HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-01-07-WALKS-min
Sidewalk Committee
Monday January 7, 2008
Attended by: Jerry VanHook, John Davies, Lucy Fletcher-Jones, Judy Crocker, Jeanne
Krieger, Sue Ellen Briggs, Richard Canale
The minutes of the last meeting were not approved because we did not have a quorum
present.
Marianne Lazarus has officially resigned.
Jerry will email Laura Cecere to ask her to come to meetings.
Jerry received a question from a pedestrian and bus rider that works on Hartwell Ave
asking if the town could snow plow the sidewalks in that area. The committee feels the
businesses should be approached to remove snow so that their employees can get to work.
Currently the businesses plow their parking lots for their driving employees so they
should also clear their pathways for their walking employees.
Physical obstacles to safe access of walkers to schools: In the Fiske district on Adams St.
there is an area of the sidewalk that is overgrown. This is private property that has
frontage on another road. Dave Pinsonnault of DPW is working on getting the
homeowner to clean up the area.
Jean Williams has filed a warrant to require snow removal from all sidewalks. Richard
feels that this committee needs to come up with questions on this warrant for the TMMA
meeting. Many sidewalk committee members were in favor of the warrant. Jeanne
Krieger feels she can not support this since it has no teeth and would be difficult to
enforce if it did have teeth.
Judy brought up a new sidewalk on Sedge Rd across from Diamond Middle school. The
sidewalk has no berm so cars park and drive on it. Judy will ask Wayne to stripe the road
to clarify the area as sidewalk.
Fiske has a SRTS program! They hope to start Walking Wednesday in March.
Estabrook has filed the paperwork to partner with the state SRTS program.
Judy met with the State Representative for SRTS. She learned that there is no longer
money for grants, but money will be available for services.
The state will host a walking day Wednesday May 7.
Walk Boston would like to come to Lexington to do Bike training.
Judy also reported that the February walk is all set. The SRTS committees get together
monthly to report the number of walkers and cars driven from the last walk and to plan
for the next walk.
Jeanne met with the PTA council on December 1, 2007. She proposed a willingness to
fight for money to reduce school bus fees if there was a concerted effort at the school to
reduce the number of cars driving to the schools. The PTA council was not interested in
the offer. They felt that if she could find more money for the schools it should go into the
educational programs and not buses. Jeanne felt that there was money available for one
year. The schools each have their own plan to deal with the increase in cars at the schools.
Estabrook is going to promote carpooling. Fiske will use different doors on two sides of
the school to spread out the congestion. Bridge has a program to get kids out or into cars
fast to keep the cars moving along.
Jeanne updated the group on the Spring St. proposal for sidewalks on the west side of the
road. Shire will pay for this long new sidewalk from Bridge to Hayden Ave. The west
side was chosen because it is flatter and has more room. One tree will have to be removed.
Telephone poles and 3 retaining walls will need to be moved. The side walk will be
routed around a couple of other trees. There is a meeting on Thursday January 10, 2008 at
Cary Hall at 7PM for more information.
There is a meeting on Wednesday January 16, 2008 at 7PM in Cary Library meeting
room to discuss the West Lexington Greenway. This meeting is to look at the existing
resources, and to propose access points.
Before adjourning the group reviewed the meeting schedule for the year. The first
Monday of September is Labor Day. The group agreed to change that meeting date to the
second Monday, September 8, 2008.
Our next meeting is Monday February 4, 2008 at 11AM.
Respectfully submitted by Sue Ellen Briggs