Lanesborough Residents Want Old Williamstown Road Barricades Gone
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Residents want the now-barricaded Old Williamstown Road reopened for pedestrian access.
Patty Barnaby, who lives on the road, started a Change.org petition that has garnered nearly 440 signatures. On Monday, she and other residents went before the Select Board, which will vote on a path forward on Dec. 30.
Barnaby explained that although the old Route 7 has been closed to vehicles for more than 40 years, pedestrians, horseback riders, bicycles, etc., use it. At the beginning of November, the state blocked it with jersey barriers.
"This is a state-owned piece of property, I am aware of that just so that is known," she clarified.
"So the state had come in and fully barricaded off this road. It's a 0.5 mile section of road that you can get through on both ends and the barriers were placed on each side of the road and although I know that this was technically a closed, abandoned road, it was always accessible to many Lanesborough residents, along with many other people who would visit the area to be able to enjoy the road and now we are not able to do so and it's actually very disheartening that this has happened."
Over the last 12 years, her family has walked the road "excessively." She said many Williamstown Road residents and supporters who know how much it means to the community were at the meeting.
"That it has many memories, it has history," Barnaby said.
"We were always able to enjoy this road and even though it might not seem like a lot to some people, it means a lot to us and I would like to request from the Select Board and counsel some options that we can work with the state on in order to be able to open this back up to the public for pedestrian use."
Attorney Jeffrey Blake, of the town's counsel KP Law, feels that opening the road for passive recreation is "infinitely doable." He outlined a couple of different options: working with the state to install a gate or the state gifting it to Lanesborough to be accepted at a town meeting.
"Once the town owned it, it could, in fact, use it the way it wanted to. In my opinion, it could bar motorized vehicles from down there. It could put up a gate and it could have a trail for passive recreation, horseback, dog walking, bicycling, and the like," Blake said.
"So while I understand your frustration, I think that this problem is solvable. It just may take a little bit, because either way, we'll be working with the state and things just don't go as quickly as we want."
He added that the state would probably have to survey it and the town would have to "dot all our I's and cross all out T's."
"Having never spoken with the state about this, I don't know what their thoughts are on temporarily moving their jersey barriers so people can get through," he said.
"But that's certainly something the town could certainly ask in the interim and then flesh out how you want to go about doing it."
Selectman Timothy Sorrell emphasized that this was just a discussion.
"We're not going to meet again until December 30 and we'll bring it to the board for a vote of what our options could be and how we're going to go forward with it," he said.
"But we haven't forgotten about you. We want to make sure we do everything right and hopefully, we get it open for you people but we'll have a vote on it December 30."
Barnaby assumed that the town wouldn't like to take ownership of the road. Another resident suggested looking into the state Department of Conservation and Recreation taking it on.
Edward Carman said there are "real problems: with the state blocking an area to all public use but not blocking it to the use of the abutter," referencing a driveway located before the barriers.
"I don't know that the state can properly allow the abutter to use that land. They didn't block off any access from his land and then block off access for public use of the land, certainly not just by a unilateral decision of a field office," he said.
"The second piece is that it seems to me that there's got to be an agreement with the town of Lanesborough about where it's state responsibility and where it's town responsibility. The statute for discontinuing portions of state highways says that upon their discontinuation, they become town roads and that's what happened with the north end of it and the south end of it. It seems to me that there's got to be some kind of an agreement with the town about the parameters of that, about what the rights and responsibilities are."
Town Administer Gina Dario understands that the town maintains part of the road.
"It looks like the state said, 'We own the whole road, but we're going to close off the middle and you just maintain the two ends,'" Sorrell said, pointing out that there is one residence on one end and six houses on the other end.
Another Williamstown Road resident said the barriers are a safety hazard and others pointed to the importance of emergency access.
"I just want the road back," Barnaby said.
Selectwoman Deborah Maynard emphasized that ATVs and the like are not permitted on the road and that some rebar needs to be removed for safety.
Tags: road closure,
