METUCHEN — Borough officials say they have contacted county officials to see what they can do about implementing a traffic light at the intersection of Sharon Court and New Durham Road.
Mayor Thomas Vahalla said they have contacted the county because New Durham is a county road, and they have also begun consulting with the borough’s traffic official.
The move was prompted by 10-year-old Alexandria “Allie” Wonski, who with help from her grandmother, Lynda Wonski, last summer set out on a campaign to get a traffic light installed at the intersection. She said she had gotten the idea to organize a campaign from an American Girls book that she read. With the help of her grandmother, she gathered 100 signatures by canvassing neighborhoods around Sharon Court.
“Allie at first came to me and asked if we could get 500 signatures,” Wonski said. “I was not so sure about 500 signatures, but agreed that 100 signatures may be good. We worked on this for a year.”
Allie was prompted by the actions of the character in the book she read, deciding that if “Julie canmake changes in her school, then she can make changes on her street,” Wonski said.
Vahalla thanked Allie and her grandmother for conducting the legwork. The council unanimously agreed to contact the county.
Allie attended the council meeting on June 13 and presented her concern to the mayor and the entire council. She had previously written a letter and spoken with Councilman James Wallace.
“The problem is that no one can turn left onto New Durham Road and out of our neighborhood, andwe have no other way out,” Allie has said.
Neighbors came out to the council meeting in support of Allie’s endeavor. One neighbor suggested to the council that if a traffic light were to be implemented on Sharon Court, then it would be better to be a sensor-sensitive signal, where the traffic light would turn green when someone was trying to get out of Sharon Court. This way, he said, the traffic light would not add congestion to the already busy New Durham Road.