Footbridge plan can get state funds

Goffstown Editor — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:34:00 GMT

BY ROD HANSEN
State funding is available to aid in building a footbridge through town, though taxpayers must also foot some of the bill.
State funding is available to aid in building a footbridge through town, though taxpayers must also foot some of the bill.

“We can build a $150,000 project for $30,000,” said Dona Fairbairn, a member of the Foot Traffic and Road Safety Committee.

Members of that panel met with the New Boston Finance Committee on Thursday, Dec. 7, to explain the footbridge project and consider how the town could finance its own end of the cost.

Fairbairn authored a proposal to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation that secured funding for the project earlier this year.

Eighty percent of the funding will come from the DOT’s Transportation Enhancement Selection Program, Fairbairn said. The town will pay the remainder.

The proposed footbridge would run approximately half a mile from the Piscataquog River near the library land to the commercial area in the south village by the post office.

The town’s portion of the expense would best be financed through $15,000 warrant articles in 2007 and 2008, Fairbairn said.

The town would pay for the construction costs up front, and would receive 80 percent reimbursement from the Department of Transportation, said foot traffic committee member Bill Morrissey.

A footbridge through town would address several needs first expressed at the New Boston Speaks community profile event of 2004. Primarily, a footbridge would offer recreation to citizens and visitors, and address a safety concern in the community, Fairbairn said.

The Route 13 corridor through town poses a risk to pedestrians and bicyclists who compete with trucks for road space, several committee members said. A footbridge would help alleviate that threat, they said.

“I’ve seen kids have to jump off bikes on Route 13,” said Fairbairn, a 20-year resident of New Boston. “It’s gotten very unsafe, and I’m surprised we haven’t had a major incident.”

Foot Traffic and Road Safety Committee member Randy Parker recalled moving to New Boston in 1960, when Route 13 contained mainly barns and fields and a bird museum served as one of its main attractions.

Parker used a present-day photograph of a large gravel truck crowding a bicyclist onto the edge of Route 13 to illustrate the need for improvement.

“Unless something drastic happens with Route 13, things are not going to improve for anyone who wants to do anything other than drive on it,” Parker said.

Some finance committee members questioned if usage would warrant the expense of building the footbridge.

“Route 13 is a really treacherous stretch of road, but I want to know if (a pedestrian or bicyclist) who uses the road would be willing to use the bridge instead.

Right now, I’m not seeing that,” said Finance Committee Chairman Louis Lanzillotti.

Foot traffic committee Chairman Sandi Van Scoyoc said community outreach would promote use of the footbridge.

“I can’t guarantee (pedestrians) would use it, but we as a community would urge them to use it,” Van Scoyoc said.

Committee members also wrestled with the question of whether the warrant articles would prove to be winners in the voting booth. However, finance committee members said the first Town Meeting vote would gauge community approval.

“Your votes are going to tell you whether people support it,” said finance committee member Brandy Mitroff.

Finance committee members said any warrant article should inform voters of the overall cost of the project.

“Are people going to know, when they vote for a $15,000 warrant article or however much it’s for, that they’re voting for a $150,000 project?” asked finance committee member Kim DiPietro.

That information would be included in the warrant article, foot traffic committee members said.

Finance committee members also asked how the right-ofway would be secured in areas of privately owned property.

Specifically, they questioned if New Boston Tavern owner Jim Eggers had agreed to cede the portion of his land that would contain the bridge abutments.

Although Eggers had already signed a letter of intent on the issue, finance committee members said the foot traffic committee should secure legal rights to the land before proceeding with the project.

“If I were you, I would get on this right now, before you ask people to vote on it,” Mitroff said.

Appearing later that evening before the conservation commission, members of the foot traffic committee answered questions about how the bridge would be cleaned and maintained.

“I’m concerned that you’re asking the town to participate in a $150,000 project, and I’m not getting an answer of who is going to pick up the trash and who is going to maintain it,” said conservation commission member Cynthia Wilson. “I’m looking for the selectmen to put it under the onus of the highway department, to the people who govern the town send out the message that they understand the change of use.”

An article for the footbridge was scheduled to appear on the 2006 town warrant, but was withdrawn when supporters learned construction money would not become available until 2010.

However, engineering and design money is available in the intervening years prior to the construction.

When the time does come to build the project, the state will fund $100,800 of the overall cost, while the town will pay for $25,200.

Preceding engineering expenses will also be split on an 80/20 basis, Morrissey said.

New Boston News : Footbridge

Footbridge plan can get state funds