Letter: The Throw Away Road — South Lake Drive

Posted 4/18/21

To the editor:

Having lived my entire life in Barrington, I have reaped the benefits of traveling South Lake Drive. I have enjoyed all the magnificent beauty that nature provided. Skating, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: The Throw Away Road — South Lake Drive

Posted

To the editor:

Having lived my entire life in Barrington, I have reaped the benefits of traveling South Lake Drive. I have enjoyed all the magnificent beauty that nature provided. Skating, fishing, bird-watching, watching the herring run, painting the landscape, catching frogs, watching birds, ducks and swans. This is to name just a few things. This treasure, I went on to share with my children and grandchildren. Some of my most cherished memories are of taking my elderly mother weekly on a slow drive down South Lake Drive.

It is most curious to me that this treasure was lost to upkeep by the town to the point that the road became deplorable. The Town Manager Jim Cunha sighted at one point in the Barrington Times that the RI Country Club owned the road. The Town Solicitor later clarified that this was a town owned road. How do we lose a road?

If you had visited the South Lake Drive location, one would have thought the RI Country Club owned the road since there were huge mounds of sod deposited as well as discarded tree stumps on the side of the road. It was shocking to me that this sod was so close to fragile wetlands. The sod likely rich with chemicals would negatively impact this fragile ecosystem. One small stream appeared occluded by one sod pile.

I commented to my daughter and grandchildren it appears paradise is lost. When Councilor Carl Kustell drove down South Lake Drive and declared it was too dangerous to keep open, I hope he asked himself how did this happen. How did this road become so dangerous and deplorable? How did Barrington forget to care for this road? The road in my opinion is unsafe at this point for running, walking or riding a bike. I firmly believe the town should fix the road so that we can all enjoy this iconic place in Barrington. The repairs should allow cars to once again drive down this beautiful road.

Katheryn Rosener

Barrington

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.