Seymour Residents Voice Concerns About Paving Problem

Neighbors say paving problems are still causing a mess on their streets in Seymour.

Now the first selectman is taking the heat for what happened.

The town says it's still debating whether to continue sealing these roads or find the money to repave them. Whatever officials decide, residents are still looking for answers.

"The gravel just goes everywhere. The dust in the air actually is a big problem," said Rose Carey.

The dust bothers Carey's 9-year-old daughter, who has asthma.

"We're looking for answers," Carey said.

Carey showed us the tar and gravel filled roads on the corner of Halsey Street and Colony Road, where the bus picks her daughter up every day.

"She's always had asthma," Carey added. "She was advised to limit the dust that you breathe in certain chemicals of course and as explained in the meeting we also don't know what that is."

It's one of many questions a packed house of Seymour residents had for town officials Thursday night.

"It's frustrating as people are maintaining their yards, their lawns their flower gardens there's lots of repair work we have to do individually," said James Simpson of Seymour.

According to the town it's all the result of a paving job that started in the fall. A contractor was chip sealing but the oil used for the project didn't set. Contractors laid out stone dust to absorb the oil but that's only a short term fix.

"I apologize we don't have all those answers yet but until we take that stone dust off and give the town engineers an opportunity to review that it would simply be a guess," said First Selectman W. Kurt Miller, who took the blame for the problems. He says they're going to continue to reevaluate the problems.

"Every time a truck or a car or a bus goes down my street there's huge clouds of dust that come up," said Peter Rzasa of Seymour, who still wants to know if the stone dust that was already put down is toxic.

"What are the hazardous components and what are the effects on our health?" Rzasa added.

The town is determining whether the contractor should be held liable. Then they can figure out what they can do to solve these paving problems.

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