I am featuring a few photos of “guardrails” or lack of, to highlight a problem that never really crossed my mind until a few months ago.

I have a friend who is sight impaired. He was walking near his work on New Britain Road in Kensington and fell into a culvert that was at least 10 feet deep. It is a miracle he was not killed, because he fell within inches of a large cement pipe that empties into the culvert. He ended up having to climb up out of the culvert himself because no one saw him fall. He sustained a broken nose which had to be rebroken a few times and literally reconstructed. He still has scars on his nose and face and has severe back trauma.

The culvert he fell into bears a striking resemblance to the culvert on Rt. 10 near Pauls Restaurant. In fact-it is almost identical. Both culverts had no guard rail on the side. The culvert on New Britain Road at least had that aluminum guardrail that goes along New Britain Road. The culvert on Rt 10 HAS NOTHING!!

Both culverts had that short telephone pole “barrier” if you will, but if you look closely at the first photo that was taken on Rt. 10 in Cheshire (I don’t have a photo of the culvert on New Britain Rd), you will see what I saw on New Britain Rd–the “poles have holes for guy wires-BUT THEY ARE MISSING-OR WERE NEVER INSTALLED!!

The second photo shows the view from Rt. 10 going north. THERE IS NOTHING AT ALL TO STOP A SWERVING OR SKIDDING CAR FROM ENDING UP IN THAT CULVERT!!

WHAT GIVES!!

And what if a sight impaired person was walking over there on Rt. 10-GOOD LUCK!!

The next two photos show HOW A GUARDRAIL SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTED TO PREVENT A CAR AND A PEDESTRIAN FROM FALLING INTO THE CULVERT.

The third photo was taken on Mt. Vernon Road in Southington. You see here the aluminum guardrail surrounds the entire culvert way past the 10 foot right of way. You know, you could be walking at night and fall into these unguarded culverts, you do not have to be sight impaired in the least.

The fourth photo was taken on Marion Rd in Cheshire-this guardrail was also constructed correctly. It surrounds the entire culvert.

I never really thought about this much until my friend Rob sustained those horrific injuries. I will try to contact the state and find out what the story is because both of the problem areas are on state roads.

In other news, I did speak briefly on Monday to Cheshire Town Council person Anne Giddings about that potential Hipaa and potential Fourth Amendment issue. I really enjoyed her honesty. I really like Anne, she is a nice woman, intelligent and not afraid to speak her mind ON ALL THE ISSUES!!

She told me she wants people to feel free to come before the Town Council and express their opinions. I agree. I hope we will see more people feeling comfortable expressing themselves–being able to speak openly about issues they have about the school system, the police department-ANY DEPARTMENT AND ANY ISSUE!!

I hope we will see the end of the “don’t encourage this” attitude I have seen in this town for many years. I hope we will see the end of “let’s wash our hands of this issue and let a consultant handle it” attitude also.

The issues with the police department should have been discussed in front of the Town Council. There was no need for a one time consultant for $5,000!!! The men and women of the police department and ANY DEPARTMENT IN THE TOWN OF CHESHIRE should be made to feel comfortable discussing issues out in the open with the Town Council!!

And if you are on the Town Council and concerned about how much time it is taking for the meetings-then you know what–RESIGN!!

I hope we are not seeing the same situations occurring with different names. We already saw the Republicans vote for ANOTHER CONSULTANT with the Police Department; waste thousands of dollars to dredge Mixville so a few people can CANOE there!! COME ON!! If the Dems did that we would never hear the end of it. The T.C. will probably spend millions on this pool they supposedly CAN’T STAND when the option of using Elim Park was never discussed.

I hope this town will cater to ALL PEOPLES NEEDS, NOT A FEW MAJOR BUSINESS PEOPLE AND REAL ESTATE COMPANIES!! It seems we cannot get away from this attitude now can we.

Now I am down to three or four more months left in Cheshire. It has been a tough fight but honestly I would not have had it any other way. One of my favorite movies is “Patton.” I love the scene where Patton, (played by George C Scott) is looking over the remnants of a hard fought battle and he says “I Love It-God Help Me I Do Love It So.”

Exactly.