By JEFF EPSTEIN
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WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. — A public hearing Monday night discussed a town proposal to change about 900 feet of Cady Hill Road into a trail, by putting up a gate at the intersection of Weathersfield Center Road and closing it to vehicular traffic.
The select board deferred action on the proposal and will vote on it at its Dec. 3 meeting.
The issue originally came up in June, when resident Patty Kelly told the select board she had witnessed many accidents and near misses at the intersection of Cady Hill and Weathersfield Center Road, according to a document prepared by town manager Ed Morris. Research found two accidents in 2017 and none through August 2018, “but we have had many slide-offs in this area.”
The road is part of the historical transportation network of the town, and is documented to 1786, according to Morris. Since that time, state road standards have changed several times. The current standard is Act 64. A concerned citizen, Ray Stapleton, got the state to look at the road and see what was involved in bringing it up to Act 64 standards. Meghan Brunk from VTrans estimated the cost of doing so at $413,000.
The trail idea is an alternative proposal that would allow the right of way to exist and be maintained, but provide safety by closing it to auto traffic.
About seven persons attended the public hearing. Local homeowners voiced no objections to the trail proposal at the pubic hearing, although some had questions.
One man expressed concern about access to his house in an emergency. However, West Weathersfield Volunteer Fire Department Chief Josh Dauphin told Morris in a letter that emergency responders rarely use Cady Hill Road, and “we are coming in off Perkins Hill anyway.”
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