To the editor:

On reading Michael Mangione’s letter to the editor last week about the closure of South Lake Drive, I feel compelled to respond. 

South Lake Drive is a beautiful local resource. I walk and run on it once or twice every day. In the past 25 years, I have picked up an average of one shopping bag full of trash on South Lake Drive about every third day. In the last four or five years, the dumping there has grown to include contractor and landscape waste that I could not pick up: landscape debris, lumber, concrete, appliances, a boat, furniture. 

The Barrington Department of Public Works is surely tired of me calling to report it!

In the last six months, I have talked to the regulars I meet (yes socially distanced) while walking around the lake, to gauge their feelings about closing the road to vehicular traffic. Not one person, including the regulars that drive in and park, was opposed to the idea of blocking the road to vehicular traffic, though a few were indifferent to the prospect. I am looking forward to walking, running and biking without cars to spoil the peace; I’m sure the deer, fox, coyote, turkey, ducks, geese, and osprey won’t mind either. Barrington can use another place to safely walk and enjoy nature, away from traffic.

Mike Seward

Barrington