Politics & Government

Borough Resident Pleads for More Sidewalks

Sally Myers asks council to improve pedestrian safety in her neighborhood.

Sally Myers stood up and, with the help of a neighbor and her seeing eye dog, made her way to the microphone to address the borough council on Monday's meeting.

Myers urged the council to put more sidewalks into her neighborhood, which she said consists of Watchung Avenue, Hillside Avenue, Maple Street, Chesnut Street and Girard Avenue, and adjacent blocks.

"Our neighborhood, in and out, is an unsafe passageway," Myers said. "Traffic by everybody's description is increasing, particularly truck traffic. ... Traffic is getting heavier all the time."

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Myers, who is blind, said that the neighborhood should have even sidewalks and other "permanent structures" to improve safety for pedestrians. Without even a pedestrian crosswalk, she said, adults and children have to walk in the street or cross in the midle of the street in front of traffic which, when not heavy, is usually steady.

The 97 children who live in the neighborhood by Myers' count, as well as seniors and other residents, need "at least a diminished exposure to traffic," Myers told the council. "It's terribly important to us, and the many, many neighbors who signed the petitions said it should have been done years ago."

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Myers presented the council with some research she'd done on the traffic conditions, as well as a home video of the traffic in the streets. She said that the trees along the streets are near the curb and that sidewalks could easily be installed around the trees, as was recently done on Lafayette Avenue "if someone would do the excavation."

The council accepted the materials Myers presented and agreed to inquire about the cost and the feasibility with Borough Engineer Vincent DeNave.


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