Approximately 60 people attended the second meeting on the Cranbury Road sidewalk project, including Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, Chief Joe Pica, Director of Community Development Pat Ward, and Sarah Thomson and Samira Akhlaq-Rezvi, the co-chairs and driving forces behind the project.
“We are already working on this project,” said Hsueh. “Everyone in the administration and on the Town Council supports this idea, and we have already started working on the request for proposals (RFPs). But we must adhere to state and local regulations, and we must work with the county, because it is a county road. There is a process we must follow. Having said that, we are moving forward as fast as we can within that process.”
“For example, we must have a detailed engineering assessment, and environmental assessments,” the mayor continued. “And we should have different options or alternatives, with cost analyses of each. We will present all of the options to you, so that together we can come up with the best solution that is acceptable to the residents.” “Options are wonderful, but ideally we would like to see sidewalks on both sides of Cranbury Road. That is our goal,” Thomson said.
Said Hsueh: “That is an ideal solution, but we need all of the residents to agree. Otherwise, there is the potential for a lawsuit. A similar situation occurred on North Post Road. We received state funding to connect the municipal building and the train station with sidewalks. However, one resident was opposed to the idea, and sued us. The cost of all of this litigation certainly increased the cost of the project, which is why we are not eager for this to happen again. So please help us make sure that all of the affected residents are on board with the sidewalk idea.”
“The Township can use condemnation to take residents’ properties, but this is always the very last resort, an option that we would prefer not to use at all,” said Ward.
Thomson and Akhlaq-Rezvi asked if the mayor could outline the specific steps that need to be taken and an approximate timeline. Ward explained the process:
“We are preparing the RFP, which should be done within a month. Once the rfp is completed, we send it out to a long list of specialists, which we have already compiled, so we do not have to take extra time looking for qualified consultants. The Council has to approve the release of the funds to pay the consultant, and, once this is done, we will award the RFP to the lowest bidder, and after the rfp comes back, we will hold another community meeting to go over all of the alternatives with you. The chosen consultant will then complete the studies. A reasonable estimate for them to complete a plan of this scope is 90 days. After that, we will put together the funding for the project; and conduct a detailed engineering study. Then we put the final proposal out for a bid, and the contract is awarded within 45 days.”
“The contract will not be awarded this year. We are hoping that the RFP will come back and that we can have another meeting with you by the end of the year, or very early in 2014. This is a realistic timeline.”
Many residents expressed satisfaction with the fact that a general timeline was being provided, and some asked if it would be possible to review the rfp before it was sent out. Ward responded in the affirmative, and said that once the draft was completed, she would share it with residents.
Said Hsueh: “We are doing as much as we can now. We are already working with the county traffic engineers on this, and have another meeting with them this coming Thursday. The police are also increasing their presence in the area to help slow down speeders.”
Chief Pica explained that Cranbury Road has always been one of the police department’s priorities, even before this initiative began. “We fully support this group, because Cranbury Road is a dangerous roadway, and putting in sidewalks can be a positive step for the whole town. I have increased our officers’ presence there at this time, and we have been issuing tickets. However, we are responsible for 27 square miles, so we cannot have police on Cranbury Road all of the time. Nonetheless, it has been, and will remain, one of our priorities.
“We also have put up the electronic sign. We had to take it down this morning to recharge the solar battery, but it will be put back as soon as the battery is charged,” he said.
Several residents asked if the sign could be placed nearer the curves along Cranbury Road, and Chief Pica agreed. Residents such as Scott Davis also offered their own lawns and driveways for signs or patrol cars, in order to give the police more options for traffic enforcement.
Members of the audience offered additional suggestions, especially in terms of interim measures that would help make the roadway safer. For instance, John Stuart asked, “can the police utilize a cardboard police officer and police car to encourage people to slow down?”
Chief Pica responded: “in fact, we have a better one. We have a dummy that we outfit in a police officer uniform and hat, and we have used that in a car along other roadways. However, we received a complaint from a resident that our police force wasn’t friendly enough because when the resident waved at the ‘officer’, he didn’t wave back!”
“In reality, Cranbury Road has become a commuter highway,” noted Yasser Rezvi. “Is it possible to ask the county to reconfigure the roadway to make it less of a highway, such as by making it one-way, or having limits on left turns, or other possibilities that would help slow down drivers?” Another resident asked if the county could put in pedestrian crossing lights at the Montessori school for parents with younger children.
“Those are all excellent suggestions,” responded the mayor, “and in fact we have already started discussing such options with the county, especially because the county is going to be repaving Cranbury Road. It is very possible that one or more of these suggestions will be included in the options we develop.”
