West Village to Try New Look
by Robbie Stanley

Ferry Road between Route 7 and Greenbush Road in the West Village will be sporting newly painted lines to create a pedestrian lane and to try out a new strategy for protecting the corners of the World War I monument. Regularly scheduled paving will be done in July, so the Selectboard agreed to ask Road Commissioner Junior Lewis to paint lines on the north side of Ferry Road from the Little Garden Market to the Greenbush intersection to demarcate a three-foot wide lane. It will also take some width from the south half of the four corners intersection so that north-bound vehicles will have a little more room to make the difficult turn without running over the garden bed that surrounds the monument.
The pedestrian lane will not be a sidewalk. It will provide a designated area for walkers to move east and west through the West Village center and enable children from the Charlotte Children’s Center to go from their building to the library, the Senior Center and the Town Green safely.
In addition to gaining room in the north lane from striping, the Selectboard is looking into new ideas generated during a lively discussion at the June 8 meeting about the monument and flower bed.
Caretakers of the monument questioned the Selectboard’s disinclination to move it closer to the Old Brick Store, creating more room to make the turn north onto Greenbush Road. The Selectboard was not convinced the monument needed to be moved but in the end agreed to try a short-term solution that will gain lane width by incorporating the new striping and rounding the corners. A budget of up to $9,000 was approved at the June 15 meeting. A surveyor will be called in to determine whether a stone wall on the west side of Greenbush Road is in the town’s right of way. If so, the owner may be required to remove it, thus giving north-bound trucks a few extra feet.
Alexandra Lehmann, who plants and cares for the flowers, asked that repairs be made and the corners rounded before repaving begins, using concrete curbing for the time being. Road Commissioner Junior Lewis agreed, saying that if the 18” granite curbing was installed, trucks would still drive over it, possibly damaging not only the monument but their axles as well. A few members of the audience brought up moving the nine-ton granite memorial to the Town Green, an idea previously considered and rejected.
The Selectboard decided at its June 8 meeting to try out the striping before committing to either project when the road is paved. Once the new lines are painted, the Selectboard would like to know what residents think about both the pedestrian lane and the newly configured intersection. Leave a message with Selectboard Assistant Dean Bloch at 425-3533 or send e-mail to selectboard@townofcharlotte.com. There will also be a poll on The Charlotte News blog (charlotteswebvt.blogspot.com) where votes can be cast.