Dehart Area Residents Concerned with U-Turns, Trash

With several establishments on Dehart Street being popular spots in town, the relationship between businesses and residents is often tested.

Christine Conti-Collins, a resident of the 40 Park condos, brought up her concerns to Town Council about the cleanliness surrounding her home.

“This is the sixth time that I’m here about this, the trash in the Dehart Street alley,” she said, directing her question specifically at Councilmembers Rebecca Feldman, Toshiba Foster and Kevin Gsell.

“What are you going to do to address the problem with the amount of trash that’s out there from Thursday night to Monday morning. It’s hot, there are bugs all over, birds are picking at the trash. The alley is not usable.”

Conti-Collins also asked the council to address the “trucks that park on the sidewalk on Dehart Street.

“We were told a year ago that a committee was going to be formed and that the public would be involved,” she said. “The public has not been involved and the trucks still park on the sidewalk. We’ve gone to Public Works and gotten no where, so where else are we supposed to go?”

At a recent town council meeting, Phil Abramson of the town’s planning department gave a presentation on a plan to change the town’s parking restrictions and loading zones within the public roadways surrounding the Epstein’s Rehabilitation area.

“There is, available on the town website, the results of the loading study and the circulation study that was done for the entire block—Maple, Market, South, Dehart—that includes recommendations for most of this area,” said Feldman, in response to Conti-Collins’ concerns. “We have just voted to allow this to go forward and be implemented to address trucks and where they load and unload.”

Not too far away, new residents Tim and Lisa Ventola recently moved to Morristown, to Maple Avenue near Route 202/Market Street, where they’re experiencing a traffic and safety concern with people making U-turns.

“We love it here in Morristown, but we are having some issues,” said Lisa Ventola. “We have a tremendous amount of people making U-turns in the middle of the road and into our complex and backing out. We’ve seen several accidents almost occur. Even when walking down the street, several cars almost hit us.”

She referred to those traveling down Maple Avenue and making a U-Turn at the end near Market Street to avoid going on to Market.  

“Also, cars are using our development as a thruway to make it down to MacCulloch (Avenue from Maple Avenue),” she said. “They’re speeding through … day and night.”

In the beginning, councilmembers had differing opinions on how to handle it.

Feldman suggested that the town council arrange to meet with the administration to discuss the traffic issue. On the other hand, Councilwoman Alison Deeb asked to discuss the issue during the meeting because it would not take much time. She wanted to look into “the legality of this u-turn because we don’t have anything in the town code that says that u-turns are legal or not legal. To put a sign on the street, we would need a code.”

However, soon they came to a consensus that Deeb will work with the administration to address the Ventolas’ problem.

Feldman said that the council would pass on Conti-Collins’ concerns and the u-turn issue to the same team that did the Epstein’s study.

“Signs and enforcement is one thing, but sometimes design changes can also help address these issues,” said Feldman. “We have a team that’s capable … I would like for (them) to come back to us with a report if possible in the next 60-80 days.”

“Having just been hit by a car trying to make a u-turn, this issue is front and center for me right now,” said Deeb. “Since it’s not a thru street, people are getting to the end, where the knitting place is (Accents on Knits), they realize they don’t want to go to the Green because of the traffic there and they make a u-turn. That’s a very common traffic problem. I think it would be good if we were proactive to prevent it.”

Deeb also suggested a “short-term work around solution” to put a sign up on the north side of Maple Avenue in front of the Wells Fargo bank parking lot that says ‘not a thru street’ or a directional sign letting drivers know that “if they want to make a left on Dehart, they should go around the block.”