Marblehead resident concerned over location of Castner memorial

MARBLEHEAD – A local resident is concerned a makeshift memorial on Pleasant Street after a Marblehead High student was killed could lead to another tragic traffic accident.Allie Castner died when she was hit by a car on Pleasant Street at 7 p.m. Aug. 24. Since that night classmates and friends have turned a town tree near the intersection of Pleasant Street and Mohawk Road into a memorial for her, leaving stuffed animals, handwritten messages, candles and other expressions of grief.Now Carl Varrell has written selectmen to express his concern that the memorial is becoming a safety hazard.Varrell said he and his wife have seen teenagers there many times and says they are in the street, not even paying attention to the traffic.”Secondly, the drivers themselves have become distracted,” he wrote. “My wife was almost hit there by another car. The other motorist was looking at the tree and crossed the (center) line. Thankfully they caught themselves before an accident occurred.”We are still grieving the loss of this lovely young woman. It is your responsibility to make sure this does not happen again. Surely there must be some other place the teens can gather, that will not impede the traffic and place another person at risk.”Unfortunately, it is clear that this tree is becoming a safety hazard and I hope you can take some kind of action.”Selectmen referred the letter to the Traffic and Safety Advisory Committee, reluctantly.Chairman Jackie Belf-Becker and Judy Jacobi agreed it was a difficult decision.”But we don’t want to create a traffic hazard,” said selectman Harry Christensen.”People gather where they want to gather, it’s a public street,” Selectmen James Nye reminded his colleagues.”I’d like to hear what the experts say. I haven’t seen a safety issue there but I’d like to hear from them,” Christensen said.”I don’t see any harm in referring it,” Jacobi said after a pause.Earlier, board members lost no time adding a new member to the Traffic and Safety Committee to fill the vacancy left by the late Dexter Gillis.Retired Police Sgt. Brian Hitchcock, who has spent the past four years working as an insurance fraud investigator, was elected unanimously.