Its been a year since the Guilford Safe Streets Mobility Task Force was formed and now the Board of Selectmen (BOS) is finally ready to start appointing members and put the group to work.

Selectmen established the task force in April 2018 following many heated debates over the likes of the Shoreline Greenway Trail (SGT), the proposed Nut Plains Pathway, and pedestrian safety in general with the hope that a task force can help guide a more orderly and transparent approach to similar issues and efforts in future.

The committee is tasked with taking a broad look at pedestrian safety and transportation across the whole town. Plans for the committee were set in motion after the Nut Plains and SGT debates and after numerous residents came forward with petitions earlier this year asking for sidewalks in certain areas in town. First Selectman Matt Hoey said the plan will address all concerns raised and will focus on pedestrian safety including walking, cycling, and pushing of strollers, as well as concerns related to cars such as transportation and traffic-calming solutions.

At the time the task force was established, Hoey said at least 15 people had volunteered for the committee. While the charge of the committee is not yet set in stone, he said the goal is for the committee to be large enough so that it can look at various issues and so that all opinions have equal representation. Hoey said town staff such as the police, town planner, and town engineer will be made available to the committee for when input is needed.

Hoey said appointing people to the task force had been delayed because he had struggled to find a person to chair the task force. At the BOS meeting on May 6, Hoey said resident Sam Gerritz has volunteered to lead.

“He has been very active in a variety of forums and organizations throughout town,” he said. “So now the process from here will be to go back to those people who had shown interest, to determine if they are still interested, and my hope is at our second May meeting that we will have a slate of people to put up for this.”

Between the establishment of the task force and now, Hoey reminded the public that the BOS also secured $350,000 from the Board of Finance (BOF) for the task force.

“We secured funding for consultants or facilitators and demonstration projects,” he said.