Thirty residents living on a quiet, rural road in Loudon had what they thought was a simple request. They filed a petition with the town’s select board in January asking that the speed limit on their street be lowered from 35 mph to 25 mph.
Ten months later, they’re still wondering why the pace of their town government has been so slow.
“The citizens are asking for help to make their neighborhood safer, and 10 months seems to mean no,” said Joan Cross, who has lived on Lesmerises Road for 10 years.
Lesmerises Road runs about eight-tenths of a mile parallel to Route 106. There are 26 occupied homes on the road, and the petition included residents from 21 different addresses in the neighborhood. To the residents who signed the petition, they figured this would be an easy change that would make the neighborhood safer, and one that would have little impact on anyone else.
“We’re not asking for sidewalks, we’re not asking for a shoulder on the road, we’re not asking for pavement markings, street lights or a greater police presence,” said Lesmerises Road resident Philip Nadeau. “We’re just asking for a reduced speed limit.”
While the residents felt their request was clear, the town has gone in a different direction.
Town officials aren’t debating whether the speed limit should be lowered to 25 mph, or whether that would be in line with similar roads in the town. Instead, they’re focusing on whether drivers consistently speed past the 35 mph limit.
That’s slowed down the process, neighbors say, because they’ve been waiting for a traffic study they feel they don’t need. Select board chairman Bob Fiske, meanwhile, says they can’t implement a traffic study for technical reasons, and they can’t make a decision until the study is finished. On this issue, that’s meant gridlock.
“When they came in with that petition, I was certainly led to believe they were talking about the speed over 35 mph,” Fiske told the Monitor on Thursday when reached by phone. “If it is something else, I don’t know what to say.”
Fiske went on to say that if the residents were concerned about the speed limit and not enforcement, “I don’t understand why that wasn’t cut and clear.”
Residents in the Lesmerises neighborhood say it was.
Terry Hammond delivered the petition to the select board at its Jan. 2 meeting, accompanied by a letter written by Nadeau, explaining the request.
The letter, dated Dec. 1 of last year, includes “Speed limit posting” in the subject line, and the first sentence states that the residents ask the select board to “reduce the currently posted 35 mph speed limit on Lesmerises Road to 25 mph.”
Police Chief Kris Burgess attended the next meeting on Jan. 9 where Fiske asked if the speed trailer could be used. Burgess has been closely involved in this process providing updates to the board on the condition of the trailer throughout the year. At its July 31 meeting, the board approved spending $395 for a new battery and software update to get it back in working condition.
Burgess told the Monitor that he believes there is a miscommunication over the issue itself. He said he is in favor of lowering the speed limit, but he does not understand why select board members asked him to put the trailer out there in the first place.
“It’s not a speeding issue,” Burgess said. “Putting a speed trailer on the road to collect data, how is that going to be the basis for their decision to lower the limit? We’ve explained that to them.”
The chief added: “I do what I’m told. Unfortunately, that is part of my job and that is what they want.”
On Thursday, Fiske told the Monitor that the last time he read the letter was when it was brought to the board in January. He said he “assumed there were speeders up there” because “there was no good reason (in the letter) to lower the speed limit to 25.”
“I will certainly get in touch with the office manager and have her pull that sheet,” he said. “We will reread that petition to see exactly what it says.”
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3321, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)