My wife and I voted in the Spring town election where we live and we voted that it makes a lot of sense to add two crosswalks, additional lakeside park vehicle parking and a sidewalk on the opposite side of the lake to another area that has grassy fields, a sledding hill, soccer / baseball fields and public use hiking trails owned by the state. This would connect downtown Enfield’s lakeside park to an area of the city that is completely devoid of any transportation except 4-wheel vehicles usually going 10 miles over the speed limit (the zone varies from 35-45 miles per hour).
I ride a bicycle down route 4A and over the bridge. I’ve never had any close calls but I know of people who do. I’d love a sidewalk in front of my home but that was not on the ballot. This would connect people on the other side of the bridge and I’m happy for their fortune that this was considered and taken to a vote. It wouldn’t improve the safety of my ride to the rail trail or the lake side park or into town for a coffee. It also would not make my safety as a pedestrian or bicyclist when my daughter is older and I want to walk / bicycle to her school. The area of my road is so narrow that I don’t know if a sidewalk is even possible but I’d donate some money to the cause if it ever was.
Back to the initiative up for a vote, you should take moment to read these:
Enfield seeks funding for trail, plow truck, and sewer system upgrades
The trail project dates back to 2023 when the town was awarded a $919,000 federal scenic byway grant for it. The town was able to use nearly $150,000 of the grant for an engineering study, but had to return the rest of the funds because the time to spend them ran out before the town could break ground on the project, Morris said.
Enfield now expects to receive a nearly $2 million federal Transportation Alternatives grant for the project, Morris said. He expects N.H. Gov. Kelly Ayotte and the Executive Council will give their final approval for the grant in July.
The project, which also includes putting additional parallel parking spaces on Main Street near Lakeside Park across a bridge from the trail, is expected to cost around $2.58 million.
The Selectboard is asking residents if they’d like to use around $517,000 from the town’s Capital Improvement Program fund to pay for the required 20% in matching funds for the grant.
“There would be no additional, immediate tax impact,” Morris said. “We would continue to fund our CIP program through taxes.”
The tax rate impact for the CIP fund article is 59 cents per $1,000 of valuation, or $177 for a house valued at $300,000.
Here’s the text for the Warrant Article #4
Here are the results of the town meeting votes.
Finally, below is an image of how the sidewalk would extend from the north parking area across the bridge and down to the shrine and shaker museum connecting to many miles of hiking trails on a busy through-traffic corridor of commuters:
Article 4: FAILED (305 Yes, 539 No) – Main Street Parking and Trail
[3/5 majority required]
I wanted to briefly share one more link & quote of a news story from 3 years ago that occurred on the road where the sidewalk would have ended should this article had been approved. You’ll see at the bottom of the image above at the La Salette Shrine, there’s a note to install an “RRFB” which stands for “Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons”, i.e. a lit crosswalk. That spot I know too well because driving home from the dog park in the Summer of 2022, I witnessed this, “Retired bishop struck and killed while crossing Route 4A, was visiting LaSalette in Enfield from Madagascar”
A retired Roman Catholic bishop from Madagascar with close ties to Enfield was struck and killed as he crossed Route 4A near the La Salette shrine on Saturday afternoon.
Sullivan said he had talked with Pelletier just moments earlier and left him in the gift shop. Pelletier was leaving the gift shop and crossing the highway to Sullivan’s residence when he was struck shortly after 5 p.m.
Sullivan said the driver, who was not named in a police press release but is cooperating and not believed to have been at fault, told Sullivan she doubted Pelletier even saw her before he stepped into the road.
A man was killed where a crosswalk was planned to be put, sorely needed by the community in a spot where cars regularly go 55 miles an hour as families, community members and tourists visit the shrine, shaker museum and access the trails. There’s a large Christmas event that happens there annually with lights along with community gardens and seasonal events like Fall Festival.
Not only would the sidewalk have created a safe and accessible way for families to make their way to the shrine from downtown without risk of being hit by a car, it would have literally saved a man’s life just 3 years ago.
The Warrant Article failed with 539 of my neighbors (a majority) voting no.
A project that was 80% funded by a federal grant would have improved safety, accessibility and would have far exceeding the total budget increased property values in our town. Our sidewalk system is very limited to the built up area of downtown and you all killed it.
How many people need to die or be run off the road before we begin to spend pennies of our property taxes toward making our space more friendly to alternative modes of transportation.
I’m deeply disappointed in each and every one of you cheapos for taking away this opportunity for a project that was 80% funded through a grant. Here’s the math on what this project would cost taxpayers over 10-15 years:
- $200,000 home → $10/year
- $300,000 home → $15/year
- $400,000 home → $20/year
One more thing worth noting: the grant itself wasn’t even finalized when we voted. Town Manager Morris stated at the January public hearing that final approval from Governor Ayotte and the Executive Council wasn’t expected until July. We voted in March.
So we killed a $2.5 million project, 80% funded by federal money before the federal money was even officially ours to lose. The practical reality is that without the grant there is no project and no borrowing. No town spends half a million dollars of its own money on infrastructure designed around a federal match that never arrived. But we didn’t even wait to find out. We just said no.
539 of my neighbors voted to preemptively surrender $2 million in federal infrastructure investment before the ink was dry.
I am fiscally conservative but this was a slam dunk for our community and if you look and read some of the Enfield LEAPs reports data – https://www.enfield-leaps.org / https://irp.cdn-website.com/6ec8c241/files/uploaded/final_mp_11925.pdf you’ll find dozens of references to pedestrians, bicycles, accessibility and zoning.
Unfortunately, the only two matters that failed were the zoning changes and sidewalk changes. All of that time and money on the LEAPS project is being squandered by my neighbors who won’t invest in safety or community improvements.
When you complain about our stuck tax-base, aging population and lack of any stores, please remember how you voted and your decisions impact our community’s health and prosperity.
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