For the first time since last spring, when COVID-19 guidelines forced meetings to move to livestream and teleconference platforms, the Board of Police Commissioners had residents join them for a meeting.

The four commissioners at the June 1 meeting were additionally joined by Police Chief James Viadero and Captain Christopher Vanghele. One resident also called in to comment on one of the agenda items.

The meeting lasted approximately 70 minutes.

Chief’s Report

In his report, Chief Viadero covered a few recent arrests, upcoming retirements, and updates on recent recruits and arrival plans for new body-worn cameras.

He began by thanking the commissioners for their attendance at a ceremony on May 28 that formally dedicated the community room at the new police headquarters.

Viadero also offered updates on three officers recently hired by the department, and noted that an equal number of officers will be retiring in upcoming months.

“The retirees will dovetail with the new recruits,” he said. “We will not see a loss in personnel on the road.”

Officers in recent weeks have made “good arrests,” the chief noted. One man was arrested on multiple charges after evading a police stop in the center of town and then crashing his vehicle into a home.

School Resource Officer William Chapman made “a great arrest” on May 28, Viadero said. Chapman had been working for a few months on a Zoom bombing of a Newtown High School online classroom, the chief said, which resulted in the arrest on multiple charges of a local juvenile.

Viadero also complimented Officer Adam James for “a nice arrest” following a traffic stop. The May 21 stop led to “an arrest on a warrant, some motor vehicle charges, and a good amount of fentanyl was recovered from the car,” Viadero said.

Ten young adults joined the recently relaunched Police Cadets program, he also reported. Newtown has teamed up with the Danbury program, he said, “which is a real robust program.” The group meets Wednesdays at 6 pm at the Newtown Police Department, and newcomers are always welcome, he added.

St Rose “did a nice appreciation day, a real nice event” recently for local first responders, and Chief Viadero was the guest of honor at the Newtown Men’s Club, he also reported.

Officers “held range,” he said, the last two weeks of May, for training and requalifications.

Viadero also reminded the commission that his department is finalizing the purchase of new body-worn cameras. The current cameras are nearing the end of their expected service life, he said.

“We’re losing one to two cameras per week, because the batteries are failing on them,” he said. The new series should last four to five years, he added.

Following the departure last year of clinician Melissa McShane, the department will have a new mental health clinician by the end of the week, the chief also announced.

Old Business

Captain Vanghele presented a report titled Flagpole Intersection Vehicle Accident Study 2017-2021. The report picked up where the previous flagpole intersection study concluded five years ago.

Vanghele noted that during the past 4½ years, there have been 102 motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) in or immediately adjacent to the five-point intersection of Church Hill Road, Main Street, and the two forks of West Street. Sixteen of those accidents, he said, were not related to the intersection itself, so those were pulled from the data, leaving 86 crashes during the study’s time frame.

Of those MVAs, eight resulted in possible injuries for those involved and five resulted in suspected minor injuries. There were no fatal accidents at the intersection during the period of study.

The report showed that MVAs fall into nine categories: failure to obey the stop sign at Church Hill Road (which accounted for 23 MVAs, or 27% total), rear-ender on Main Street (19 MVAs, 22%), passing on right-southbound (16 MVAs, 19%), rear-ender at the Church Hill Road stop sign (10, 12%), driving into the flagpole (10, 12%), turning (3, 3.5%), failure to obey the stop sign at West Street (2, 2%), rear-ender at the West Street stop sign (2, 2%), or tractor-trailer attempting turn (1, 1%).

The location averages 1.6 MVAs per month, or one accident for every 281,250 vehicles that pass through the intersection. A very conservative estimate of 450,000 vehicles passing through the intersection was used, Vanghele told the commission.

Chair Joel Faxon said he would not be surprised if the actual number was substantially higher.

“The majority of the MVAs indicate driver error,” Vanghele also told the commission.

It is not the design of the intersection that causes the crashes, the report noted. Every time a driver passes a vehicle on the right, especially when going over the solid white line along the shoulder, they are breaking the law.

Installing raised brick and traffic circles have been suggested by previous studies, but neither idea moved beyond the study stage.

Viadero pointed out that “there isn’t enough real estate there” to install a roundabout.

The December 2015 Intersection Improvement Study published by Frederick P. Clark Associates suggested shifting the Church Hill Road approach to the south, so that those turning left onto Main Street would no longer need to turn around the flagpole. That report also suggested closing the northern leg of West Street.

None of the above suggestions, it was noted, would decrease the amount of traffic flow on Main Street, decrease the amount of side street parking, decrease the number of private and business driveways entering Main Street, nor remove the flagpole.

Traffic light installation, barriers around the flagpole, enhanced markings on the roadway, and additional signage were offered as possible alternatives to leaving the intersection as is.

The installation of lights, which has been suggested repeatedly, “may reduce accidents at the intersection by 47 accidents, which is a 55% reduction,” the report noted.

The reduction may not be as much as suggested, however, it also stated. New traffic lights could cause more accidents, especially following their installation when motorists are not used to them.

Leaving the intersection as is also means, the report noted, no budgetary costs.

It was also noted that there is no current push from the public to make changes.

As Faxon later noted, a Connecticut General Statute protects the flagpole in perpetuity at that location.

Neil Chaudhary noted that with Main Street a state road (Route 25), “even if we get signage there, we would have to get the state to do that.”

Any signage would either be so far off the side of the road that it would not be seen, the chief said. If signs were installed closer to the travel lane, they would be prone to vehicle strikes, he added.

Viadero said that he liked the idea of raised roadway in the immediate vicinity.

“You ride over that in your vehicle, it’s going to be uncomfortable,” he said. “It’s gonna get your attention. It’s going to slow you down.”

Commissioner Scott Cicciari said that if there is something the commission can do, “we have a responsibility to certainly entertain ideas and options.

“I appreciate that it’s a neighborhood area, but to me, putting in turning lanes also means putting in traffic lights,” he said. “I just don’t see how those don’t go hand in hand. I just don’t think some of that is realistic.

“Painted lines aren’t going to stop people,” he added. “I don’t even know — is it our responsibility? Is it the state? Do we make a recommendation, but then they have to do it because it’s a state road?”

Faxon indicated the commission could make a recommendation, but the state has guidelines that it would follow for any change or installation, including which products would be used.

The police chief reminded the commission that when he approached the state in 2016, he was told that interest for change “really has to come from the town” before anything changes.

“I’m willing to speak to the state again, but I don’t know that their answer will be any different,” he said.

Public Comment

Two residents offered comments during last week’s meeting.

Greg Pategas, of Toddy Hill Road, told the commissioners that he and his two sons were involved in a collision at the flagpole intersection on March 17. The three had been traveling north on Main Street around 7 pm that Wednesday. They were on their way to a Boy Scout meeting at Newtown Congregational Church.

As Pategas began to make a left turn onto West Street, the passenger side of his 2005 Volkswagen Passat was T-boned by a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado K1500, according to the police report from that crash.

Pategas estimated the truck was going “about 35 miles per hour” when it struck his car, he told the commissioners.

“Our car was punted across the road and almost hit the Meeting House,” he said. “We all got showered with glass. It was not pleasant.”

Having lived in town 30 years, Pategas said, he believes speed is a growing issue on its roads.

“It’s a sticky situation, it’s difficult,” he said. “I’m here today to try to understand what we can possibly do to even incrementally try to improve things. I like the idea of putting additional signage in. I think the problem that we’re going to continue to have is that there’s going to be backup whatever we do, whatever we change.

“The traffic is flowing because people are illegally passing on the right in both” directions on Main Street, he said.

Pategas also told the commission that the previous week, he and one of his sons were again on their way to a Boy Scout meeting at the church, waiting to cross Main Street. This time they were able to see a southbound vehicle illegally passing vehicles on the right before they crossed the intersection.

“An 18-wheeler was passing on the right,” he said. “It was ripping through the intersection, and my son and I just clenched.”

Pategas told the commission that since the installation of rumble striping along Toddy Hill Road, “many people have been respectful of the speed limit.” It has not solved the speeding solution on his street, he said, but it has helped. He asked the board to consider similar measures on Main Street.

“I just don’t want to be back here after we have a fatality there,” he said. “I thought my son was going to be a fatality.”

Sherry Bermingham, who lives on Main Street “within spitting distance of the flagpole,” she said, also spoke to the commission on May 1. Bermingham called in to make her comments.

She asked commissioners to remember that the immediate vicinity of the flagpole is a neighborhood for many people.

“When you start saying you’re going to install barriers in the road, you have to remember that we’re crossing and recrossing the street with our dogs, and visiting our neighbors, and everything else on foot, taking our lives in our own hands, yes,” she said.

“The other thing is,” she continued, “when you put the speed bumps on Queen Street, that was because the children were going to be walking on the sidewalk on Main Street. Well, the sidewalk is now on South Main Street, and there are still five speed bumps on Queen Street.”

Bermingham said those speed bumps diverted a lot of traffic onto Main Street. Removing some of the Queen Street speed bumps, she said, would result in Main Street traffic using Queen Street instead.

Bermingham disagreed with the suggestion of adding more signs to the area.

“People are just going to ignore them,” she said.

The two other residents in the room on Tuesday did not speak. While not quoted here, Commissioner Joan Plouffe also attended Tuesday’s meeting.

Before adjourning, the board voted to cancel its July meeting. The board’s next meeting is now scheduled for Tuesday, August 3.

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Associate Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.