HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-07-09-WALKS-min
Sidewalk Committee Meeting Minutes
Monday July 9, 2007 11AM
Attendance: Lucy Fletcher-Jones, Wayne Brooks, Marianne Lazarus, Jerry Van Hook,
Sue Ellen Briggs, Jane Kalinski, Laura Cecere, and Sara Chamberlain
Excused: Jeanne Krieger is at another meeting. Francine Stieglitz cannot attend today.
Judy Crocker, Meg Lotz and Olga Guttag are out of town.
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The first item of business was to approve the June 4 minutes and these were approved
unanimously.
The second item was the discussion of the traffic flow patterns for drop off and pick up at
Hastings Elementary School. Jane Kalinski, Hastings SR2S, brought a large poster board
that clearly showed the school, surrounding streets, placement of sidewalks and the traffic
patterns currently in place. Currently at drop off and pick up times traffic must come into
the school from Massachusetts Ave. and file past the school. From here school traffic
can go straight on Wilson Rd. or left onto Roosevelt Rd. in the easterly direction.
Roosevelt Rd is a small residential street without sidewalks that supports heavy traffic,
particularly in the morning and afternoon rush hours and at school release time. Jane
reported that most of the school traffic goes onto Roosevelt Rd in an easterly direction.
Additionally in the morning Roosevelt Rd. is a cut through for commuters accessing
Route 95. They are traveling westerly on Roosevelt from School St to Marrett Rd.
Students walking to school from neighborhoods east of School St. would use Roosevelt
Rd.
After much discussion on this issue and possible solutions a motion was unanimously
passed for Wayne Brooks of the DPW to look into the right of way on Roosevelt Rd for a
sidewalk.
Another motion was passed unanimously stating that the Sidewalk Committee supports
Safe Routes to School at Hastings Elementary School. We also support their request to
the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee to make Roosevelt Rd one way during pick up
and drop off times at the school.
Wayne Brooks reported on the schedule for crosswalk painting. DPW paints every
crosswalk every year. In general the center and parade route is painted before Patriot’s
Day. The crosswalks in school zones are painted before the opening of school.
Laura Cecere has looked at the sidewalk priority spreadsheets from two elementary
school district, Fiske and Bowman. From this data she came up with a list of major roads
in these areas that require sidewalks. See the attached document.
Sara Chamberlain will look into prioritizing streets in the Bridge district. Jane will do the
same for the Hastings district. Stewart Kennedy has contacted two young families in the
Estabrook area about prioritizing sidewalk needs in that district.
Laura will continue to work on prioritization, but it was agreed that it would be best to
wait for more complete data from the whole town.
Marianne Lazarus reported that Marita Hartshorn of the Bicycle Committee has started a
project to identify paper streets that provide access to conservation lands, in the interest
of improving their accessibility. Marianne and Marita will work together to see how these
paths can be added to the walking network.
Lucy Fletcher-Jones will be checking to see if the Selectmen accepted our new charge.
A conference, Moving Together 2007: Bicycle and Pedestrian Conference is scheduled
for Wed Oct 17, 2007 at the Marriot Boston Courtyard Hotel. Hopefully several
members of the committee can attend. Check out the website
www.ecs.umass.edu/baystate_roads//mt for more information. Currently there is no
schedule posted, but you can see photos from last year’s conference.
The next meeting is Monday August 6, at 11AM in the Selectmen’s Meeting room.
Respectfully submitted 7/19/07
Sue Ellen Briggs