To the Editor:
A couple of years ago, the town spent what must have been quite a lot of money to make various improvements to the northwest edge of Twin Brooks Park, including extensive re-landscaping, new benches and the creation of a broad, smoothly asphalted road replacing what had been a rough and rustic path following the Pequonnock under the Route 25 overpass to the little-used Manor Drive entrance to the park.
During hundreds of visits to Twin Brooks, walking or running, during the past two years, I’ve never actually seen a vehicle, and rarely a pedestrian, using this pristine mini-highway. By contrast, one of the busiest and most important through-streets in Trumbull, Strobel Road, which connects two of the main arteries (Booth Hill Road and Daniels Farm), carries a large volume of traffic, especially weekday mornings and afternoons, including school buses and school-age drivers, to and from Trumbull High and St. Joseph, as well as plenty of commuters and commercial traffic between the east side of town and the Route 25 connector. Yet, despite its importance and dangers (e.g., several steep hills and blind bends), Strobel Road’s asphalt surface has for several years been neglected by the current administration, except for occasional spot patching and the resurfacing of a few square feet here and there after residential water or sewer hookups.
The past winter’s snowplows have only made it worse, of course, but even before that, it was a disgrace, so full of ruts, bumps and pot holes that I, for one, have begun avoiding it, by crossing the town via Nichols Road and the Parkway (both in good condition, thanks to the State).
I hate to think what it’s like to ride a school bus, with its primitive suspension and thinly upholstered seats, five days a week back and forth along the lunar surface of Strobel. I also wonder how many potential home-buyers from out of town are put off by having to endure Strobel's indignities to look at properties in Nichols. Yet a friend told me the other day that the current administration has no plans to do anything about the road until 2016, at the earliest. If that’s true, I think it’s outrageous. Trumbullites, present and potential, deserve good roads, even if it means spending less on parks.
Gordon Whatley