“I know a country laced with roads, They join the hills and they span the brooks, They weave like a shuttle between broad fields, And slide discreetly through hidden nooks...” —Amy Lowell

The poet Amy Lowell’s description of roads brings to mind our local roads. But here is not mentioned roads worn and wearisome to travelers.

The Newtown Highway Department, though, is smoothing over town roads and smoothing over residents’ dissatisfaction voiced in past years about the condition of streets.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley’s unveiling of the 2020-21 road program at a recent Board of Selectmen’s meeting lists well over three dozen roads that will get TLC from our highway department between now and next year. Paving, patching, drainage, and safety features are improving roads for vehicles, as well as for walkers and runners who stumble over cracks and ruts.

Dedication to funding and scheduling have made it possible to repair twice the number of miles of roadway these past two years than in previous years. With 275 miles of roads winding up and down Newtown’s hills and around its curves, staying on top of this is a monumental task, particularly when addressing previous neglect.

Though pocked roads anecdotally slow down speeding cars and discourage passage of larger vehicles, there is no charm to streets in such disrepair that emergency vehicles are hindered as they make their ways to calls dependent upon vital minutes. Roads in the best repair possible — including non-town owned roads that need tending for the sake of residents dwelling on them — are as much a moral as a fiscal duty.

And as our local road crews work to make improvements, please offer them the courtesy of driving respectfully in work zones. Pay close attention to signs requesting drivers to “Go Slow” or “Stop.” One-way traffic is a pain, we know, for those short on travel time to get from point A to point B, but rushing past human beings protected only by helmets and their own self-preservation instincts is dangerous. Studies have shown that only seconds a day and minutes a week are saved by exceeding the speed limit or compromising the safety of road crews.

(We might add that anytime an emergency responder is directing traffic it is for your own safety, as well as that of others, that directions are followed.)

If your road is not among those scheduled for repair these next several months, a request at https://workorder.mapxpress.net/newtown/ will alert the Public Works Department to your concerns; that department can give you a heads-up on where your thoroughfare might stand in the schedule. With continued support of allocation of funds for road work, Newtown’s neighborhoods will gradually become one continuous swath of trouble-free travel.

Thank you to road crews who will be there beneath summer’s brutal sun, in cold and drizzly showers, and when relentless winds swirl about.

In time, we will agree with Ms Lowell’s praise of “Radiant highways whose vistas gleam….” Yard by yard, mile by mile, Newtown is paving the way to a smoother tomorrow.