Mystic Streetscape Snowplowing Problem

When the Mystic Streetscape Phase I project was first being considered years ago, and public meetings were held to review plans, there were concerns raised by taxpayers pertaining to the re-design of West Main Street. The proposal was an attempt to beautify the area with what planners felt was an attractive parking plan along the street utilizing curb "bump outs" and creating more room for pedestrians.

However, the disadvantages seemed to involve decreasing the overall width of the street, reducing the number of parking places and creating a hardship for plowing during winter snowstorms.  

Despite the above objections, the Groton Town Planning Department chose to proceed with the street modifications. The results, coupled with construction delays, were a disaster for the downtown Mystic businesses along West Main Street. Unfortunately, the torture for them now continues into the winter, which has resulted in a recent formal complaint being filed with the Groton Town Council.  

 I first started hearing about this problem from Mystic area residents a few days ago. The Groton Town Clerk and the Groton Town Manager both co-operated promptly (for which I am grateful) with my Freedom of Information request for any communications on the problem. The resulting E-mail (below) is self-explanatory and requires no elaboration on my part. We can only hope that the Council will be able and willing to provide the attention and supervision necessary to correct the problem.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Wednesday, January 08, 2014 7:40 PM
To: Schmidt, Rita; Cerf, Genevieve; de la Cruz, Joseph; Flax, Bruce; Frink, Robert; Moravsik, Richard; Peruzzotti, Deborah; Somers, Heather; Watson, Harry
Subject: Letter to the Groton Town Council

January 6, 2014

Dear Town of Groton Councilor,

As President of The Downtown Mystic Merchants, I would like to address the situation that occurs every time there is a snow storm in our area. Last week we had a storm that finished dropping snow on Friday. The State of Connecticut plowed our West Main Street as usual and did an acceptable job. The State however does not clear the snow from the parking spaces along West Main Street. That job is handled by Town of Groton Public Works.

   As has happened with every snow storm since the creation of the Downtown Streetscape, this removal of snow to clear the parking spaces did not take place until three days after the storm passed. That resulted with a weekend of no availability for anyone to park downtown on the street. Although this is our slow season we still have to pay rent. Since almost all of our business is conducted on weekends this time of year, we were once again compromised by the Town's inability to clear snow from downtown Mystic.

This raises several issues that the newly elected Town Council needs to address.

Who was responsible for designing a streetscape that produced a situation the Town appears to be incapable of addressing in an efficient manner?

Must the Downtown Mystic Merchants always pay the price for poor planning and execution of Town projects and their subsequent inability to maintain what other communities handle efficiently?

Who is in charge of these issues?  Who is managing our Town and who is responsible to make sure the Town does not create unnecessary burdens to the business community?

    I visited both Downtown Westerly and Downtown New London on Saturday and found their parking spaces cleared. It is a sad statement to our residents and visitors that Downtown Mystic which receives the most amount of visitors in the whole state can not clear snow from their parking spaces until several days after the snow stopped falling. This should be an embarrassment the Town quickly remedies.

We lost over seven businesses downtown due to problems associated with the construction of the Streetscape project. The Director of Planning during that period arrogantly dismissed our concerns at that time and told us... not to worry... Mystic always recovers. Well those seven businesses did not recover and they did not return.   

We are all still fighting to regain what we had prior to the streetscape project. The current problem with uncleared parking spaces continues our plight.

You are our newly elected Town Council and we look to you to make changes where they are needed. We look to you because our efforts with Town Administration and past Councils have been futile. We look to you because you are all we have. Please hear our concerns and follow up with actions that result in change. I thank you for your considerations.

Sincerely,

Judy Hartley,

President
Downtown Mystic Merchants