Editor:
    Why on earth can’t a bank customize one of the empty store buildings on the other side of the Stop & Shop property? It doesn’t look as if they are going to be occupied any time soon.
    It has been suggested that a movement be started, if it is not already too late, to make the neighboring farmhouse property, that the bank plans to raze for building space, into a National Historic Site. We need speedy research to see if this is feasible and whether with low cost loans it would make the property attractive to a business or organization that would restore it. It will take restoration work, but a low cost loan might make it plausible.
     I plan to attend a Maine Department of Transportation meeting together with many fellow residents of The Farragut on Nov. 16, to express our concern about future plans for the traffic pattern of a proposed neighboring bank property between the Stop & Shop and The Farragut. The supermarket will be only too happy to have the additional traffic so I hope both IN and OUT traffic can be diverted directly towards its building. At present, there seems to be a plan to empty bank traffic onto Farragut Way.
     If our roadway becomes treacherous, Stop & Shop will lose its new walk-in neighbor customers who if they get in their cars can just as easily drive to their more nearly favorite shopping places! I for one don’t like to walk the distances within this giant store, much as I need the exercise. Many still prefer Garden Street Market, while I like the size of Bradbury’s in Cape Porpoise and Ray’s in Biddeford, for instance. Variety is not an issue for me. The proximity is the only thing that brings me to Stop & Shop from time to time. The management should protect the access from 50 or more households right next door.
     I am already concerned about the safety of other Farragut residents as well as my handicapped husband who loves having the smoothly paved path to the new Stop & Shop so convenient that he can walk there by himself with his stroller/grocery carrier, since he can’t drive. It has given him new freedom all of a sudden after six years post-stroke. He has learned to walk facing driveway traffic on Farragut Way, having crossed well below the path, across from the exit door from The Farragut. It is the only safe way to go without a crosswalk with a pedestrian warning sign. We need pedestrian warning signs, I presume, if no crosswalk is forthcoming.
     If he were to walk on the sidewalk on the right toward the place where there is no protected crosswalk to the Stop & Shop path, when he crosses he risks cars driving slowly enough but at too high speed to notice and stop for anyone as they enter Farragut Way and proceed to homes below.
     I know the current danger because I was with him the first time he used the push cart grocery carrier. I went with him a second time when we discovered the safer way to cross and walk facing, the albeit occasional, always unexpected traffic.
     Can you imagine what additional traffic from a drive-thru lane would do to this situation for all of our residents if the new bank is allowed to direct it through onto Farragut Way?
     I asked the question at the residents’ meeting last Saturday: “Who owns and maintains Farragut Way?” I was told that the Town of Kennebunk has never taken over the maintenance of Farragut Way and that it is our property and responsibility. The board of selectmen has discussed whether a cross walk is necessary and apparently aren’t in a position to understand why it is. The manager of Stop & Shop had told me he would try to have it painted if The Farragut board would write permission.
     The Farragut residents will appreciate the support of others in the community who can attend the Maine Department of Transportation meeting Nov. 16.
 
Mary Elizabeth Nordstrom
Kennebunk