The sidewalk along the new apartment house at the corner of Gilbert and New Street ends at its driveway and property line. Pedestrians farther down New Street have to walk in road, sharing it with traffic. —Macklin Reid photo
With modest houses on small lots, New Street has 51 homes in a little over half a mile. Now 42 people living at 27 addresses along New Street have petitioned the town to build a sidewalk there.
“I really want to walk to town, me and my friends and the dogs and the children,” said Amale Hawi of 35 New Street.
“Some of us like to walk to town but we hesitate because of safety, because there are no sidewalks,” she said.
“And with the cars speeding up and down, and with New Street being used as a cut-through, a shortcut, it’s really impossible for us to walk safely without being concerned about being run over. It’s as simple as that.”
Ms. Hawi’s neighbor LaVerle Jessup put a posting about the sidewalk petition on a Facebook page that is focused on Ridgefield matters.
“Not only is our road dangerous on any given day because of commuters using it as their personal Autobahn and pass-through to Route 116,” she said, “it became even more apparent this past Halloween: The police did not close the road and the cars came racing through, coming perilously close to many children. Fortunately, no one was hurt.”
Sidewalks for New Street are something town officials have been thinking about, according to First Selectman Rudy Marconi.
“New Street has been a road that has been considered many times for sidewalks, due to the amount of traffic that uses that street as a bypass,” he said.
But there are problems.
“When surveyed, the question becomes on which side of the road to place the sidewalk, and it appears that we’d have to switch back and forth from the west side to the east side, due to the multitude of trees that are located along that route,” Mr. Marconi said.
But the area is part of the village, and has the traffic problems of a commuter route. Sidewalks make sense.
“We have been looking at New Street for quite a few years, and it’s probably time to at least begin a project of building those sidewalks,” Mr. Marconi said.
The town generally does some sidewalk work every year, usually paid for out of the Local Capital Improvement Project, or “LOCIP,” grants that Connecticut towns receive from the state each year. The money is distributed according to a formula, and Ridgefield’s annual grant runs about $152,000, Mr. Marconi said.
Building sidewalks the half-mile length of New Street would cost twice that, easily, by Mr. Marconi’s estimate.
Sidewalk costs $160 a foot, he said. “If it’s 1,000 feet, it’s $160,000.”
With 5,280 feet to a mile, New Street’s half-mile length would be about 2,640 feet.
“If you multiply $160 times 2,600 feet, it’s $416,000 — that’s a ballpark,” Mr. Marconi said.
“To do New Street, you’re talking $300,000 to $400,000, minimum, if we were to do it all the way down,” he said.
“That’s expensive. It’s a major project.”
People on New Street aren’t the only ones who’d like sidewalks. The first selectman hears from people on major state highways, and village neighborhoods, as well.
Connecting village schools, ball fields, apartment complexes, commercial areas are all priorities.
“We have requests to go all the way out 33 and 35 from people,” Mr. Marconi said. “We like to focus on the village district and make sure we’ve connected all the missing pieces.”
Is New Street on a to-do list?
“New Street is on a to-do list. Grove Street is on a to-do list. Prospect Ridge is on a to-do list.
Deciding where the next year’s sidewalk work will be done is a collective effort by the town engineer, first selectman and Board of Selectmen.
Ms. Hawi is sure New Street deserves serious consideration. “We have a lot of traffic, especially around rush hour,” she said.
“There are a lot of younger families that have moved in, with children. People with dogs. People like me who are not as quick as I used to be,” she said. “There are 20-plus children under 18, over 20 kids that we have. We have about 11 above 65 — a lot of the older people, as well, like to walk.
“My neighbors moved in next door and they asked me to show them around. I said, ‘Why don’t we go up the street and we’ll take your dogs to the dog park. And they said, ‘Where’s the sidewalk?’”
Ms. Hawi said the sidewalk petition was something she and a couple of neighbors, Heather and Scott Mitchell, pulled together pretty quickly. With more time she’s sure she could get more signatures.
“It’s really just an effort we did over one weekend,” she said. “We’ve been talking about it a long time, the whole neighborhood.”
Interest increased after an apartment house was built on the corner of Gilbert Street and New Street under the state affordable housing law. The Planning and Zoning Commission made the developer install sidewalk from Gilbert Street down along his property’s New Street frontage.
Most people on New Street wanted to sign the peition, but there were a few dissenters.
“I knocked on many doors. I had about three of them who said no. They’re not willing to shovel,” she said.
Mr. Marconi said it was true that property owners with sidewalks in front of their houses are responsible for snow shoveling and other maintenance — even if the sidewalk is on land in the road right-of-way, town- or state-owned.
“Technically, by our ordinance, yes. That is what was passed many years ago,” Mr. Marconi said.
“That’s why a lot of people don’t want sidewalks. They just don’t want anything to do with it.”
With a house on Main Street, Mr. Marconi is among those who are charged with sidewalk care.
“I’ve been there six years, seven years. Do I take care of the sidewalks? Yes, I have a snow blower, and clean it and salt it.”
The ordinance says property owners have a responsibility for maintenance and repair of sidewalks.
“We have done some” repairs, the first selectman said. “But the true responsibility is that of the residents. And I know there are people on Main Street that are taking care of theirs, that have actually hired crews to come in a fix the sidewalks in front of their homes.”
Ms. Hawi isn’t worried about snow shoveling, or potential sidewalk repair someday.
She just thinks New Street, a stone’s throw from Main Street, needs sidewalks. “We feel like we’re in the boondocks, because I have to get in my car to go somewhere.”