HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-03-03-WALKS-min
Sidewalk Committee Meeting Minutes
Monday March 3, 2008
Attended: Olga Guttag, Jerry VanHook, John Davies, Lucy Fletcher-Jones,
Francine Stieglitz, Meg Lotz, Wayne Brooks, Sue Ellen Briggs, and Jean
Williams
The February Minutes with January notes were unanimously approved with
one correction/clarification. Hilton Pryce Lewis, resident of Pleasant St. said
his neighbors were willing to do something to see sidewalks on Pleasant St.
Jean Williams introduced her article requiring residents to clear or sand their
sidewalks with a little background. Between 1975 and 1984 she had no car
and got around by walking. She still walks and is concerned for the safety of
pedestrians. When sidewalks are not cleared people walk in the street and
that is dangerous. She then talked about the opposition to her article.
The elderly can not shovel. True but there are many maintenance
issues they can’t handle so they hire someone to do it for them. What can’t
they hire for shoveling?
If the sidewalk is 5 inches of ice how do I clear that? The article does
not require dry pavement, but the ice should be covered with sand or ashes
so that it is not slippery.
The town snowplow puts the snow on my sidewalk. That is against a
town bylaw. If that happens the homeowner should call DPW. They are
responsible to come and remove the snow.
This article isn’t fair because not everyone has a sidewalk. This is true.
Jerry commented that this article could be amended on the floor of
Town Meeting.
Olga had three concerns; one was the time limit for making the
sidewalk passable. She would like to see no time limit, just that is has to be
done. The second concern was that there was no penalty for noncompliance
and third there was no exemption for medical or financial situations.
Jerry said that bicycle riding in the center is prohibited but it is never
enforced. The police don’t have the time to enforce the issue. When Jerry
sees bicyclists in the center he lets them know there is a $50 fine for that
activity.
Francine was concerned about the enforceability.
Lucy wondered if DPW could take care of all the sidewalks.
Jerry feels we need to take a stand. As a small committee we are only
going to make an impact with something like this.
Olga made a motion the committee is in favor of the article as written
by Jean Williams. There was no second.
Olga made another motion: The Sidewalk Committee supports the
article as written with the following amendments. Appropriate enforcement
needs to be added as determined by the Selectmen. There needs to be an
exemption for hardship. This had a second and a vote was taken. There were
5 in favor and 2 opposed.
Jerry will work on writing the amendments.
The committee then moved on to discuss the Town Warrant There are
several items up for discussion at this year’s town meeting that the sidewalk
committee should be interested.
Article 15 c) lists sidewalk improvements - $275,000:
h) Street Improvements - $525,000. Of these streets there are a
couple that could use a sidewalk. Jerry wondered if they would be done with
the street improvements.
Wayne suggested writing a warrant to ask for funds to do a number of
big streets. There just isn’t enough money in the budget to do a long section
of sidewalk and the list of needs and repairs is long.
Olga suggested getting “real data” by borrowing the Police traffic
counter and working with a traffic engineer. Once data is collected then we
can work on getting debt exclusion.
Jerry mentioned Article 19 g) on page 19. This states $65,000 for safe
parent pick up and parking at Bridge and Estabrook. There was discussion
on this. As an aside it was mentioned that Mike and Suzie Barry are working
with the Estabrook Community to prioritize streets for sidewalks.
The last item mentioned from the Warrant was article 52 that would
rezone a section of property at the Woburn St. and Lowell St intersection.
Olga announced that on Wednesday March 5 at 3:30 PM at Fiske Pat
Goddard will be talking about paths and accessibility to the school.
Meeting adjourned at 12:46 PM.
Respectfully submitted by Sue Ellen Briggs