If You Build It,

They Will Cross

To the Editor:

I noticed they rebuilt the crosswalk on Glover Avenue the day after the election. Probably just a coincidence. I would like someone to explain its  purpose. It looks expensive. It slows down traffic. But I have not seen a pedestrian crossing the street there. Maybe we will be drawn to walk to the center of town and cross the street there. It does look like fun. I would like to point out that I am not just some uninformed old curmudgeon who likes to complain. I am somewhat of an expert on walking along Glover Avenue.

I grew up on Birch Rise Drive, a small side street off of Elm Drive. During the later half of the 1960s I attended Newtown Junior High and Newtown High School in what is now known as the middle school. At the time, if you were a borough resident there was no bus service. We actually had to walk to school. I would estimate that for about four or five years I walked between Birch Rise Drive and the Middle School about twice a day about 160 times. That does not include the many other times I would walk from home to the center of town for other purposes.

 I am sure that I walked that route well over a thousand times. Maybe two thousand. I am fairly certain I never once crossed Glover Avenue near the spot where we have our new crosswalk. In fact, I have been driving the roads of Newtown for about 40 years and I can’t recall ever seeing anyone cross Glover Avenue at that point. Maybe now that we have the new crosswalk, people will begin to realize how fulfilling it could be to walk across Glover Avenue. I hope it happens soon. I am waiting for that first foray. Before the snowplows eat this one!

And one more thing; now will you all leave Alex alone!

Frank Pitrone

10 Tanglewood Lane Sandy Hook                      November 23, 2009