Council reduces speed limit in Opechee neighborhood

LACONIA — Councilors set a public hearing for Monday, Sept. 8, to gather input regarding the potential acceptance of Thompson Avenue, during their meeting on July 28. 

Thompson is located near Centenary Avenue in Ward 1. It’s a private street, but residents there are petitioning to have the city formally accept it as a public highway. 

“Thompson Ave. is one of the streets that is a private road, they’re looking to make it public,” City Manager Kirk Beattie said during the meeting. “It already has all of its easements, everybody on the street, currently, has said, ‘Yes, we want to move forward with this.’” 

All property owners along the street have provided the city the necessary easements to accept Thompson as a public highway. Because the planning board hadn’t previously approved a road plat for Thompson, a road plat must be reviewed by members of that board. The city has prepared a plat for the road and it's scheduled for planning board review at their meeting Tuesday, Aug. 5.

If recommended by the planning board, according to state law, the layout only needs to be approved by a majority of councilors present and voting. If disapproved by the planning board, the plat would require approval of at least two-thirds of councilors present and voting at a future meeting.

After the planning board meets, the city must notice through the mail to all property owners and mortgagers at least 30 days before the public hearing on Sept. 8. 

“It has to go in front of the planning board because the road was never technically laid out, so the planning board has to have their input on it as well,” Beattie said. 

Councilors, after the public hearing, are required to consider numerous factors in making their decision: integration with the existing road system; if doing so would ease existing traffic; improvement to the convenience of traffic; facilitation of transportation for school children; improved accessibility to business districts and employment centers; improved accessibility for fire, police and emergency services; whether doing so would benefit a significant portion or a small fraction of the city’s tax base or year-round residents; and the anticipated frequency of road use. 

If approved, anticipated costs to the city include $7,500 in increased annual maintenance until the city paves the road, and a $24,000 increase in the overall backlog of road work.

“I’m just concerned with the fact that we’re accepting a lot of roads that do not meet our standards,” Ward 5 Councilor Steven Bogert said. “They’re going to take a large chunk of money to bring them up to standards.”

And councilors also approved a request by residents of a neighborhood near Opechee Park to lower the speed limit by 5 MPH. 

A resident of Edgewater Avenue sent Ward 1 Councilor Bruce Cheney a request to reduce the speed limit on Busiel Street, Edgewater and Lewis Street from 30 to 25 MPH, and expressed concern that vehicles speed on those roads and many residents and children walk along it to access Lake Opechee.

Those roads are within the city’s urban compact zone, so the speed limit is 30 MPH, according to state law, unless the council approves a lower speed limit based on an engineering study.  

“Part of it is, there’s no sidewalks there, so people are walking generally in the street. Either in the street or on the grass,” Beattie said. “There’s a lot of crossing of that street — most of the houses are on the non-water side — so you’re crossing the street to get to the water. So they requested to lower the speed limit.”

Cheney said he attended a neighborhood meeting, and residents asked him to consider reducing the speed limit.

“When I got there, there were about 25 people there — I think everybody who lives on that street was at the meeting — and they unanimously asked that we reduce it.”