Jim Perigny of River Road has a 2-year-old son, and is worried that large trucks on his street make it unsafe, particularly during winter, when snow makes it even narrower.
“He’s going to be 16 before I don’t carry him,” he said. “It’s precarious, to say the least.”
The town instituted a six-ton weight limit for through truck traffic on David Village Road, Ashby Road, Mason Road and River Road in December 2014 to reduce wear and tear on town highways, improve traffic safety and protect taxpayers’ investment on the newly paved roads. At the time, David Keurulainen protested that the limits would make it difficult for working people to get around town in their trucks, and in June 2021, he said the weight limits made it impossible to travel legally in his truck to his home, and that the weight limits were unnecessary due to reduced gravel-hauling in town.
The board unanimously voted to remove the limits, and Perigny and other River Road residents asked Select Board members last week to reinstate them.
“I don’t know how many residential roads in town see that kind of traffic,” Richard Smeeth said. “It’s dangerous.”
“We’re asking for River Road to be protected for us, for our taxes,” Louise Delpapa said. “We want the sign back. Please help us.”
Select Board member Jason Somero, who made the motion to remove the weight limits in 2021, read from the decision of State v. Moore in 1940, in which Concord’s ordinance requiring anyone doing business in the city to get a license was found to violate the constitutional principle of equal protection because licenses were only granted to local businesses: “(R)elief from highway congestion may not be accomplished by unfair discriminatory measures. While the use of the highways is a privilege, the privilege may not be granted arbitrarily and be bestowed at will and pleasure as a favor to some groups of travelers while imposing a deprivation of use on others. … (P)ermission of highway use for the local business …, while such use for other trucks and job-teams is thus restricted, displays a disregard, if not defiance, of the principle of constitutional equality.”
Somero added that “the state makes it clear, the primary use of the roads” is for commerce.
“How much more dangerous does a dump truck pose than a car? What about an electric car? You can’t hear it,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want a road where you’d want your kids to play basketball on it?”
Several residents exclaimed that playing basketball was not what they were looking for, with Perigny saying he just wanted his 2-year-old to be safe. Smeeth said without a restriction, anything can happen, and that he came to the Select Board five years ago and said he was afraid of dying in his own home.
“This is a long-term issue that we’re talking about,” he said.
Select Board Chair Shawn Talbot said he was torn on the issue because of the potential for taking a toll on commerce, but that a public hearing should be held before adopting an ordinance. Board members voted 2-1, with Talbot and Lou Alvarez in favor and Somero opposed, to hold a public hearing Nov. 28 at 7 p.m.