Town to Leave Newly Re-Paved Thayer Pond Road Free of Double Yellow Line

Saying the number two complaint from homeowners with respect to road projects—after “When will you get to this road?”—is that people don’t want road striping painted back on a newly paved street, town officials are opting to forego putting a double yellow line back on Thayer Pond Road. On a recommendation the assistant director of public works and town body that oversees traffic calming—and despite one resident’s objection—the Police Commission decided to let the newly re-paved road that borders Wilton stand as it is. The 10-year accident history of Thayer Pond Road shows that has no accidents and that striping “on a small road like that is not necessary and not required, by any means,” Police Capt. John DiFfederico said at the commission’s Dec. 17 meeting. “It is a double-yellow in Wilton over the town line, so where it begins in New Canaan there is no yellow line,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.

New Canaan Man Says 117-Year-Old Tomb on Ponus Ridge Obstructs Sightline

Long may, on Ponus Path, this sentry standing,

The sun, the stars, the hunter’s moon, salute;

A silent figure, rugged and commanding,

Bearing its message when our tongues are mute. Yet though we raise the stone and guard it duly,

Stern time, some day shall bid the finger fall,

The only monument that serves us truly

Is the heart’s honest word, to each and all. —From “A Hymn to Ponus,” written by Charles H. Crandall of New Canaan for the Oct. 2, 1897 dedication of the “Monolith on Ponus Path”

A New Canaan man has lodged a complaint with town officials that his sightline as a motorist at Ponus Ridge and Davenport Ridge Road is obscured by a large upright stone on the traffic island there—a 117-year-old monument to a 17th Century native American chief said to be buried nearby. Officials with a working group that oversees traffic calming in New Canaan said Tuesday that a similar request to move the rock had been made about four years ago.

Slowing Traffic, Protecting Pedestrians: Officials Eye Three-Way Stop at Elm and Weed

The wide, often harrowing intersection at Elm and Weed Streets may get a traffic-calming measure by default next summer, officials say, if the town approves funds for a new sidewalk connecting the top of Elm to Irwin Park. Residents have filed complaints with the town recently about the intersection itself, chiefly that motorists zipping down Weed are cutting into Elm by making that left-hand turn too sharply, according to members of the Traffic Calming Work Group. The problem is exacerbated because of difficult sightlines for motorists pulling up to the stop sign at the top of Elm, who need to nose onto Weed in order to see who’s coming, according to Jim Cole, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Management. “They are not leaving room for the car to get around them,” Cole said at the Oct. 14 meeting of the work group, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.

Officials Ponder Safe Pedestrian Route to Main Street Sidewalk from Down River Road

Town officials are trying to figure out a safe way for residents on Down River Road to hook up with the Main Street sidewalk, providing a route to the village center. The first step, according to Tiger Mann, assistant director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works, is to see if there’s a way to get those pedestrians at least as far as the treatment plant driveway—just halfway to a crosswalk at Harrison but at least clear of the blind curve north of Woodland. Michael Stayman of 36 Down River Road, one of nine homes on the street, told Mann and other members of the Traffic Calming Work Group at their most recent meeting that as of now, residents are taking their lives into their hands by running across to the sidewalk on the west side of Main right at Down River Road. “We don’t have any other way because the road is on the opposite side of Main Street from the sidewalk,” Stayman said at the meeting, held Oct. 14 in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department.

Citing Danger, New Canaan Seeks to Get Rid of Passing Zones on Smith, Oenoke Ridge Roads

Saying a pair of passing zones on state roads through cut through New Canaan are dangerous and encourage nothing but speeding, town officials are asking the Connecticut Department of Transportation to do away with one on Smith Ridge Road and another on Oenoke. The Police Commission on Wednesday voted 3-0 in favor of putting forward a formal request to do away with the passing zones along straightaways on both state Route 123 (Smith Ridge) and 124 (Oenoke Ridge). Police Capt. John DiFederico said the passing zones rarely serve their purpose—instead of allowing people traveling within the speed limit to pass very slow motorists, they create potential for a head-on. “I haven’t been getting any emails of people driving too slowly,” DiFederico said during the commission’s meeting, held in the training room at the New Canaan Police Department. “All I get are emails of people driving too fast and there is really no need for it, and actually there is a grave potential for a serious accident, if you live up there and you are in your driveway, if your way is clear to proceed but then you pull out and another car is passing, you could have a very tragic situation.”

The request had been backed up Tuesday by a team of police, fire, emergency management and DPW officials known as the Traffic Calming Work Group.