DeWitt talks sidewalks

TOWN OF DEWITT – A discussion was held in the parlor room of First Unitarian Universalist Church on June 28 regarding the addition of sidewalks on Waring Road in DeWitt.
Natalie Lee, who lives on that road, said she started a petition to jump-start the sidewalk project and brought the matter in front of the DeWitt Town Board after collecting input from her neighbors.
She said the call for a pedestrian path on her street has to do with ensuring safety, since people walking down Waring often stick to the very edge of the road while watching out for passing vehicles.
“Safety is the biggest concern bringing the community together,” she said. “And more people are walking now. Since COVID, everyone’s trying to get out more and be healthier.”
Lee, whose children attend Tecumseh Elementary School just down the street, said she resorts to driving the 15-or-so seconds there to pick them up after school so as to not take any chances with speeding cars, an especially common sight on the adjacent Nottingham Road according to Lee.
Presenting a preliminary layout of the project alongside DeWitt Town Councilor Sarah Klee Hood and Highway Superintendent Rocco Conte, Town Engineer Doug Miller said the suggested sidewalk would extend from Tecumseh Road, where there’s already a six-foot shoulder, to Nottingham Road, thus spanning the entire length of Waring.
Miller said the plan is to have the sidewalk be four feet wide and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers, plus baby strollers. It would also be three to four feet off the white line of the road to keep from encroaching on anyone’s property and maintain a legitimate buffer.
The sidewalk would be installed along the westerly part of Waring Road on the residential side opposite Tecumseh Golf Club. That way, kids wouldn’t need to cross the road when walking to school and the pine trees located on the golf club side wouldn’t need to be taken down to make room for the sidewalk, Miller said.
Still, the building of the walkway on that western side within a 60-foot town right-of-way would involve circumventing catch basins and potentially the relocation of utility poles, he said.
The Waring Road sidewalk project is set to be covered with the use of American Rescue Plan funding at no cost to taxpayers. The estimated cost for the construction endeavor sits between $250,000 and $260,000.
Local residents attending the discussion brought up whether funds could be set aside for professional landscaping for properties lining the sidewalk and if there could be increased lighting on Waring Road to go along with the project.
Klee Hood ended by summing up the foreseeable timeline for the project. She said that by September, she will plan to put it upon herself and any other willing members of the town board to speak with and hear out every homeowner directly affected by the proposed sidewalk addition.
She said the goal is to have at least 60% of the residents in the vicinity be content and on board with the direction of the project, though there is no mandatory approval rating.
“There’s no set hard and fast percentage, if you will, of yeas versus nays,” Klee Hood said. “Because it is a right-of-way, the town has the ability to go through and make the sidewalks, but again, folks live here. We’re looking to build community, not divide it.”
By the end of 2023, there would likely be a town board vote to approve the sidewalk proposal followed by formal town meetings or additional informal community gatherings meant to provide updates and have residents weigh in with questions and concerns.
Conte said the construction on Waring Road would ideally begin in April.
Adding that the town will talk with the heads of St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Church about having the construction work around their yearly Greek Fest, Klee Hood said she hopes for the project to be completed before the end of the 2023-2024 school year or early on that summer.
Separate from the placement of sidewalks, one resident said during the discussion that the area around Tecumseh Elementary should be designated as a school zone to slow speeding motorists, and another attendee recommended the introduction of speed bumps to further calm traffic.
Conte said, however, that Nottingham Road is an Onondaga County road and that New York State controls all the speed limits in the town. Klee Hood said the Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District has a “better leverage point” advocating for a school zone than the town board does because the issue relates to school safety.
She also said that speed bumps damage the town’s snow plows, which would in turn make measures like that financially unwise.
Conte said that once the sidewalks on Waring are finished they would be cleared of snow come winter with the highway department’s sidewalk machines.