A Glenmont landowner is hoping that pedestrians who travel a soon-to-be-completed stretch of sidewalk along Feura Bush Road near the intersection of Wemple Road, won’t find the experience too invigorating.
Jay Harold Jakovic says he is concerned that his electric fence will pose a danger to passersby walking a new section of sidewalk. Town officials have erected a plastic fence between the sidewalk and his property, but contend that there is no risk.
The sidewalk is just a level stretch of gravel now with a drainage ditch running alongside. The concrete will be poured in coming days as part of the town’s effort to offer pedestrian access to the town’s center to Glenmont residents. Work along Elsmere Avenue will also be finished up before the year’s end.
Right now, the fence is inactive and the livestock moved to fields further back from the road. In late November, Jakovic said, he will move his cattle back to the grazing area closer to the road, as he does every year, and reactivate the fence.
Running a sidewalk along an electric fence is certainly not safe, said Jakovic, who said while his primary concern is the safety of his neighbors, he also worries about being held liable if someone leaves the sidewalk and touches his fence.
`I’m not opposed to the sidewalk, I have no objection to it,` Jakovic said. `I just feel the sidewalk should be made safer.`
The town’s position is that there is no real danger posed by running a sidewalk in that location. Supervisor Jack Cunningham said that the sidewalk is about 16 feet from the fence.
`You have to go off the sidewalk, over the drainage ditch, go up and reach inside the fence to get a shock,` he said. `We don’t believe there’s any risk to residents.`
In response to Jakovic’s initial alarm, an orange construction fence was erected between the sidewalk and the fence.
Jakovic`who runs a real estate law practice in addition to raising heifers on the same land his grandfather, Harold Magee, worked decades ago`said he would like to see a more permanent fence installed, or the sidewalk built on the other side of the road entirely. Cunningham said the town looked at both sides of Feura Bush Road, and building on the southerly side would have been more costly.
`The cost would have been much greater because the terrain was a little bit more difficult for us to maneuver through,` he said. `We did look at that at one point.`
The electrical portion of the fence was recently installed. Jakovic applied to the town for a building permit on May 4 and was promptly granted approval. Electricity is carried through a single wire that runs behind the fence, though the openings in the fence are easily large enough to reach through to touch the line. Signs warn of the charged line.
Jakovic said he did not know plans to build the sidewalk were ongoing when he installed the electric line. The town had contacted all the landowners along that stretch of road`including Jakovic`earlier this year, said Cunningham, for permission to enter their land for the construction process. Later, it was realized that the Department of Transportation right of way was wider than originally thought, meaning the town didn’t need permission from landowners to put in the sidewalk.
`The original request was to get on his land to put the sidewalk in,` Cunningham said. `We determined that it wasn’t necessary.`
Jakovic said that since he didn’t hear from the town again and was aware of pressing economic issues, he assumed the project had been put on hold until bulldozers showed up.
As for putting a permanent fence up, Cunningham said that would subject to approval of the DOT, as they own the right of way.
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