KENT, Conn.—The Board of Selectmen heard a plea during its last meeting from residents of Carter Road who want increased controls on traffic on that narrow village thoroughfare.
Ellen Altfest, whose family has owned property on the street for decades, reported that residents’ safety is being compromised by the volume and speed of traffic and attributed much of the increase to the expansion of programs at High Watch recovery center.
In a joint letter, residents of the road asked that the selectmen confirm the posted speed limits, which have been variously reported as 25 and 35 mph, and review advisory signage (such as pedestrians-in-roadway and school-bus-stop warnings), pavement markings, shoulder conditions and pedestrian accommodation on the town-maintained portions of Carter Road and Dugan Road.
They also pressed for an independent traffic study by a traffic engineer retained by the town, as earlier submissions were commissioned by High Watch when it filed its expansion application in 2018. The new study should include full-week automatic traffic recorder counts with speeds and vehicle classes taken after this summer’s repaving, and covering evening meetings, evening outpatient visits, events and school-bus periods, the letter asserted.
Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington suggested that GPS systems could be directing people to use Carter Road when they are driving to Litchfield. She said she has experienced this when starting her morning commute.
Altfest said she wanted the study to ascertain how much traffic is coming to and leaving High Watch as opposed to general traffic traveling between Kent and Warren. Additionally, she asked for a sight-distance evaluation of the twisting road and five years of current crash data.
If the full study cannot be funded now, the residents asked the board to begin with a one-week recorder count and a sight-distance check at the intersection of Route 7 and Carter Road, which they said has become hazardous. They cited accounts of a fatal accident in that region on Sept. 17, but First Selectman Eric Epstein checked the Kent fire department’s logs and found no report of a fatality.
As an interim measure, the residents suggested a convex mirror across Route 7 from Carter Road, so that drivers leaving Carter Road can see approaching traffic. Targeted speed enforcement by the resident state trooper was also suggested.
Focusing on changes at High Watch, they said that ambulance responses to the recovery center have increased 35 percent since the facility built a detox center.
Altfest complained about clients leaving the recovery center without leave and said her house has been broken into twice—most recently 12 years ago. She says she feels less safe now than she did then.
The selectmen noted that clients of High Watch are there voluntarily and can leave when they wish. First Selectman Eric Epstein said he receives notification when clients leave unexpectedly, as required in High Watch’s zoning permit. The state police are also called.
Carter Road resident Annette James concurred with Altfest. She said the traffic on the road is particularly intense at times when employees’ shifts end or begin. She said the High Watch website identified more than 100 employees, not counting maintenance, housekeeping staff members and the like.
She said she had no personal experience with High Watch clients knocking on her door and requesting transport, but added, “I couldn’t handle it if it happened to me.”
Altfest noted that there is an alternate position on the Planning and Zoning Commission that has long been unfilled. She urged the Selectmen to appoint an alternate so the commission would not be stymied in acting on issues if regular members have to recuse themselves from acting on applications.
Epstein said that under the town’s ordinance, alternates cannot be appointed until a local election year, but that he conferred with town counsel who advised that previous select boards had established a precedence in appointing alternates at other times. He said that since advertising the vacancy he has received some applications to serve on the Planning and Zoning Commission but had, as yet, received no recommendation from the PZC.
The selectmen mulled over the idea of a traffic study and the potential expense. “If we count the cars and get a figure, what do we do with that?” Epstein said. “There is a business on that road that creates traffic.”
Still, he said he would investigate prices for traffic studies.
The selectmen agreed that they have no say about the number of employees at High Watch and Worthington noted that the center is one of the largest employers in town.
As far as clients leaving unexpectedly, Epstein said he believes High Watch provides transportation when a patient announces that he or she wants to leave.
