Written By Greg Ellal|
Photos By Greg Ellal and longwarf.org
Recently Silver Birch Lane in Clinton underwent renovations from the town. The pavement and curb was stripped up on the whole road (as well as chunks of our driveways) and they dug a few feet into our properties on both sides of the road. They then installed a new curb, paved the road, and fixed some of the damage they did to people’s driveways. However, they did not fully utilize the space they dug from our yards near the road for the curb. This has left a foot-wide trench on both side of the road between the curb and our yards. A month later, the town has not even painted center lines for the road let alone filled in the gaps they left behind. The same thing has happened to another residential road in Clinton. Willow Lane near the Eliot Middle School has been repaved and left with the same trench like gap between the curb and people’s yards.
Senior and Morgan PawPrint Reporter Brendan Kyhn lives on Willow Lane. He said,”I have mixed feelings about it. Pretty much, whoever did the work is just doing what the town told them to do, but I don’t know what their plan was with having that gap; if they assumed we would fill it in or if they will fit it in or if they want it there for draining reasons, but either way I think from what I have seen it just looks dumb because they haven’t said anything about filling it in, so now there’s a foot on the side of the road for no reason.”.
Donna from the Clinton Public Works Department left a voicemail, “We are aware that we need to backfill that area. We did complete about 22 roads in town so we will be starting to work on them sometime next week but, I do not have an answer as to when your particular road will be done. You can also let your friend on Willow Lane know, same situation he’s one of many roads that needs to be completed, and we will get to it as soon as we can.”
Shortly after calling the town about the issue, work began and is still in progress on Silver Birch Lane. The gaps the town created will soon be filled.
Everyone should be happy to hear that the roads will be fixed eventually. ,As a resident of Silver Birch Lane, I wonder why the town didn’t finish one street before it started another? Also, why didn’t the town keep the residents updated as to whether the town was going to fix the roads or if the residents would have to do it themselves?