SOUTHWICK – The town gained several streets this week when the Board of Selectmen approved acceptance requests, including the much anticipated acceptance of Robin Road.
The Board accepted Lexington Circle, Patriots Way, Red Oak Drive, Great Brook Drive, Great Brook Lane, Robin Road, Hunter’s Ridge Circle, and Mallard Lane Monday night.
Board Chairman Joseph Deedy and Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart spoke about the long journey residents of these streets – particularly Robin Road – took to get the streets accepted.
“The town had to get a series of votes for each one of these locations,” Stinehart said.
Most residents of these roads purchased their homes not realizing they were not town roads. Deedy said the developers abandoned the projects or closed before completing the final step to make the streets official town roads.
Selectman Douglas Moglin said it’s a simple part of the process for a developer, but it’s not so simple for residents to get their street accepted.
“The last step for the developer is to petition the planning board to release a bond, then it goes to the selectmen to accept the road,” said Moglin.
For the residents, being the owners of their streets was too costly. Robin Road residents have had several issues with their street, including drainage problems,that they could not pay for themselves so they began the process of having the road accepted more than a year ago.
“Legally, the town cannot expend town funds to improve unaccepted roads,” said Stinehart.
Deedy said once accepted, the needed improvements would be the responsibility of the town.
