Despite it being a nearly 90-degree afternoon on August 22, Richard Mitchell dedicated another weekend to standing outside his home on Poverty Hollow Road to encourage drivers to slow down.

He held a handmade sign for passersby to see that read, “Stop speeding – treat it like your own neighborhood.” Behind him stood his white picket fence with tire marks in the grass leading to a two-panel gap.

The 84-year-old caught the attention of fellow Newtown residents the previous weekend and many began to wonder just what prompted his activism.

“It’s been about six or seven times they’ve crashed the fence, and I’ve only been here for eight years,” Mitchell said about the reckless drivers in the area.

Each time drivers crash into his fence he has to paint new pieces and have them installed, only to have them knocked down again and again.

“Enough is enough. I’m 84. I can’t do this fixing up myself… I could move the whole fence back for $5,000, but who’s going to pay? I’m retired,” he said.

Ultimately, having to constantly repair his fence is low on his concerns when he thinks about the larger safety issues that have happened in the past.

“The last time, they didn’t hit the fence — they hit a tree. They knocked a tree down and they killed a deer,” Mitchell recalled. “The guy was going so fast that there were marks on the tree that had to be 10 or 12 feet high.”

“One time I found a hubcap on my front porch,” he said about an incident a few years back. “The girl drove home with three tires and on the rim of the other.”

On another occasion, Mitchell says, there were two oncoming cars that smashed into each other when one tried to pass the mail truck stopped at his house.

“The mail-girl I think was out of work for three months. She was putting mail in my mailbox when they two cars collided to avoid her. They were going too fast,” he said.

Other neighbors have experienced issues is the past, too, including property damage, due to drivers not obeying the speed limit.

Mitchell’s grassroots effort is not the first time he has voiced concerns over the safety issue that has arisen on Poverty Hollow Road.

He has gone to town meetings and spoken directly to the Newtown Police Department, the highway department, and the first selectman, but to no avail.

“The police put up the speed machines down the street, but it just continues when the police leave and the blue and red lights shut down…” Mitchell said. “When [the police] are here, of course they slow down. As soon as they leave, it starts all over again.”

He is appreciative of the work that has been done to help resolve this issue, but he understands it is not working and that the police cannot be there 24/7.

“I don’t want to be a victim,” Mitchell, a Marine Corps veteran, said. “I’m afraid someone is going to get killed.”

For that reason, he is determined to bring awareness about the problem in hopes that real, positive change can be made.

The speed limit on Poverty Hollow Road is 30 miles per hour, but Mitchell says there is not sufficient signage about the speed limit coming in the direction from Redding to Newtown.

In addition, when coming from that direction, the road curves, then there is a complete straightaway that leads not just cars, but also buses and motorcycles to pick up speed.

While many commuters from the area respect the speed limit, he says drivers on the weekends, evenings, and holidays tend to be the ones that cause the damage and are disrespectful overall.

While going out to get his mail, he has verbally told people to slow down and has received nasty retaliation, including people giving him the middle finger.

Mitchell and his wife, Linda, are active in the community and want to stay in town, but they are extremely disappointed that the problem has continued for so long.

If nothing more is done to resolve the problem, he plans to unite with his neighbors and start a petition. He hopes more signage can be put out and that the speed limit can be reduced on the road.

“I have two young granddaughters that live in Newtown and I don’t want them over here playing, because I’m afraid they’re going to get hurt,” Mitchell said. “God knows what’s coming through next.”