The location of Mill Street in East Wilton. The Wilton Board of Selectpersons voted on Tuesday, Sept, 19, to close the road to winter maintenance after it was discovered the town was responsible for plowing. Brian Ponce/Franklin Journal
WILTON — After a public hearing was held on Tuesday, Sept. 19, the Wilton Board of Selectpersons voted unanimously to close Mill Street, located off of Main Street in East Wilton, to winter maintenance.
Mill Street joins Farmer Road, Cemetery Road, Hanslip Road, and Magrath Road for roads in Wilton that are closed to winter maintenance due to the conditions of the road. The Select Board voted to stop winter maintenance to the other four roads in May.
Town Manager Perry Ellsworth stated that this closure would not affect summer maintenance and the road will still be maintained during the summer months.
“We discovered this year that we have an additional road that we’ve never maintained or plowed,” he said. “We have the proof that the road belongs to the town.”
Ellsworth stated one of the driving reasons to close off the road to winter maintenance is the condition of the road and a large pothole that is in the center of the road. He stated that the town has attempted to fill the pothole three times, but the heavy rainfall over the summer has made it difficult to keep if filled.
“As soon as we get paving, we’re gonna fill that up,” he stated.
Ellsworth stated that he had spoken with Jarden Plastic Solutions, which is located on 5 Mill Street in Wilton, about maintaining the road in the winter.
“So we’re not looking to close it to Mill Street, which is goes up to Jardens, to summer maintenance,” Ellsworth stated, “but in an agreement between myself and the plant manager, they would just continue to plow it in the winter themselves.”
Selectperson Mike Wells asked if the road was a dead end and if it was possible the town could deed to the road to Jarden Plastic Solutions.
“They approached us for the summer maintenance and proved to us that we owned it,” Ellsworth answered. “So yes, I’ve had that conversation, but they have a desire to fill that pothole.”
Ellsworth also shared that the culvert system on Mill Street, with the excessive rains, have damaged part of the foundation of the property on the side where the canal runs past the road.
“State came up and said they didn’t have any jurisdiction to take care of that,” he added. “That was an insurance issue, and you can see just down from there, there’s an awful lot of water there anyway because those cones have been there now for the last three or four four-inch storms that we’ve had and it’s still not repaired.”
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