their approval of the chosen firm. The engineering process will take approximately two years, with the actual build taking about four months.

Another project that is long overdue is the repair of the sidewalks at Station Place, on John Curtiss Road and along Route 44. These sidewalks are 20 years old and showing their wear, particularly from road salt and snow removal. We are planning on using the original engineering drawings but updating them to include new materials. We will then send these drawings out for quote. Unfortunately the replacement project will not be as quick as we would all like. Because we will be using Local Capital Improvement (LOCIP) funds, this process will take a few years. The upside is we will not have to borrow money to make the improvements. We will then put a plan in place to perform yearly maintenance, sealing the cement to combat the effects of road salt.

In preparation for winter we are working on a couple of things. We are currently investigating purchasing a used plow truck from the Town of Salisbury. This truck will replace the truck that was damaged last winter. Once we have ironed out all of the details, we will schedule a Town Meeting to appropriate the funds from our capital reserve. We will also be looking into ways to reduce the amount of salt we apply to the roads. Studies show that road salts not only attack our walks and bridges, but also affect roadside vegetation, pollute ground water runoff and adulterate our water supplies. Environmental issues aside, it is also a very large expense. Last fiscal year we spent over $200,000 on road salt.

I would also like to address one more very important issue. This past weekend we had a major rain and wind event. There were many limbs and trees down. The fire department did a terrific job as usual keeping everyone safe and the traffic flowing. The Public Works Department deployed on cleanup after Eversource had made the downed wires safe. Please, when emergency services personnel and road crews are out on the roads, slow down and let them do their jobs in a safe manner. On a few occasions during the storm, cars barely slowed down as branches were being cleared away. With the winter season coming, please be considerate on the roads. Thank you.