The latest effort by the C-R Pathways committee is a doozy.

The Warrenton Street Project in Rockport is about to break ground. It is being done with deliberate stealth and arrogance. And your dollars.

The Town voters approved a bond measure in November 2024 to allow the town to handle maintenance to culverts and storm water issues on several streets. It appears that the bond money is also being used to construct a BRAND NEW MULTI-USE PATHWAY. Few, if any, who voted for that bond measure would have had any idea they would be funding NEW MULTI-USE PATHWAYS to transform their neighborhoods!

In the interest of brevity, I will bullet point some of the key aspects.

• Cost? No one will say. Considering the surveying costs, the engineering cost, the construction cost and the paving cost...the total could be in the hundreds of thousands (or more) for all targeted streets combined.

• The Town commissioned a full-blown street survey last summer. When residents called the Public Works Department to ask what was going on, the rep. said she did not know.  

• Only when a small blurb in the PenBay Pilot that appeared a couple of months ago were residents tipped-off that something called the, "WARRENTON STREET PROJECT," was afoot.

• There was NO mention of the Warrenton Street Project on the Town's official "Projects" page. And there still isn't.

• Once the storm water and culvert work is done, the Town will be confiscating thousands of square feet of private homeowner's yards that abut Warrenton Street — they claim vociferously that they have the right.

Parts of lawns, yards and driveways will be torn-up. Mailboxes will be moved.

• Then, a five-foot wide multi-use Pathway will be constructed parallel to Warrenton Street beginning at Route 1 and extend to the pump station. It ENDS at the pump station.  It is a PATHWAY TO NOWHERE.

• The remainder of Warrenton may get a Pathway in Phase Two IF the Committee gets its way.  Phase Two has no timeline (may take years, if ever, to complete), no official funding and is dependent upon a private property owner giving the Town permission to place this multi-use Pathway upon approximately 700 feet of his property something the Town has not yet even begun to acquire.

• At some point, the Pathway MUST cross Warrenton St. since the Samoset is on the opposite side of the street. Where that safety confliction zone will be located is undetermined.

• The Pathway will have a striped two-foot buffer zone closest to the street leaving a total of three feet to be used by bicyclists, pedestrians, parents pushing strollers and people using mobility devices traveling in either direction at the same time. That's crazy.• The Pathway will be completely level with the street (the street is curvy, hilly and has a valley.)

• There will be NO curbing between the street and the Pathway.

• There will be NO vertical barrier between the street and the Pathway.

• There will be NO rumble strip.

• The posted speed limit on Warrenton is 35 mph, meaning that vehicles often travel much faster.

• Due to a truck restriction on Waldo Ave. ALL  trucks going to/from the Samoset Resort MUST use Warrenton St. including massive commercial trucks weighing up to 70,000 pounds.

• Warrenton has extremely limited sightlines in several places due to hills, valleys and sharp curves.

• People, sometimes including toddlers with pales in hand, cross Warrenton nearly every day in spring, summer and most of fall to go down to Clam Cove via an unmarked path at the bottom of the valley, the most dangerous part of Warrenton.

• The parking area for folks going to the Cove will be eliminated and not replaced.

• NO traffic study has ever been conducted to determine if this Pathway enhances safety in any way.

• There was NO public hearing about this Project.

• NO homeowners on Warrenton (those directly affected) were ever interviewed by any town official before this Project was given approval.

• A primary  goal of this Pathway is to benefit guests of the private Samoset Resort something which irks many Rockport taxpayers.

• Warrenton St. is inherently dangerous. It is only due to random luck that there hasn't been a serious pedestrian/vehicle accident thus far. However, the purpose of this Pathway is to encourage folks to get out of their cars and experience Pathways.

Increased usage of Warrenton St. by pedestrians, bicyclists, parents pushing strollers and folks using mobility devices INCREASES the probability of an accident involving serious bodily injury.

• It will take only ONE serious accident related in any way to the NEW, UNSAFE PATHWAY to have Camden and Rockport to be named as co-defendants in a reckless endangerment lawsuit. The judgement against the towns could be enormous requiring ALL homeowners to pay the judgement through their property taxes.

• The Committee says Warrenton is their first target street. They have many more in their sights.

Nothing about the Warrenton Street Multi-use Pathway is justified. It is unsafe and ill-conceived.  It violates the Pathway charter. The Project to carve-up the neighborhood has been hidden. Getting information about the scope of the Project has been difficult. Town officials are refusing to supply information about funding and cost.

Residents in Glen Cove have often been treated as step-children by Town officials. A stealth Project like this would never have happened in the Village.  But residents of Glen Cove have pride and will not sit idly by while an unsafe pathway is constructed and rammed through by certain Town officials.The Rockport Select Board must act in the interest of Rockporters/Camdeners and terminate the reckless Pathway aspect of Warrenton Street Project!

Monday night, April 13, at 6 p.m., the Rockport Select Board meets at the lower level of the Opera House. I strongly encourage all interested residents from Rockport -and- Camden to attend! (6 Central St. Rockport.) Tell them what you think about this irresponsible Project!

Ethan Jones lives in Rockport