GUILFORD — Selectboard member Anne Rider called on the board Sept. 9 to send a note to state officials alerting them to safety concerns about the intersection of Route 5 and Guilford Center Road.
Selectboard Chair Richard Clark, board members Rider and Troy Revis Jr., and Town Administrator Katie Buckley all shared theirs and others' anecdotes of near misses and collisions at that corner.
Rider said she had raised the matter at a meeting attended by officials “regionally, statewide, and with the Windham Regional Commission,” but felt the need to take more concrete steps.
“If we have not in writing said we have strenuous concerns, we have to let the state know formally. We've met with them, but I would like us to draft a letter saying, 'We need to get a response from you; we need some action; we need a plan with this very dangerous area of Guilford,'” she said in the open discussion portion of the meeting.
Whether a remedy is a set of blinking lights or a “dynamic speed display sign,” which tells drivers how fast they're traveling, Rider said her goal was to “make a little noise to the state” about residents' complaints and concerns, start the ball rolling toward a solution, and sort out the money and timetable later.
“If something horrible happened, I would feel terrible about saying we never, ever put it in writing,” she said.