Noel Drive blocked off

Mark Gerlach

On the North Plank Road end of Noel Drive in Newburgh a sign says “NO THRU TRAFFIC.”

One man driving a silver car did not take that sign seriously this week when he turned on to the road. He zipped toward Chestnut Lane, but stopped short when he observed a large white sign in the middle of the road that read “ROAD CLOSED.” The man then tried to bypass the sign, but a barricade forced him to turn around and head back the way he came.

“It's kind of ridiculous they all of a sudden just closed this off,” said Marlboro resident Paul Diviesti of the barrier at the Chestnut Lane end of Noel Drive. “They don't even have any signs up. You don't know that the road is closed until you get to it.”

After years of concerned residents reporting incidents of careless driving on the road, one end of Noel Drive was blocked off this week.

Noel Drive resident Larry Yantz says before the barriers were put in place, cars would race up and down the road, making it difficult for residents to pull out of their driveways. He also said that his mailbox had been knocked over about six times and that a nearby telephone poll had been hit.

According to Yantz, stop signs would have been an ineffective solution to deal with the slew of drivers that use Noel Drive as a shortcut because the signs would be ignored.

The current barriers are only a temporary solution however, as they can easily be moved.

“People have actually gotten out of their cars and moved the barricades to go through,” said Yantz, but called the current road closure a “step in the right direction.”

According to another Noel Drive resident, speed bumps are not permitted on the road.

Supervisor Wayne Booth said at a July meeting that the town board wanted at least a temporary solution to the problem by the beginning of the school year.

Booth said Thursday that the current barricade would be replaced by curbing before winter.