Fairfield Hills Traffic Safety

Slated For Discussion

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Commission members are expected to again discuss steps that can be taken to improve traffic safety at Fairfield Hills when the panel meets next week in its role as the local traffic authority.

The Police Commission session is scheduled for 7:30 pm on Tuesday, May 4, at the lower level conference room in Town Hall South at 3 Main Street.

Although some municipalities have separate police commissions and traffic authorities, in Newtown the powers of a local traffic authority are held by the Police Commission. During the past several years, the traffic authority function of the panel has been an expanding fraction of its activity.

Because the Fairfield Hills core campus now has two major uses in place, in the form of Newtown Municipal Center and Newtown Youth Academy, the Police Commission is reviewing what measures may be taken to better control traffic flow there. Also, a new full-size illuminated baseball field adjacent to the youth academy will be in use during the warmer weather.

During recent weeks, the police department’s traffic enforcement unit has conducted a traffic study at Fairfield Hills to gauge current traffic conditions. Such data would be used in formulating traffic improvement plans.

At its April 6 session, the Police Commission briefly reviewed some traffic mapping and a traffic study on Fairfield Hills. Commission Chairman Duane Giannini urged that panel members visit the Fairfield Hills core campus to familiarize themselves with the traffic issues there.

A perpendicular parking arrangement exists along three sides of the Newtown Municipal Center. That parking design sometimes poses traffic accident hazards when motorists back out of perpendicular parking spaces and into the path of oncoming traffic.

Also, the youth academy generates a considerable stream of traffic traveling to and from that sports/recreation facility. Because there are limited access points to the core campus, all traffic passing to and from the youth academy must drive past the Municipal Center.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe has said the Police Commission has the authority to create one-way traffic flow along certain roads at the core campus, if deemed necessary.

To remind motorists that there is a 15-mph speed limit in force at the core campus, police recently positioned their large radar-actuated speed display there at intersection of DG Beers Boulevard and Primrose Street.

The device electronically displays the travel speed of approaching vehicles in comparison to the posted speed limit in the area.