Last March, after the town settled a lawsuit brought by a pedestrian who fell on slippery walks in the vicinity of the Congregational Church, First Selectman Matt Riiska looked at how to indemnify the town against future accidents.
He conferred with Julia Scharnberg, head of the Historic District Commission, to discuss the issue and told her that the town had three choices: remove the walk and replace it with grass; install a gravel walk, or use prohibitively expensive granite in keeping with other walks in the historic district to replace it .
Ultimately, town officials chose the first option and this week the walkway was removed. “Granite walkways are very slippery,” explained Administrative Assistant Barbara Gomez.
A municipality is responsible by state statute for the maintenance of sidewalks, both repairing them and clearing them following storms. Riiska later sought to defray the cost of sidewalk maintenance by establishing an ordinance requiring property owners and businesses to clear their walks. This was so unpopular that residents at a well-attended town meeting would not even second the motion to bring it to the floor for discussion.