New Hampshire Department of Transportation is holding a public hearing in Peterborough Tuesday to air a number of recent concerns regarding state-owned roads in town. One of which is speeding on Route 101 East, with a possible reduction of the speed limit to be discussed.
The drainage problems outside the All Saints’ Church on Route 202/Concord Street and a requested bike lane on Route 202/Concord Street are also on the agenda.
DOT officials agreed to send a deputy or assistant commissioner and a local traffic engineer to the public meeting, State Representative Peter Leishman said, after he and fellow State Representative Ivy Vann sought updates on those issues through December and January.
“We decided it would be more appropriate and efficient to meet with the Town and discuss the concerns and what might be done,” NH DOT Assistant Commissioner Cass wrote in an email to Leishman.
“At least we’re getting some attention,” Leishman said.
Leishman said he didn’t believe the DOT provided a satisfactory response to residents of Route 101 near the Route 123 and Old Street intersection, who petitioned for a lower speed limit on the road.
“Others who hike across the Wapack Trail say it’s very difficult [to cross Route 101] because of people (in vehicles) racing up Temple Mountain,” he said, and that Police Chief Scott Guinard has expressed concern about speeding on the road as well.
The DOT recently agreed to make the improvements under the road to take care of drainage problems on Route 202 outside All Saints’ Church, he said.
“Initially they said they weren’t going to address it”, Leishman said. “It seems they’ve come to an agreement, it seems fair.”
In 2018, the state Attorney General determined the church was responsible for those improvements.
Vann has been leading the conversation about developing a bike lane that would run from the Jack Daniels Inn to the library on Concord Street.
“My sense is we did not get what we had agreed to,” she said of the striping the DOT painted in summer 2019.
In his response to Leishman, Assistant Commissioner Cass wrote that “we are not aware of a specific request” for a bike lane, and that they had coordinated with the town and Rep. Vann during the striping process. That section of road “gets a little complicated,” he wrote, as the DOT maintains the road between the white lines and the town maintains outside of the white lines.
“It should be an interesting discussion,” Leishman said of Tuesday’s meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 11 at 5 p.m. in the Peterborough Town House.
The scope of the meeting pertains to Routes 202 and 101 and the public will have a chance to voice their concerns, according to a town staff member.