WILTON – The Planning Board unanimously approved a 98-spot parking lot and entryway at Jarden Plastic Solutions Thursday, following a public hearing.
Jarden is the country’s largest producer of private label plastic cutlery, employing 220 people out of its factory at the end of Mill Street, off Main Street in East Wilton. The new lot would connect to the existing lot to the west of the factory, but would run to the north and consist purely of employee parking. A new employee entryway into the campus would be created north of the new lot, intersecting with Pleasant Street.
According to Jason Holman, the Jarden plant manager, the project would help separate employees from the tractor trailer trucks that arrive frequently at the site. Currently, the two are forced to intermingle at times, creating a safety hazard. The project would also create a second egress from the site, an element that addresses safety concerns relating to evacuations and prevents a single stuck truck in the winter from blocking an entire shift.
Local residents living along Pleasant Street, and nearby Railroad Street and Temple Road, expressed concerns regarding the increase in traffic. Each shift is roughly 20 to 30 cars, one group arriving and the other leaving, according to Holman.
Prior to the public hearing, Holman noted that Railroad Street would be declared off-limits for employees. Railroad Street connects Pleasant with Main Street and is narrower than Pleasant with worse sight lines. Employees would instead be instructed to arrive via Temple Road and then Pleasant Street, before turning into the new driveway. Heavy traffic, such as trucks picking up products or delivering resin, would be required to use the Main Street/Mill Street entrance.
Holman said that Jarden would make the Railroad Street ban a job requirement and part of the training of employees.
Additionally, speaking as the town’s Road Commissioner, Town Manager Rhonda Irish said that the Selectboard could consider making Railroad Street closed to through traffic entirely. She also suggested installing a speed limit sign to reflect the 30 mph limit on Pleasant and request that Maine Department of Transportation extend that zone up another 900 feet or so to the east on Pleasant. A vehicle entering sign would be installed and other measures could be taken as well, including stepped up enforcement, the use of speed recording devices and installing pedestrian crossing lights at a related crosswalk.
During the public hearing, residents said that they were worried about the additional traffic along Pleasant. Some said they had kids that walked to a nearby bus stop along the road, which does not have sidewalks. There were a number of propositions to have the new lot connect internally to the factory, rather than through a Pleasant egress. Holman said that those options would not create the second entrance into the factory, which would make it difficult to separate trucks from employees.
Multiple residents compared Jarden’s desire to protect their employees with their desire to protect their children along Pleasant Street and the surrounding neighborhood. “This isn’t going to end well,” resident Tammy Mayhew said.
Prior to the hearing, Planning Board Chair Michael Sherrod noted that the board had to utilize the town’s zoning ordinances as they relate to the project, rather than making judgement calls. The board did note that their decision could be appealed to the town’s Appeals Board within 30 days.
Following the hearing, the board moved methodically through findings of fact as they related to the project, determining that Jarden’s project met all of the zoning ordinance requirements. They set a condition that Railroad Street would be off-limits to employees, with that being part of their training, and also made a number of suggestions. These included extending the 30 mph zone another 900 feet east on Pleasant, with appropriate signage; potentially having MDOT install a traffic safety signal at the nearby Temple Road, Main Street and Cemetery Road intersection; having a ‘caution: vehicle entering’-style sign installed; and asking the town’s Road Committee to look into installing sidewalks along Pleasant.
The vote to approve the project was unanimous, 7 to 0.
This article reminds me of the fact that Jarden (Plastic Solutions) closed down the Forster then Diamond woodenware plants in Wilton, East Wilton, and Strong. These plants made Round Toothpicks, Flat Toothpicks, Spring Clothespins, Skews, other woodenware items, and were very profitable.
The machinery producing round Worlds Fair Toothpicks made and automatically packaged 3,000,000 picks from a single cord of White Birch. The Ideal Spring Clothespins were assembled and packaged at a rate of 120 per minute.
Jardine still sells these items but now sources them in China.
As the homeowner on the corner of Mill and Main, I am excited about this as it will mean fewer trucks falling into my drainage ditch due to not enough room to make the corner with constant traffic in and out of the factory. It will also mean fewer traffic jams in the winter when trucks are stuck on the hill of Mill Street. I do believe though that Jardens needs to do a better job with training their employees about road etiquette as all summer and winter we would hear trucks and cars continually honking and doing burnouts at all hours of the day and night when their shift ended. This made the nights fun this summer with a newborn baby at home…not! I also had previously contacted Wilton PD and asked them to sit in my driveway and watch the employees burnout and honk continually at all hours, but they never took me up on the offer/suggestion.