Thomas MacMillan Photo
The city has been preparing to put in sidewalks on a busy stretch of Quinnipiac Avenue, where their absence has for years forced neighbors like Edna Morrison (pictured) to walk in the street with speeding cars. The project hit a speed bump, though, after an alderman discovered that it would consume about half of the city’s annual budget for sidewalk work.
West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson raised his concerns at Thursday night’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, which was considering the Quinnipiac Avenue sidewalk project. The plan calls for new or repaired sidewalks on both sides of Quinnipiac Avenue between Foxon Boulevard/Rt. 80 and Foxon Hill Road in the Quinnipiac Meadows neighborhood.
The section of Quinnipiac Avenue marks the border between Ward 11 to the east and Ward 12 to the west. Ward 11 Alderwoman Maureen O’Sullivan-Best argued on Thursday evening that the street sorely needs sidewalks. Missing sidewalks force people in wheelchairs and moms with strollers to move onto the shoulder and risk being struck by a car whizzing by, she said.
That argument failed to sway West Rock’s Alderman Goldson. He objected to the project’s estimated price tag of $500,000. It amounts to approximately half the city’s annual budget for sidewalk repair, said city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts. That’s too much money to go to one neighborhood, Goldson said, sparking a debate about the project.
The committee ended up voting to table the item until next month in order to allow Ward 12 Alderman Gerald Antunes and City Engineer Dick Miller to weigh in on the plan.
Miller wasn’t able to make it to Thursday’s meeting. Instead, Howard Weisburg, deputy director of the Department of Public Works, outlined the project for aldermen. He was joined by Smuts at the conference table in City Hall’s aldermanic chamber.
Where the sidewalk ends. East side of Quinnipiac Avenue.
The project would put in sidewalks where there are now none and repair sidewalks in disrepair. One aim of the plan is to provide safe pedestrian routes to and from the Bishop Woods School, at 1481 Quinnipiac Ave. Work on the east side of Quinnipiac Avenue would begin this fall. Work on the west side is more complicated due to grading, and would require more engineering work before it begins. A public neighborhood meeting was held to discuss the project on June 15.
Goldson (pictured) was the first to ask a question: What’s the total set aside for sidewalk work in the city budget?
A million dollars, Smuts replied.
The Quinnipiac Avenue project would then take about 50 percent of the total budget? Goldson asked.
Correct, Smuts confirmed.
Smuts said the city has implemented a new policy for prioritizing sidewalk repair. Precedence is to be given to areas around schools and with very “high traffic,” Smuts said. “We are really shifting away from replacing complete blocks of sidewalks.”
While the Bishop Woods school has a sidewalk on Quinnipiac Avenue, that sidewalk ends abruptly at the edge of the school zone. The area has a high percentage of students who walk to school, Smuts said.
O’Sullivan-Best (pictured) stepped up to testify in favor of the plan. She said sidewalk installation and repair in the area would be the fulfillment of a promise unkept for over 40 years. It’s not just for schoolchildren, she said. It’s also for disabled and elderly pedestrians. Because of the absence of sidewalks, mothers with children in strollers have to go out into the street to push their child down Quinnipiac Avenue with cars barreling past.
O’Sullivan-Best’s testimony finished, she and Alderman Goldson were appointed to the committee in order to have a quorum.
When the sidewalk proposal came up for a vote, Goldson said he couldn’t support it. “Fifty percent. I just can’t get past that number.” He asked why the project couldn’t be done in pieces, over several years. “I will have to oppose this item.”
“Having patiently waited for 45 years, the neighborhood is entitled to this,” said O’Sullivan-Best.
“Every neighborhood has folks who have waited many, many years for sidewalks to get done,” Goldson said. He said he couldn’t go back to his constituents and say that 50 percent of the city’s sidewalk budget is going somewhere else.
“We’re technically not looking at the financing of this,” interjected committee chair East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker. The committee’s purview is the approval of the project only, not its cost, he said.
Goldson suggested the project be broken up over five years, at $100,000 per year. “It’s going to be good for her ward,” he said, indicating O’Sullivan-Best. “It’s not going to benefit my ward greatly.”
“Do you propose we just deny this?” Elicker asked. He asked Goldson if he wanted to propose an amendment to the item.
“I’m not going to propose an amendment, because I just saw this,” Goldson said. He said he might have a suggestion by the time it comes before the full board.
“You can’t do it in five years,” said O’Sullivan-Best. If a pedestrian is struck by a car while walking in the road because a sidewalk doesn’t exist, the city could be liable, she said.
It’s a state road, wouldn’t the state be liable? asked Goldson.
“No, sir,” said O’Sullivan-Best. “The liability will be on us as well.”
Elicker called Smuts and Weisburg to testify a second time, on how a delay in committee approval would affect the project’s timeline.
Smuts (pictured) took the opportunity to first correct his previous statement about the annual sidewalk budget. The total is actually $950,000, plus $150,000 in emergency funding. In addition, $1.5 million is set aside for the West Rock redevelopment project, which includes sidewalk construction, Smuts said. That comment drew a laugh from Goldson — in whose ward that money will be spent — and other aldermen.
Smuts said the Quinnipiac Avenue project could possibly be broken into two years, with the lower-cost east side moving forward first.
A delay of a month to allow the committee more time to consider the project could result in the work not being completed this fall, Smuts said.
Wooster Square Alderman Mike Smart said he wanted to make sure the completion of the west side, in Alderman Antunes’ ward, was not jeopardized by delay.
“It seems like this item needs more investigation,” Elicker said.
“I’m comfortable tabling it so Alderman Antunes and the city engineer can come back with a map,” O’Sullivan-Best said.
The committee voted unanimously to table the item.
Smuts said he found the vote “disappointing” as it may mean missing the fall construction season.
Edna In The Street
At 11:15 on Friday morning, Edna Morrison was walking on the east side of Quinnipiac Avenue towards Foxon Boulevard, where she planned to catch the bus. With overgrown bushes and no sidewalks on the side, Morrisonn was forced to walk in the street.
“It’s aggravating,” she said. “It’s dangerous.”
Morrison said she was in favor of putting in new sidewalks. “They should have been put in a long time ago,” she said. “It’s just dangerous, period.”
Morrison said she has been living off Quinnipiac Avenue for 14 years. She’s heard he share of terrifying stories about walking on the street. She said a good friend of hers was walking with her son two years ago on the shoulder of the street when a drunk driver swerved into them and “knocked her child out of her hand.” He spent several months in the hospital recovering. “The car just came and took her right from her,” Morrison said. The woman had been walking in the street because of a lack of sidewalks.
“It’s crazy. It’s kind of stupid,” said a woman walking her 5‑year-old daughter from Bishop Woods School. She declined to give her name, asking that she be described only as a concerned parent that wants sidewalks. She said she’ll be walking her daughter to kindergarten this year.
Chairs Still Empty
Thursday’s meeting was the third in a row where aldermanic absenteeism forced Chair Elicker to appoint ad hoc members to the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee, in order to have a quorum.
The meeting was attended by committee members Smart, Elicker, and Westville Aldermen Sergio Rodriguez and Greg Dildine. Rodriguez left partway through the meeting. Missing were Aldermen Joey Rodriguez, Jackie James-Evans, and Greg Morehead.
“Before every meeting, I try to get committee members to show,” Elicker said. He said he asks aldermanic staff to contact committee members before the meeting. He said he’s considering changing the time of the meeting to allow more aldermen to attend, if they have other commitments that are interfering.
Meetings are held once a month on a Thursday at 6 p.m.
The city can give millions in tax breaks and other deals to corporate development projects, yet it can't fund sidewalk projects for its citizens. There aren't words to describe the sentiments provoked. What good are all of the new schools if children risk their lives getting to them?