HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-04-WALKS-min
SIDEWALK COMMITTEE
Minutes of April 4 2005 Meeting
The Lexington’s Sidewalk Committee meeting was convened by Chairman
Craig Weeks at 11:10 in the Selectman’s Meeting Room.. The first order of
business was to discuss the protocol for meetings of all official Lexington
committees, ours included, which must follow the open meeting law. Notice
must be posted 48 hours in advance of all meetings where policy issues are
discussed by a quorum of members and/or votes are taken on matters of
public interest. The minutes of these committee meetings must also be made
available to the public. Craig stated that the minutes in final form could
be made publicly available using the Sidewalk Comm. website being
developed which will be linked to the Town website.
Olga Guttag suggested that significant subcommittee documents or
findings with public impact should also be posted on the web to avoid any
suggestion of actions kept from public view. It was agreed through
discussion that it would generally not be necessary to post Sidewalk
subcommittee meeting times, meeting minutes, or email interactions between
members, but that documents and notices of interest to the public would be
made accessible, usually at the website.
It was agreed that all subcommittees will bring materials to be
distributed publicly to the entire committee for approval. This will
allow multiple subcommittees to use one joint publication representing all
interests.
COMMITTEE UPDATES
Community focus group: Sue-Ellen Briggs said that her focus team had
met and that a survey had been drafted and sent out to parents asking about
present practices and future preferences regarding travel to and from school
The survey had been submitted to and approved by the superintendent of
schools. School principals and the PTA groups had also been contacted
before submission for distribution. Olga stated that each school has a
School Council organization which should also be informed. She emphasized
the importance of top-down informing of relevant officials/groups.
Stephanie Mitzenmacher had agreed to work with Lex MM to get notice out to
the general public about committee plans and objectives. After developing
a presentation, the focus group is planning to have a number of public
meetings describing our initiative and soliciting public discussion and
feedback
Olga stated that the Center Collaborative Comm. was active in looking
for improvements for pedestrian facilities in the Center and should be
appraised of our efforts. This group is planning a charrette on June 11
and our committee should be involved. Craig will see about a spokesperson
from our group for this event.
Website development: Lucy Fletcher-Jones is beginning to design a site
that will be linked to the Town website. With help from the Chairman and
others, the site will include the Selectman’s Charge creating the committee,
a general discussion of methods and committee structure, all meeting
minutes, and data/ documents from the various subcommittees relevant for
public scrutiny. Olga agreed to help make available regional information on
walk/bicycle to school programs. Judy Crocker said she could make available
for the focus group and the website data and pictures from communities which
had taken steps to improve conditions for walking generally, as examples of
what might be achieved here. Gail Wagner said she could provide information
on bus routes to schools as well as Lexpress and MBTA routes, serving as
necessary alternatives to walking/bicycling under adverse weather conditions
Policies of other communities: Lisa Baci reported that her group was
beginning to look at sidewalk related actions in other towns. On the
question of informing Town Meeting, now in progress, it was suggested that
we wait until the committee had something substantial to report. Stephanie
had suggested that an article describing the committee objectives should be
drafted for the Lex MM and presented for committee approval as an agenda
item for the May meeting. This group will also start identifying any
bylaws, rules and regulations that Lexington has pertaining to sidewalks.
Olga stated that a member of police dept should be involved. Gail Wagner
will interact with public safety and identify the dept. to supply a
representative
Inventory subcommittee: Group leader John Davies was out sick and
Marianne Lazarus gave a summary of our activities. The group had met once
at member Wayne Brooks DPW office, where Wayne showed computer generated
views from aerial photography of streetscapes throughout town on the scale
of several hundred feet of roadway. These were complimented with
screen-size maps of the town showing street patterns too small for street
names. It was agreed that intermediate scale maps with more data were
needed. Van Hook brought a large map with sidewalks inventoried by the BAC
and John Davies brought large scale printed maps for each member to use in
the inventory. Discussion centered on data acquisition and how to
accomplish this with greatest efficiency. This discussion on what to record
in the field has continued by email and will need to be resolved before the
inventory begins. Marianne discussed some of the difficult choices our
committee was faced with in deciding on what to record. Frank Cavatorta
volunteered to join the subcommittee. Laura Cecere has also indicated by
email an interest in our task. Davies will contact her.
The question of how long the inventory might take was raised by Ch.
Weeks. In the absence of John Davies the group leader, Van Hook offered
the opinion, based on his involvement with the earlier BAC survey, that the
proposed survey could have it’s first mapping by the end of May; i.e., in
two months time.
At the meetings close, Ch Weeks summarized the work we had agreed to
complete for the next meeting; 1) the focus group would have an outline or
first draft of the presentation for public outreach , 2) a website would be
under way with a completed draft of the Committee Charge and an outline of
the groups and their functions, 3) the Policy group will present preliminary
findings on similar programs in other towns and will start investigating
any bylaws or regulations pertaining to sidewalks in town 4) the inventory
group will show the final checklist form for and will have a progress report
on areas covered to date, and 5) the (unassigned) task of identifying Town
procedures and policies needed to make sidewalk improvements will have
something to report, including possible sources for funds, e.g. Chapter 90 or
federal money, betterments from citizen assessments, or funds from Town
warrant for the project.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 PM. The next full committee
meeting will be at 12 noon on Monday, May 2. Subcommittees will meet on
their own initiative.
Jerry Van Hook