GUILDERLAND — Pleas to calm traffic and ensure safety for walkers and cyclists dominated public comments at the Aug. 13 town board meeting here.

One Willow Street resident likened his street to Daytona Speedway while a West Old State resident said she felt like a hostage in her own home.

The lengthy session started with a comment by Guilderland Center resident Gerd Beckmann who frequently complains to the board about speeders along Route 146 where he lives.

“On the way over here this evening,” Beckmann told the board, “I had the pleasure of having a motorcycle pop a wheelie completely through Guilderland Center behind me … Again, I implore the board to please attempt to enforce the rules of speed within this town …. before we have anyone get killed.”

West Old State

Richrd Gifford who lives on West Old State Road presented the board with a petition on behalf of his neighbors who say their residential street has “become a service road for work on the Champlain Hudson Power Express line along the CSX right-of-way.”

The CHPE high-voltage line is supplying energy from Québec to the New York City area. In 2020, the town board, in a 4-to-1 vote, had approved CHPE running underground lines through Guilderland.

“Walking along the road is now perilous,” said Gifford, who had outlined his concerns in letters to the Enterprise editor and is critical of the town’s lack of response. He said his letter to the newspaper had finally elicited a response.

“The total absence of information from both the town and the developer is deplorable and unacceptable,” Gifford told the board, noting 34 residents had signed the petition.

He called for the town board to host a meeting for residents, the developer, and town officials to respond to the petition and “to explain, among other things, the project, its scope, duration, and impacts, and how those impacts will be minimized.”

Gifford also called for an electronic contact list so residents could get weekly updates; for “a town liaison ombudsperson for residents to contact with concerns and questions”; for a hotline for residents to call; and for a fact sheet that outlines the scope of work and its timetable, traffic impacts, noise mitigation measures, and the names of contractors with contact information.

Dawn Lutz, who lives at 2440 West Old State Road, gave a dramatic account of a contractor’s truck shearing off a utility line outside of her home.

“I’m outside in my garden, and all of sudden I hear these brakes and I go, ‘What the heck is that?’”

She had to go underneath a wire that stretched across the road. On the advice of a neighbor, Lutz called the police and 20 minutes later the Pine Grove Fire Department arrived, she said. It ended up being a Spectrum cable.

“I work from home, so I lost power for an hour when I’m supposed to be working,” said Lutz.

She went on to describe how the construction vehicles had stalled a school bus on the last day of school and how they pose a danger to pedestrians.

“We don’t have sidewalks, so you have to jump onto the grass,” she said, expressing particular concern for an elderly neighbor.

Lutz also described a family walking with their dog and young child on a bicycle. “I’m like, my god, I can’t watch. They’re going to die … I ended up calling the police because I said, ‘Enough is enough.’”

Lutz concluded, “I shouldn’t … have to stay in my own house as a hostage because these dingbats can’t drive the speed limit.”

Supervisor Peter Barber said that the town’s highway superintendent, Bob Haver, was taking photos and has “been in contact with the contractor so that, if there is any damage done to the road, it’s going to be repaired.”

“As for the petition,” said Barber, “we’ll take a look at it.”

Barber concluded, “But, in the end, there’s nothing that the town could do to stop the trucks going up and down the road.”

Gifford rejoined, “But what you can do is communicate with residents who have asked you to clue them in to what’s going on in your backyard. And I think the failure to do so does not speak well at all for residents in perhaps less posh or tony developments in the town or perhaps in more rural areas.”

Willow Street

Alexandra Mitsios, who lives at 11 Willow St., said her family, with twin boys, wanted to settle in Guilderland where her husband grew up. The two-lane street off of Route 20 has no sidewalks.

Her family has been frustrated over the last decade by “the traffic issues and safety issues along Willow Street,” she said.

After neighbors on lower Willow Street did a sign campaign to slow traffic, Mitsios said, she started a petition within her neighborhood..

“What became really apparent was that a lot more residents on Willow are impacted still, both on lower and upper Willow,” she said.

With the Pine Bush trailhead at the end of the street, she said, “We do get a lot of walkers, a lot of runners, a lot of bikers, just a lot of pedestrians in general.”

While she said police officers are stationed at three residential streets intersecting Willow, to control speeding, it is not a permanent solution. She described two incidents in the last week in which police were called.

The first, on July 22, “feet away from our house involved a man taking the law into his own hands,” she said. He sped down the road to catch a speeding driver. “The man was extremely loud and irate, repeatedly yelling about how speeding in the neighborhood had gotten out of hand,” said Mitsios.

“I don’t condone him being a vigilante in the moment,” she said, but she understood his frustration — “the cries of a parent saying that you almost hit my child.”

The second incident, which had occurred a few days before, involved a black Audi, a frequent commuter on Willow Street, Mitsios said, “traveling well over 70 miles per hour … The vehicle lifted from the ground and became temporarily airborne.”

She went on, “In both situations, had a pedestrian been on the road, walking or biking, and veered slightly into the roadway, the vehicle would not have been able to make a safe stop.”

She noted that a number of young families moved “into the area, seeking safe and walkable neighborhoods.” She also said, “My own twins are not allowed to be anywhere on Willow unless I’m with them … Something needs to be done.”

Mitsios said she plans to attend the town’s traffic safety committee meeting on Oct. 8 and had spoken with Sergeant Todd Roberts about calming traffic.

Barber called Roberts, who chairs the traffic safety committee, “very talented” and said, “There is also a highway department representative on there who can talk about what the highway department can do.”

Barber said that speed humps — “not speed bumps” — have “worked well for at least one street in McKownville.”

It is best to install the humps when a street is being repaved, Barber said.

He added, “We do have a traffic safety officer now who devotes his entire time to traffic safety.”

Mitsios said the town’s initiative to monitor Willow Street and collect data on speeding “has actually helped” as has a sign that registers a driver’s speed and “pops up in front of them.”

She went on, “Our concern is, once that goes away and once the traffic study is done … what next?”

She concluded, “It’s gotten to a point, I don’t know if people are just that much more careless ….”

Larry Moss, who moved to 95 Willow Street in 1988, said, “Speeding has been a continuous problem for the 36 years we have lived there. It’s become like Daytona Speedway. Cars are going well in excess of the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit. 

“They’re going 50, 60, 70. It’s putting pedestrians, runners, cyclists at risk. And at some point, somebody is going to get badly hurt or possibly killed because cars are totally disregarding that digital speed sign.”

He said he would like speed humps, “so if they want to do 50, 60, 70, they’re going to be doing damage to the undercarriage of their car and they’ll have a repair bill of hundreds if not thousands of dollars.”

Moss said that every time he and his wife back out their driveway, “We feel like we’re taking our life in our hands.”

He called the situation “basically intolerable” and said, “Thirty-six years — nothing has been done and they can do studies until pigs fly.”

Sue Green, who noted she doesn’t live on Willow Street, said, “In Albany, there are sections where there’s a camera that takes pictures of your license and, if you’re speeding, then you get a ticket in the mail with a large fine.”

“You can only do that in cities,” responded Councilman Jacob Crawford.

“Boy, I’d station a couple of cops and let them do it personally with a camera,” said Green. “And then you just start hitting them financially and you’re going to get people who hear that Willow is now a trap, you know, with the police there with cameras.”

The board then heard a presentation from Jim Shields, a project engineer with CHA Consulting Inc., on sidewalks planned for Carman Road and East Old State Road.

“We heard tonight there’s a couple of other spots that they may be needed,” said Shields.

Other business

In other business at its Aug. 13 meeting, the Guilderland Town Board:

— Commended the members of the 2024 Guilderland High School track team as highway signs honoring the team were unveiled.

“We had never won a sectional title before,” said Coach Chris Scanlan, “and then we went on from there to compete at the state meet [where] our 4x1 relay team won the state championship … Our entire girls team won the Federation championship at the state meet for the first time ever for our school”;

— Heard from Jesse and Nancy Moran who live at 53 Fletcher Road and are concerned about flooding.

“Both the town engineer and the highway superintendent are aware of the problem,” Barber responded. He said the catch basin and pipe size would be increased, anticipating the work won’t be undertaken until October when summer paving is completed;

— Heard from Robyn Gray, who chairs the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth, that she is concerned about “private meetings of the planning board … that’s not on the agenda.” She said an “upstairs meeting before the meeting … does not follow the Open Meetings Law. It’s illegal.”

“I will check,” Barber responded;

— Agreed to have the state maintain the landscape for the roundabout at Carman Road and Lydius Street;

— Approved a Bloodborne Pathogens Exposure Control Plan and Hazard Communication Program Policy.

“The purpose of this written program is to ensure that all employees with potential exposure to bloodborne pathogens and other body fluids understand the hazards associated with their exposure and the corrective actions necessary to protect them from injury and illness ….,” says the policy.

Barber said the policy affects not just emergency medical services workers and police but also employees dealing with wastewater and the town’s lifeguards;

— Scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m., on the draft Americans With Disabilities Transition Plan.

“The plan is required by the federal government,” said Barber, noting, “Each foot of sidewalk was inspected and was rated for compliance … There’s an action plan for any deficiencies that may have been noted”;

— Canceled its Dec. 3 meeting and moved its Dec. 17 meeting to Dec. 10;

— Heard from Barber that the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee’s public hearing on its draft plan will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. After the committee adopts its draft plan, it will go to the town board.

“We also have to do then our own public hearing on it,” said Barber, “and we’ll have to decide either to adopt it. … reject it completely, or send it back if we think it needs any additional help”;

— Heard that Household Hazardous Waste Day will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the highway garage; and

— Heard, also from Barber, that the town’s new EMS station is slated to open in late August or early September. A sprinkler system still has to be installed, he said, along with flooring and cabinets.