Broad Street resident: guardrail needed at curve DOT: No plans to improve road, but will hear out Eatontown officials BY SUE MORGAN Staff Writer EATONTOWN -- If you've traveled along Broad Street lately, you might have noticed the holly tree lying in the front yard of the Connors home. With its trunk split open and its branches and foliage horizontal to the ground, the damage to the 60-year-old tree represents only part of the frustration that residents John and Elizabeth Connors have experienced living in their home on Broad Street and Kelly's Lane. The much-cherished tree was demolished within seconds in the early morning hours of Oct. 8 after a vehicle failed to negotiate the tight curve on Broad Street, drove off the road, struck a telephone pole, and careened into the Connors' front yard before hitting the tree. The vehicle caught fire, according to Elizabeth Connors, who was home at the time of the 2:26 a.m. accident. Police responding to the scene arrested and charged Randy Jackson, 21, of Ocean Township, with driving while intoxicated and refusing to submit to a breath analysis test, according to Detective Sgt. Thomas Clayton. Jackson's passenger, Markeya Butcher, also 21 and of Ocean Township, was arrested and charged with allowing an intoxicated driver to operate her vehicle. Injured in the accident, Butcher was transported to an unidentified hospital, Clayton said. That accident was the third in less than two years to involve a motorist later charged with drunken driving, according to Connors, who shared the latest incident with officials at the Oct. 11 Borough Council meeting. A permanent, steel barrier is needed along the curve to shield the properties and to protect the lives of those whose homes line the curve, Connors said. "We're good people; we don't ask for anything," said Connors, accompanied by a few of her neighbors. "We pay our taxes. Please help us or someone will be killed." Because Broad Street is actually a portion of state Highway 71, the responsibility for maintaining the road lies with the state Department of Transportation (DOT) not the borough or county governments, Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo told Connors. Nonetheless, Tarantolo, Acting Business Administrator Kathee Stauffer and the borough police have chosen to lobby the DOT to rectify the curve, the mayor announced at the council's Oct. 25 meeting. Letters previously written to DOT by police administration documenting the accidents that have occurred near the curve appear to have fallen on deaf ears, Tarantolo said. "I can understand the frustration of our employees trying to get this resolved," the mayor said. Council President Theodore F. Lewis Jr., however, suggested working with the borough's elected representatives in the statehouse rather than trying to work with DOT. "Forget about working with DOT on those items," Lewis told the mayor. "You usually don't get a response." Tarantolo said he will be writing to DOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri asking for a solution. Though the DOT does not currently have any plans for improvements along state Highway 71 near Kelly's Lane, the agency would be pleased to speak with local officials regarding any safety concerns in that area Erin Phelan, an agency spokesperson said on Monday. The DOT does plan improvements on a portion of the roadway near Wyckoff Road, a Monmouth County highway, which will begin in 2010, Phelan said. Meanwhile, Connors and her neighbors are hoping that someone at any level of government will listen and put up a guardrail, even if it is a state-owned road. "It's a guardrail," said Connors. "It shouldn't be that hard to do."