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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-13-LBAC-min MEETING MINUTES Committee Name: Bicycle Advisory Committee Date, Time and Location of Meeting: September 13, 2007; 7:00 pm; Rm 111 Members Present: Stew Kennedy (BAC chair), Harvey Bingham, Richard Canale (Planning), Peg Enders, John Frey, Marita Hartshorn, Abe Shenker, Mike Tabaczynski, Jerry VanHook Others Present: Rich Spencer (FOLB), Wilma Bingham Members Absent: George Gagliardi, Hank Manz (Selectmen),Sandra Shaw (Recreation) Record of Votes taken and issues discussed. Minutes from the August meeting were reviewed and approved as submitted. Membership changes: Jim Wichmann’s resignation from the BAC was announced, and deep appreciation was expressed for his years of service to the committee. Peg Enders has been approved by the Selectmen to fill this spot on the BAC. The reappointments by the Selectmen for new three-year terms for Abe, Mike and Stew were announced. Bike Racks by the Depot Building: John reported the rack to be placed under the Depot awning was approved by the HDC. The HDC continued the hearing for the second rack to their October 4 meeting, when the design is expected to be ready to be presented (by David Williams.) We can now notify DPW that the first rack may be installed. Hartwell Ave. / TMG / Sidewalk Committee report: Jerry brought the map / plan for striping bike lanes on each side of Hartwell Ave that was presented by Engineering to the Selectmen and approved by them. He will leave it in Room 111 for several days for interested people to study it. The plan calls for painting to create two bike lanes, two traffic lanes, and, where appropriate, a left turn lane – with accompanying signage. It is expected the job will be contracted out this fall. Olga Guttag’s concern that sand and debris in the bike lanes would be a problem was answered at the BoS meeting with the assurance that DPW will keep it swept. It was noted that this will be considered an experiment to be watched for a year and then reevaluated. Sidewalk Committee activities: Jerry reported on plans to improve traffic flow and safety during drop-off and pick-up at Hastings School, and about the experiment with new bricks on the center sidewalk near the shoe store. Request to hold event on Bikeway: Marita presented a request for approval to place signage by the Bikeway on October 13 and 14 advertising the Rising Star quilting show at Cary Hall that weekend. This is the same event – and similar signage - to last year’s event. Signs would go out on Saturday morning and be removed at 4 PM on Sunday. BAC approved the plan. Marita will take the request next to the BoS. Tri-town bike meeting agenda: Topics to be discussed when we meet next month with the Arlington and Bedford committees include: way-finding signs, surface repairs, intersection behaviors, bikeway trail extensions, and snow removal. Marita will be our representative. Our discussion of snow plowing led to a “sense of the committee” motion and unanimous vote in favor of letting it be known that we favor the idea of plowing the bikeway (in a half-width manner – i.e. by a pass of a sidewalk plow – as recommended by Tom Fortmann in his April 13, 2007 email message) in conjunction with the other towns, and that we favor seriously pursuing the prospects of such a program after learning more about Arlington’s plan. (Let Stew know if you’d like to see Tom’s message on plowing.) Jerry will ask the SWC for their support, as many kids use the bikeway getting to school. A plowing subcommittee of Jerry, Marita, John and Stew was formed. Intersection signage for cars and bikes: It was decided we should take this up at a future meeting. Other Business: Stew reported talking with Dave Cannon (in Engineering) about plans for redesign of the Woburn St. crossing. A couple of alternatives are being considered to make it safer. They will be sent to us for comment. Dave also agreed to have an expert look at the Woburn St. / Mass Ave. intersection for safety too. Harvey requested that we place the collection of early bike path information (which Jerry has) with the Historical Society. This was moved and approved unanimously. Mike reported that the RTP grant application for next year must be submitted by October 1 and asked if the BAC should be the lead committee again. (This set of trail improvements will be two projects at Hayden Woods, one at Beaver Brook West and one at Dunback Meadow.) It was moved and unanimously approved that the BAC take the lead on the application. Meeting adjourned. Record of Friends of Lexington Bikeways votes and discussions. Treasurer’s Report : Rich summarized a meeting on August 20 with Hank, Marita and Stew at which the problem of the “lost” FOLB funds was explained to Hank and his help was requested. Hank subsequently reported the town controller had found it was due to a wrong charge and the current balance is $1,900.31. Thanks Hank! It was agreed that John will be reimbursed for up to approximately $60 for his expenses for photocopies and the newspaper notice for the HDC bike rack hearing. Rich reminded us we didn’t do our newsletter as planned. Abe owns this and will make some progress, printing a draft. September 8 Bikeway count: Stew handed out the spreadsheet showing counts we ended up with from 7 AM to 7 PM. The total was almost 2500 people actually getting recreation on the bikeway. Clarke Middle School bridge: After talking to most of those involved at some point in the past in discussions about repairing the broken bridge at Clarke, Peg plans to get all the players together in the same room. Hank has suggested it be resurrected as exclusively a pedestrian bridge, but someone at the school would like it to accommodate golf carts. There still seems to be the possibility of donor money available; that needs to be nailed down, along with the necessary uses for the bridge – both of which would affect design. Peg will organize the meeting. MAPC Bike Racks: Richard confirmed that MAPC still has money available for additional free bike racks – if towns act soon, and asked if Lexington has done so. We agreed Lexington could use more racks and we decided to see if we could get some shorter ones (three feet instead of six feet.) Marita will talk to Dave Pinsonneault about his requesting additional racks. For the in-hand MAPC-supplied racks, Marita showed a map of the proposed locations in the center area. She also reported on her conversations with the manager at the post office and his interest in having a rack there. It was agreed that we need to coordinate this with the Center Committee before going to the HDC for approval. Marita will set up a meeting. Meeting adjourned Information Distributed: Draft minutes for August 2007 meeting Spreadsheet of Sept 8 count of bikeway users Recorder Name: Abe Shenker (scribe pro temp); Stew Kennedy (editor) Next Meeting: October 11, 2007, 7PM, Room 111 in Town Office Building