Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety Pedestrian Access Flooding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident urges council to restore walkway at shopping center, raises flooding concerns at nearby church
Summary
A resident told the Township of Washington Council that a new fence and snow-plowing practices at a nearby shopping center cut off a sidewalk used by neighbors and churchgoers; she also asked the mayor to raise ongoing flooding near Saint John's in Hillsdale with that borough.
Julianne Lipnick, a resident, told the Township of Washington Council at its March 10 special meeting that a newly installed fence and recent snow-plowing have blocked a walkway from her neighborhood to a nearby shopping center and made pedestrian routes unsafe.
Lipnick said the fence “blocks us” and that, after recent plowing, “we residents had absolutely no access to the shopping center as we used to.” She described pedestrians, including a group of young adults from a nearby church, using an exposed berm to cross a busy roadway and warned that foliage growth will make the situation more dangerous.
The council president and Administrator Mark DeCarlo responded during the public-comment period. DeCarlo said a property manager told him the owners budgeted to continue the fence “in the name of safety” and that recent missed sidewalk snow-clearing was a miscommunication with the contractor; he added that DPW staff apologized and addressed the immediate snow issue.
Lipnick also asked Mayor Peter Calamari to raise a separate concern at a meeting of area mayors: repeated flooding and construction debris affecting Saint John’s Church in Hillsdale. She said the church’s floors are buckling and that volunteers and DPW crews have removed downstream debris after storms. "I beg you to just bring it up to his attention," she said of the Hillsdale mayor.
Mayor Calamari said he would mention the flooding at his next meeting with area mayors but cautioned the township typically does not “cross boundaries” into another municipality’s affairs.
The council opened and closed the public-comment period by voice vote during the meeting; no formal council action directing staff to take enforcement or intermunicipal steps was recorded in the transcript.
Residents and officials who spoke during the public comment and the immediate responses from the mayor and administrator were recorded on the meeting transcript.
