With No Motion, Sidewalk Plan Dies in Silence

By Avice Meehan

A deft parliamentary move by Moderator Richard Byrne, and confusion among the ranks of Norfolk residents who packed Town Hall for a special town meeting on Nov. 20, meant that a proposed ordinance about winter sidewalk maintenance went down without a vote—or discussion.

The ordinance put forward by the Board of Selectmen would have required property owners to clear sidewalks within 24 hours of a snowstorm and to maintain them through the winter months. It came in the wake of a slip and fall case settled by the town’s insurance carrier and had drawn the ire of Maple Avenue homeowners where a new sidewalk was recently installed.

Close to 100 people filled the upstairs meeting room ahead of the 6 p.m. meeting, which marked Deborah Nelson’s debut as town clerk. Byrne was elected moderator and quickly reversed the order of the agenda, placing the proposed ordinance for winter sidewalk maintenance ahead of the measure seeking approval to refinance the bridge project on River Place.

When Byrne brought the item forward for discussion, he good naturedly commented “in order for us to vote it down, it has to be brought up.” Although business owner Marinell Crippen rose to place a motion before the town meeting, she was encouraged to sit down. No one else stood up. The measure failed because no one made a motion to bring it before the meeting, which meant there could be no discussion. Most of the crowd then departed Town Hall. 

The aftermath was less tidy, leaving some voters shaking their heads and annoyed that they did not have the opportunity to speak. Others were pleased with the brevity of the meeting and the outcome, which left liability associated with sidewalk maintenance on the town’s shoulders.

First Selectman Matt Riiska, who sought a vote on the ordinance, said he has no plans to bring it forward again and expressed surprised at the turn of events, saying he had expected a long discussion. After the meeting, Riiska said that the town owns a small, enclosed plow to clear sidewalks and that it will now be used to clear all of Maple Avenue, Route 44 and Station Place.

Andra Moss, a Maple Avenue resident, had worked to mobilize opposition to the ordinance and circulated a flier asking residents to vote it down. “Does it seem fair that homeowners on one side of the street will randomly be made responsible for the sidewalks that are for everyone’s use,” was a question she posed in the flier. As matters transpired, the issue of fairness never arose.

The balance of the special town meeting, which lasted under an hour, focused on discussion and then approval of a resolution to allow the town to take out a new line of credit for the bridge project on River Place. Voters asked questions about the project itself, the process by which the state Department of Transportation reimburses the town for its 80 percent share of the cost and the financial nitty gritty involving other bridge projects. Riiska said the replacement bridges planned at Westside and Mountain Roads and Smith Road are deemed federal bridges because of their length and that the town; as a result, the town will not be responsible for costs or a complex reimbursement process. He had a meeting planned with DOT on Nov. 21 to iron out delays in being paid back by the state.

Riiska now has approval to seek a $1.74 million revolving line of credit from NBT (formerly Salisbury Bank) at a maximum interest rate of 4.25 percent for 12 months. Out of that, the town would potentially finance $285,000 over a period of 10 years at a maximum interest rate of 4.25 percent but is likely to pay that off from the $1.2 million on deposit following the conversion of the defined benefit plan. The earlier line of credit was for the full project cost of $3.028 million at 2.25 percent and that will be closed.