The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2008-10-06-WALKS-min 1 Sidewalk Committee Minutes October 6, 2008 Attended by: Jerry Van Hook, Jeanne Krieger, Wayne Brooks, Francine Stieglitz, Judy Crocker, John Davies, Lucy Fletcher-Jones, Suzie Barry, Officer George Anderson (PD rep), Elaine Celi (transportation school dept), Dana Ham (resident School St. Hastings) 11:05 the meeting was called to order. 1. Minutes: Sue Ellen Briggs is no longer taking minutes. Lucy F-J agreed to take minutes of this meeting only. Need to find new person or committee will take in turns. The minutes of the Sept ‘08 meeting were discussed and approved. 2. Elaine Celi distributed a list of school buses with % ridership (signed-up) in all the Lexington school districts. No official figures of actual ridership are kept. However, some SR2S schools do keep such figures on walk to school days and days before and after. Lucy F-J reported that the Bowman figures were generally a little less but very close to the sign-up figures. % signed-up ridership LHS 14% Clarke 56% Diamond 40% Bowman 41% Bridge 29% Estabrook 26% Fiske 31% Harrington 33% Hastings 27% Grand Total 29% 3. SWC web site maintenance: Lucy F-J reported that the town has a new website with new standards and procedures and a content management system. They will no longer allow committees to maintain their own web sites. Lucy F-J met with Cindy McLaughlin, asst Town manager, and agreed to hand over a streamlined version of the SWC web site by Thanksgiving, if possible. Lucy F-J needs to do an extensive update of the site as committee priorities and members have changed. Lucy F-J will still be the point person for sending updates to the town. Updates should be in the form of WORD files and photos. The committee voted and approved the change in procedure. 4. Pleasant Street: The Bowman discussion group and police dept received many complaints about the safety of Pleasant Street during September as Bowman had many more pedestrians, bike riders and scooter riders than usual and the motor traffic was higher. Residents and users of Pleasant St were invited to the meeting but none turned up. Lucy F-J, regular user of Pleasant St, gave a presentation on the need for extending the sidewalks on Pleasant St. Upper Pleasant has a sidewalk only on the east side from Concord Ave to the crosswalk opposite the Worthen Rd E intersection (and a little further). No sidewalk exists on either side between this point and Wilson’s Farm. There are short sidewalks on both sides of the 2 street between Mass Ave and Wilson’s farm. This means that a very large population of Bowman and other residents of the area cannot walk to school, to the MBTA bus stop, to Wilson’s Farm, to East Lexington, nor can children cycle to the bike path safely as Pleasant Street is far too dangerous (narrow, windy, high traffic area) to walk along except where there is a sidewalk. This is one of the highest priority streets (for new sidewalks) in the Bowman school district. Wayne Brooks estimated that the cost of extending the sidewalk alone would be $0.5-0.75 million. Lucy also asked Officer Anderson what more could be done to make vehicles stop at the crosswalks, another complaint by Pleasant street users: - reducing speed limit in the area? Not possible because legally the speed limit might actually be higher than already set. Part of Pleasant Street is owned by the State, not the town and is subject to State laws. - adding extra warning signs? This is a possibility but may not be effective - can an ordinary citizen report the license plate of a vehicle not stopping? – no the Police have to catch them in the act. - Pedestrians use home-made ‘stop’ signs whilst crossing as done in other cities – can try but very dangerous as these are not official. - Get a crossing guard? The number of users needs to justify the cost (c$7,000) per year. Officer Anderson also explained that a vehicle is only legally obliged to stop when the pedestrian is IN the crosswalk. 5. Roosevelt Sidewalk The Committee had, in 2006 endorsed the building of a new sidewalk along one side (unspecified as to which side) of Roosevelt Rd based on a top priority rating of the project by the Hastings neighborhood SRTS and PTA groups. Following meeting discussions and presentations in summer 2007, Mr. Brooks was asked to make engineering estimates of cost for sidewalks on each side. Early in 2008, Brooks indicated the south side would be the better choice. The committee deliberated this choice in subsequent meetings, decided he was right, and asked Brooks to notify the residents and proceed with planning. Dan Ham, resident came to the meeting with a map of the Hastings area and a petition signed by himself and 11 other residents opposing a sidewalk on Roosevelt. The petition further stated particular opposition to Mr. Brook's choice of a new sidewalk on the south side for several reasons. Among those, he petitioned that a south side sidewalk would require students cross streets at 4 (existing) crosswalks versus 1 or 2 if the north side were chosen, that water runoff and icing problems would be worse on the south side, and that possible Hastings closure in 2010 might render the need for any sidewalk unnecessary. The Committee thanked Mr. Ham for presenting and said that the Hastings neighborhood would be contacted again to determine how the other neighbors felt about this before going forward. 6. Fiske School Footpaths: Wayne Brooks reported that footpath maintenance is going ahead but still some issues to sort out. th 7. SR2S program: Judy Crocker reported that: The Walk Day is going ahead on Wed Oct 8 . Bowman, Bridge, Estabrook and Hastings are officially participating. The Lexington Board of Selectmen have proclaimed October 8 to be Lexington's SRTS International Walk Day - to coincide with International Walk Day. A listserve announcement approved by Dr Ash was 3 distributed to all the elementary and middle schools along with a SRTS bookmark and a safety sheet from the LPD. Both the Colonial Times and the Minuteman ran both sides of the information listed on the bookmarks. A call for local 'celebrities' from the Lexington community has been made, with the 6-7 participating representing the SC, BOS, State rep, and various town committees. The LPD will also provide additional crosswalk monitoring patrols at 4 elementary schools on the day. Suzie Barry added that Estabrook is receiving the second in the 2 part pedestrian training for ndrd 2/3 graders given by MassRides and that the sidewalk up to Estabrook has been repaired. 8. Priority List of sidewalks needing repairs and new ones Agreed that time was too short to discuss now but must be main item on agenda for next month. Suzie Barry sent revised Estabrook neighborhood priority list to Jerry. Wayne wishes to see list divided into existing and new. He provided a list of work done to date and proposed work for the present fiscal year but this is incomplete and cannot be published. Wayne reminded the committee that if brush along a sidewalk is causing a problem you should email him and DPW will send out a standard letter to the residents involved asking them to remove it. 9. Old Business: GIS system will be finished end of November- there will be a layer for sidewalks. th Lexington Gardens: Suzie Barryasked since they had closed on October 4 if there was any word on what was going to be developed there and the potential traffic/walking impact with Diamond and the neighborhoods; at the rotary where 5 streets, the Diamond driveway and 4 crosswalks all come together and with widening the Diamond driveway and improving the sidewalk, that has no berm at all, and blends into the road in one stretch. Jeanne Krieger suggested that the committee send a letter to the planning board about it and recommended that the Diamond and Estabrook communities do so as well. Judy Crocker agreed to contact the Diamond PTA and Suzie the Estabrook PTA. Meeting adjourned at 1.00pm. Submitted by Lucy Fletcher-Jones, October 22, 2008