2008-04-04-WALKS-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Sidewalk Committee Meeting Minutes April 4, 2008 Attended by: Francine Stieglitz, Lucy Fletcher-Jones, Judy Crocker, Jeanne Krieger, Richard Canale, David G. Kanter (Capital Expenditures Committee), Jerry VanHook and Sue Ellen Briggs The minutes of the March meeting were unanimously approved with no corrections Jerry reported on projects completed this past year fiscal ’07. A good amount of work has been done with a limited budget. th The Town Meeting will be discussing the sidewalk budget around April 15. In fiscal year ’06 $200,000 was budgeted for sidewalks and in fiscal ’07 $100,000 was budgeted. With this $300,000 3.25 miles of sidewalk have been repaired or added. Going forward $275,000 is proposed for sidewalks for next fiscal year. The DPW will continue to be careful with these funds to get the most work done with limited funds but it should be pointed out that the “easy” work has been done. Future repair and construction will be more costly. Town Meeting will also be discussing Article 15d, which proposes brick sidewalks on both sides of Muzzey St. between Mass Ave and the parking lot entrance as part of a five-phase multi-year project in the Center. As sidewalks are improved and repaired sometimes guardrails also need to be improved. Guardrails are designed to protect cars and not pedestrians. The Planning board requires guardrails to be smooth on both sides for safety and aesthetics. (These can be seen on Adams St.) Woburn St. resurfacing, including granite curbs and sidewalks between Mass Ave. and Lowell St. has been proposed in the FY 09 budget. In Article 15e a GIS (Geographic Information System) Implementation Plan is requested for $184,350. Richard explained that this will be used to develop a traffic calming policy and that sidewalks could be digitally added to the maps.