Next Step - The Planning Board Meeting

The Planning Board Meeting 5/4/2015

The next step for this "Road Review Process" is the Planning Board Meeting. The planning board will review the DPW director’s report, along with the Road Advisory Committee’s recommendation.  They’ll add their input and send it along to the Selectman who will ultimately make the decision on what (if anything) will be done on Ship Pond Road.  Please try to attend this planning board meeting to show support.  The greater presence, the better we are heard.  Since this meeting is a public forum and was listed in the open meeting notices, I suspect that some groups that oppose improvements to Ship Pond Road will be here.
I believe that Ship Pond Road is on the agenda for 7:30, and the meeting will be held in the main meeting room on the first floor of Town Hall.  I'll send another reminder a few days before and confirm the specifics.

Robyn Risso
robyn@valinorfarm.com
http://paveshippondroad.blogspot.com/

Time to make some noise!

The long awaited DPW directors report will be presented to the Road Advisory Committee at their April Meeting.  This meeting will be held at the Cedarville Community Center at 6pm on April 2nd.

This is your chance to voice your concerns and hear what the DPW has to say about the future of Ship Pond Road.  PLEASE attend this meeting.  We really need to fill this room to make ourselves heard.  If you can't be there send a family member.

Hope to see you all there!

Pot Holes (this is Old Sandwich Road, but Ship Pond is just as bad).

March RAC meeting rescheduled

The March Road Advisory Committee meeting has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for Thursday APRIL 2 6:00 pm at the Cedarville community room. Jonathan Beder,  Plymouth's  DPW Director is expected to be at this meeting to present his report the the RAC.  This is your chance to voice your concerns and hear what he has to say.  Please try to attend if you can, it's important that we have a presence at theses meetings!    

A recap from the January Road Advisory Meeting

The January Road Advisory Committee meeting was held on Thursday, January 8. A couple of Plymouth Fire Fighters came in and spoke about how frustrating it is for them when they are responding to an emergency and can only travel at 5 mph because of the road.  I passed around a few pictures.  One showing how bad the road was a few weeks ago.  The other was a picture of a School Bus and Delivery Truck that got stuck trying to pass each other.  (Thanks Dan!)  People that don't drive on roads like this really don't understand our frustration.  The pictures help.
Sid (Town Engineer) showed us a map that they have put together with the various drainage requirements that will be necessary as part of the paving project.  One of their biggest concerns is that residents will not be willing to grant the town drainage easements, forcing the town into eminent domain takings that are very costly.  It just goes to show how complicated this process has become.  The RAC is working on some statistics to show how much money it's costing the town to maintain SPR as gravel. Money that would be better spent towards paving. I think they all agree it needs to be paved, our job will be to convince the Selectman that it's time to do it. JB (DPW Director) will be in attendance at the next RAC meeting to present his full report.  Aaron Wallace  (Plymouth Emergency Management director) will also be at the next meeting to discuss Ship Pond road as an evacuation route.  PLEASE attend this next meeting if you can.  February 5th, 6:30pm at the Cedarville Community Center.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Here's a picture from Dan Enos of a school bus and a PeaPod truck trying to pass each other.  The picture is a few years old. "Both vehicles ended up stuck and were there for quite awhile, if I remember correctly they brought another bus in to get the kids stuck on this bus."  What would have happened if another vehicle had come flying around the corner? 

Notes from the December Road Advisory Meeting

About 10 of us attended the Road Advisory Committee's meeting on Thursday December 4th.  We learned that the DPW director is working on a report for the Board of the Selectman in regards to paving Ship Pond Road.  Sid Kashi  (The town's DPW engineer) was in attendance and was able to provide some details.  It sounds like the DPW agrees that it's time to pave Ship Pond Road.  The report that they are working on will outline the necessary steps and request commitment from the board of Selectman before they proceed. The road will have to be widened and drainage easements need to be obtained.  This can get complicated if property owners object.  The Selectman can take the property needed for drainage easements by eminent domain if need be, the DPW needs to know they will before they move forward.  This is exactly what happened on the Valley Road / Roxy Cahoon paving project that the DPW is currently working on.  It sounds like the report will be ready in the next few weeks.  We need to be there when it is brought before the board of Selectman.  Selectman Tony Provenzano was also in attendance at the RAC meeting.  He said it's important for the selectman to see and hear the residents concerns when they make these decisions. The meeting agendas are posted on the town calendar.  I'll watch them and let everyone know when this meeting will take place. In the meantime, if anyone has ideas to help gather support please let me know. I'm trying to contact the Cedarville Steering Committee to ask for their support.  Oh and Sid mentioned that Ship Pond Road is an evacuation route! (obviously a decision made by someone that has never actually seen Ship Pond Road). I was not aware of this, but I think we can leverage that fact as a strong argument for paving it too.