Newtown’s Winter Storm Road Maintenance Is Lacking

To the Editor:

I’m writing to respond to the letter of March 30 published in The Bee from Tracy Van Buskirk, who responded to April Wright’s complaint of poor winter maintenance.

Young Ms Wright was absolutely correct when she said that the roads in Newtown are dangerous due to the lack of winter maintenance.

They are worse than all the surrounding towns, which is quite obvious when you drive over the town boundaries during inclement weather.

This is not happening because of the lack of the highway Department doing their jobs. It’s due do the fact that there aren’t enough trucks and drivers.

And because we have had so many new roads and developments added to our town, they have also been added to the routes of all drivers.

Near perfect conditions aren’t what most residents expect. We do expect roads to be passable and safe. All roads! And that means sand on black ice!

My road gets plowed every 8 to 12 hours during a storm. How often does a main thoroughfare like Poverty Hollow get plowed? And which roads were you referring to when you said that the Highway Department does an excellent job of maintaining the roads?

Perhaps if you drove onto some of the many real back roads such as Brushy Hill, Castle Meadow or Huntington during a storm you would learn that they are hardly passable. Having a 4x4 with new tires and driving less than half the speed limit doesn’t mean anything, until you get into town, where the roads are in near perfect condition.

The Highway Department does the best they can with what they have, which is hardly enough to do a good job.

The town must take responsibility for their actions. If the town chooses not to employ more drivers and chooses not to buy more trucks, then the liability and negligence falls with the town.

Other towns maintain near perfect conditions for the length of a storm, and their taxes are lower than Newtown’s.

Most people have to work and some don’t have the privilege to stay home such as yourself when there’s inclement weather.

Newtown is the second largest town in Connecticut in square miles.

Stop making excuses for the town! This isn’t 1975.

As the town grows, so must the Highway Department.

Sincerely,

Sharon Lucsky

15 Old Town Road, Newtown                                      April 4, 2001