The Meadow Road sidewalk project has a calendar again.

Town Manager Kathleen Blonski told the Farmington Town Council at its May 12 meeting that the project would return as an agenda item at the council's May 26 session and that 'if the council chooses they could take action at the June 9th meeting.' That schedule, Blonski said, represents 'just changing the schedule around a little bit' from the timeline that emerged when the council deferred its April 28 vote and asked the town's Director of Public Works and Town Engineer, Russ Arnold, to redesign the project.

The redesign has been the open question since the April 28 public hearing. The council that night took up a five-foot concrete sidewalk on the south side of Meadow Road from Wisteria Lane to New Britain Avenue — a $1,034,832 project, $500,000 of it covered by a 2023 STEAP grant and $534,832 from town capital — and didn't vote. Instead, the council asked Arnold to bring back an alternative: south side from the eastern terminus through Wakefield Lane, then crossing to the north side from Wakefield to Wisteria. That motion came from Council Member Dave Wlodkowski (D-1st District). Council Member Bill Beckert (D-2nd District), a 33-year liability attorney by trade, agreed: 'This sidewalk is going to happen.'

The Mercury covered that meeting in full.

What the Council Will See on May 26

According to Blonski's May 12 update, the May 26 meeting will be a discussion of the two options Arnold has produced — not a vote. The vote would come at the June 9 meeting, two weeks later.

The two options:

Option A — the original south-side-throughout design that received its public hearing on April 28. If the council picks this one, it can vote at its next regular meeting, because the public-hearing requirement has already been met. STEAP approval is in place. Construction proceeds on the existing schedule.

Option B — the split design Wlodkowski moved for: south side from the east end through Wakefield Lane, then north side from Wakefield to Wisteria. This one requires a new public hearing — new certified-letter notifications to abutting owners along the new alignment — and a fresh STEAP approval. Arnold told the council on April 28 that if the alignment changed, 'we'll have to go back and get approval at STEAP.'

The council intends to build the project this year — a point reinforced at a different meeting the next night.

'Council Is Committed'

On May 13, the Farmington Bicycle and Trails Advisory Committee took up the Meadow Road sidewalk during its own monthly meeting. The committee chair told members that the council was waiting on Arnold's redesign and would make a decision once it landed. Whatever the design choice, the chair said, 'either option A or option B will go forward.'

A BAC member — Andres Scalte, who spoke at the April 28 public hearing in favor of the project — asked whether the council could 'fast track' the first half of the build, on the south side through Judson Lane, while Arnold finished the split design for the western half. That way, he said, the eastern stretch could be done in time for kids riding to Westwoods Upper Elementary for the school year.

The town liaison who handles project work for the committee, Bruce Sear, said that approach wouldn't work. 'That would be difficult for contracting wise to bid out half a project and then have to add another large half in afterwards,' Sear told the committee. 'So it just it creates a nightmare with the grants, I think, as well as the cost.'

Bruce Donald, the East Coast Greenway Alliance's Southern New England manager, put a number on it: 'I would think it would inflate the cost 30, 40 percent is my guess.' A third member agreed, noting that splitting the contract would require mobilizing a crew twice. The committee accepted that phasing the construction wasn't on the table.

What is on the table is whether the build happens as Option A or Option B — and how soon Option B's second public hearing and STEAP re-approval can be arranged if the council picks it. The Bicycle Committee's own discussion of the night, which led with a different agenda item entirely, is here.

The Maintenance Question, Still Open

What April 28 also surfaced — and what May 26 will not resolve — is the structural question about who maintains the sidewalk once it's built. Under Section 169-32 of the Farmington Town Code, abutting property owners are responsible for snow removal, ongoing maintenance, and slip-and-fall liability. That's true regardless of which side of the road the sidewalk runs on. Council Member Keith Vibert (R-2nd District), who has served on the town's general Ad Hoc Sidewalk Committee, made that point on April 28: residents carry the burden either way.

Council Member Nadine Canto (R-1st District) raised the ordinance itself on April 28. Could the town take on some of the snow-removal obligation? Blonski's answer that night was structural: 'It's pretty uncommon for municipalities to maintain sidewalks of people. But that is something obviously we could look at and review. But it would be a significant shift in philosophy and not really common to what municipalities do.' Council Member Patti Boye-Williams (D-2nd District) completed the thought — taking on maintenance also means taking on liability.

That's the conversation the Ad Hoc Sidewalk Committee was supposed to be having, and the conversation Blonski now says will wait. Her May 12 update noted that the committee's planned pause 'wouldn't happen until after the meadow road is taken care of.'

So the maintenance question stays open. Meadow Road comes first.

What Comes Next

The Town Council meets May 26 to take up the two options Arnold has produced. If the council can pick one that night, the path to a vote on June 9 is intact. If the council picks Option B, the second public hearing has to be scheduled and the STEAP re-approval has to be lined up — work Arnold told the council on April 28 he would handle.

In either case, the sidewalk gets built this year.

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This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road — the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. The Mercury covers slow civic processes that produce durable things. Farmington Storage operates on the same principle, at institutional grade. 860.777.4001 📦

— Jack Beckett has been covering the Meadow Road sidewalk debate long enough to know its next chapter is May 26 and its vote is June 9. He has the dates on his calendar. He is on his fourth coffee. ☕

The Farmington Mercury covers the town nobody else is covering — the zoning meeting that ran until 10 p.m., the police log that is technically public record but that you'd never find unless someone typed it up, the board of education vote that determines what your kids learn about next year. We publish slowly, deliberately, and without apology. Our motto is 'Always last to breaking news' and we stand behind it: by the time you read this, the dust has settled, the facts are checked, and Jack Beckett has had at least two cups of coffee. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell your neighbors. #WeAreFarmington 📰