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With the Mill Plain Road Bridge closed until August 2011 due to construction, residents of a nearby road, Mill River Road, are concerned with the amount of traffic flowing onto their quiet street. They say that during rush hour in the morning, people trying to catch their train turn off of Brookside Road and fly down Mill River, around a blind curve and back out onto Duck Farm Road, barely stopping.
"We just can't handle all that traffic with the children and the senior citizens in the area," said Joan Keane, who lives on the road. "We don't have sidewalks. We don't want this to continue and get worse and worse as the summer goes on."
Keane said that there are 23 children, 11 dogs and nine senior citizens living on the road.
Fellow resident Nancy Scalsi said they want people to know that it is not faster, but that it is more dangerous to cut through the road.
The residents petitioned the town police commission, which conducted a traffic survey and determined that changes were indeed necessary, some temporary, others permanent.
This week, the commission unanimously approved the addition of a temporary stop sign at the corner of Duck Farm Road and Mill River Road, two 25 mph speed limit signs on Mill River Road and a stop sign at the corner with Brookside Road.
Keane told the commission that some residents are even going as far as going in to traffic and yelling at cars when they see them speeding, and she said that has to be stopped, through the addition of signs. Fairfield police Lt. Dan Gombos, who led the traffic survey of the area, told Keane to remind her neighbors that they breaking the law by interfering with traffic and that they should let police handle the situation.
Keane also requested a change in the speed limit, but the police commission said that would have to come after a state survey, and that in the past the state has been reluctant to allow a speed change, especially one below 25 mph.
Acting Chief Gary MacNamara said the department is sympathetic but says he does not believe a change is necessary, citing a state survey requested by the town for Fairfield Beach Road, where a change was denied. MacNamara said that police would continue to monitor the area.
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