Thursday, April 20, 2000 Older Editions

Articles 66-70: Officials take crack at sidewalks

By Rebecca Lipchitz

A January moratorium on sidewalk construction until a prioritized plan is in place turned out to be all talk from selectmen, who are endorsing some of the public and private sidewalk projects coming to Town Meeting.

There will be several sidewalk articles this year.

The town sponsors Article 10, sidewalks near the proposed new schools for $600,000 and Article 66, a sidewalk restoration program, also at $600,000.

Citizens have proposed sidewalk projects for Woburn Street at $200,000 (Article 67); High Plain Road near West Elementary School at $130,000 (Article 68); High Street for $275,000 (Article 69); Chestnut Street for $300,000 (Article 70).

Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski knows where he wants to draw the lines on which sidewalks are priority.

Anything within half a mile of a school is first priority, he says. Article 66, a sidewalk restoration plan, should also be a priority because it was part of an older plan that is already under way, Stapczynski says.

The result of Stapczynski's recommendations are endorsements from selectmen for articles 10, 66, 68 and 70, and disapproval of Article 67, Woburn Street sidewalks.

Article 10 is for sidewalks near the proposed new schools, and Article 68 is for sidewalks on High Plain Road near West Elementary School.

Article 66 is part of a ongoing plan, and Article 70, for sidewalks on Chestnut Street, is part of a plan that was studied on approval of Town Meeting voters two years ago, Stapczynski says.

The plan for a sidewalk on a particularly curvy, treed section of Chestnut Street has been carefully done, Stapczynski says.

"Selectmen felt they couldn't disapprove this after all the work that was done in the past."

Selectmen did not take a position on the High Street sidewalk project (Article 69), voting 2-2.

The vote was not an indication that the town does not want a sidewalk there, Stapczynski says, but that now is not the time to pay for it.

"Perhaps its a timing issue, and this is a difficult one," he says, citing a steep slope and other topographical issues with that plan.

Selectmen disapproved of the Woburn Street sidewalk project because it is not within a half-mile of the nearest school (South School), and therefore not a priority this year, he says.