Police Commission Makes Country Club Road One-Way

By Andrew Gorosko

The Police Commission has approved altering the traffic flow on Country Club Road, alongside the Newtown Country Club golf course, as a public safety measure.

Commission members July 3 unanimously endorsed changing the traffic flow, as had been requested by country club officials. The change restricts most of the road to one-way traffic.

After police make a field inspection, traffic signs will be posted indicating that westbound-only traffic will be allowed on the section of Country Club Road lying between the country club’s parking lot and Elm Drive. Two-way traffic flow will remain on the section of Country Club Road between South Main Street and the club’s parking lot.

Eliminating eastbound traffic on most of Country Club Road is expected to most affect motorists living in the Brushy Hill Road area, who would be seeking the most direct route from their area to South Main Street, to Exit 11 of Interstate 84, and also to Route 34.

Country Club Road, which is about 1,000 feet long, links South Main Street to Elm Drive. The road extends from the intersection of South Main Street and Mile Hill Road to the section of Elm Drive just south of Borough Lane. Although Country Club Road is well paved, it is a narrow, winding street with steep slopes and poor sight lines. A rock ledge outcropping along the northern edge of the road, near the country club’s parking lot, poses traffic hazards. The east-west road runs along the northern boundary of the country club’s nine-hole golf course.

Country club officials in June had told Police Commission members that motorists’ use of Country Club Road became much heavier after the Fairfield Hills bypass road opened to traffic. The bypass road also is known as Wasserman Way.

Country club officials had expressed concerns that traffic flow on Country Club Road would increase even more after the town’s new athletic fields on Elm drive are in use. Those fields are under construction.

Club officials told commission members that motorists drive too fast on the narrow Country Club Road, posing safety hazards to golfers using the golf course, which is immediately adjacent to the street.

To reduce public safety hazards, club officials had proposed that the Police Commission create three different traffic-flow zones on Country Club Road. Club officials had proposed that short road sections at each end of the street have two-way traffic, and that the longer interior section have westbound-only traffic. Such an arrangement would have allowed traffic to travel in both directions on the road between Elm Drive and a residence at 14 Country Club Road, which is near Elm Drive. Police Commission members, however, deemed that traffic flow arrangement to be too complex to be workable.

 

Landlord

Resident Daniel Amaral, who owns the house at 14 Country Club Road which he leases out, told commission members July 3 that he had not been opposed altering traffic flow on the road until a windstorm struck the area on Saturday, June 30.

“I was not against it until Saturday night, until that storm,” he said.

Following the storm, after trees had fallen onto Elm Drive, motorists used eastbound Country Club Road as a detour to get from the tree-littered Elm Drive to South Main Street, Mr Amaral said.

Country club president Joan Crick told Mr Amaral that Country Club Road was closed to traffic after the storm and motorists should not have been using it.

Police Commission Chairman James Reilly pointed out that in emergency situations in the future, such as windstorms, the police could override any traffic-flow restrictions on Country Club Road and put it into service as a detour, if necessary.

“We have to consider the safety of all the public using that road,” Mr Reilly said of the road’s new traffic-flow restrictions, especially in light of new traffic expected to be generated by the Elm Drive athletic fields which are now under construction.

Mr Amaral said a tenant in the house he owns at 14 Country Club Road likes to travel in both directions on that street. The tenant has been regularly traveling eastbound on the road to reach South Main Street, Mr Amaral said.

If Country Club Road’s 20-mile-per-hour speed limit were reduced somewhat, the narrow road could function as a two-way street, Mr Amaral said.

Police Commission member Robert Connor, Jr, said he does not like the town to create one-way streets, but Country Club Road is a special case. The Police Commission serves as the town’s Traffic Authority and regulates traffic flow on local streets.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said Lieutenant David Lydem will inspect the area and determine the appropriate locations for traffic signs indicating altered traffic flow on Country Club Road. The town highway department will later install those signs.

Mrs Crick has suggested that motorists use either Borough Lane or Hawley Road, both of which are north of Country Club Road, as connector streets between South Main Street and Elm Drive.

Following the Police Commission’s vote to alter traffic flow on Country Club Road, Mr Amaral said, “If everybody would drive carefully, there wouldn’t be any problem.”