Cracking asphalt and inadequate drainage are some of the problems that have Robin Road residents wondering when the Town of Southwick will start the repair process. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – Residents of Robin Road met with the Planning Board Tuesday night and are moving forward to get their road accepted and repaired.
Planner Alan Slessler said “a good portion” of residents who live on the street were present and agreed to one of several options presented by legal counsel.
One way was for the residents to pay for a study of the road to see if it was built to the approved plans.
“We have the drawings of how it was approved, but we don’t know how it was built because we don’t have any as-built plan,” said Planning Board Chairman Douglas Moglin.
Residents have complained for years of erosion on the street and generally poor conditions there. Moglin and Slessler both acknowledged that the road has deteriorated.
The problem with fixing it is that the street – completed in 1988 – was never accepted by the town and the developer is no longer in business and there is no bond money left.
Moglin said the residents could pay for the study, which would be in the range of $10,000, then ask for acceptance at a Town Meeting.
After speaking with the board, Selectman Joseph Deedy and Department of Public Works Director Randal Brown, residents agreed that they would petition the town to appropriate funds for a study at the spring Town Meeting and once complete, would then ask for acceptance at a future Town Meeting.
“It was a very productive meeting,” Slessler said.
Moglin said the board has been chipping away at numerous projects and said Robin Road has long been on its radar.
“It’s one of the problematic issues,” Moglin said, noting it is also a costly issue.
“The DPW can’t just go ahead and hire surveyors and do the study because it is not town property,” he said. “And the project itself is going to be expensive. We don’t have $300,000 or $400,000 laying around in the budget.”
Moglin said he was happy so many residents came forward over the past few months to work with the town to facilitate a resolution.
“I am glad to see residents getting together to move forward – that’s what this project needed,” said Moglin.
Robin Road hearings will be continued for several months because of statutory mandates on having a public hearing within a certain number of days from the Town Meeting.
“There is a lot to do between now and then and it doesn’t make sense to close [the hearing],” Moglin added.
