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Pound Ridge Looks To Calm Scotts Corners Speeders

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. – To slow down drivers in the Scotts Corners business district, the Pound Ridge Town Board is considering some changes along Westchester Avenue.

“We’ve been dealing with this problem for a couple of years now,” said Town Supervisor Gary Warshauer. “There is a lot of speeding that goes on in Scotts Corners on Westchester Avenue from the Connecticut border to the Ambulance Corps building. That whole stretch is a problem.”

Warshauer said the Pound Ridge Police Department has intensified speed enforcement in the area over the past few years, but it hasn’t had the effect officials had hoped for.

So, instead, the town is turning to what officials call “traffic calming measures.”

The measures include constructing islands at two locations along Westchester Avenue to narrow the roadway, placing speed-flashing trailers at strategic points on the side of the road, painting reflective signs and lines on the road itself, and installing raised crosswalks.

“We are looking at putting in center islands in the road in front of Scotts Corner Market where the road widens, and at the other end near the Ambulance Corps building,” Warshauer said.

Warshauer said the islands would initially be constructed with fixed cone-like lane markers – the kind often used for highway dividers. The town has to repave Westchester Avenue in Scotts Corners next year, so the construction of the permanent islands, which would include landscaping, would be done then.

The raised crosswalks would be installed at the same places where existing ones are – one by Blind Charlie’s Café and other by the Trinity Pass Road intersection.

Warshauer said the raised crosswalks could be installed anytime and wouldn’t have to wait for the paving project.

“We can do those anytime because they can be adjusted,” he said.

The plan also calls for putting signs and stripes on the road surface.

“The signage would be on the road near the Connecticut border,” Warshauer said. “It would be reflective and say something like, ‘Entering Pound Ridge Business District – Slow Down.’ ”

Warshauer said that Town Board member Richard Lyman and Highway Superintendent Vinnie Duffield are “crunching numbers” and working on an implementation schedule for the project. He said he hopes some of the initial work can begin as early as next month.

“We don’t have any [cost] figures yet,” he said. Lyman and Duffield “are working on those, and they’ll be presented to the Town Board at some point.”

Warshauer said the town had not budgeted for the project, so the money would have to come from contingency or the fund balance. Another option, however, is a state grant. At the Supervisor’s Forum held Saturday, Warshauer and Lyman met with Assembly member Robert Castelli and state Sen. Greg Ball, who said they may be able to find grant money for the project.

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