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Home My WebLink About2009-09-09-LBAC-min MEETING MINUTES Committee Name: Lexington Bicycle Advisory Committee Date, Time and Location of Meeting: July 9, 2009, 7 pm, Rm.111 Town Office Building Members Present: Peggy Enders (Chair), Stew Kennedy, Mike Tabaczynski, Marita Hartshorn, Abe Shenker (FoLB Chair), Laurel Carpenter, Richard Canale (Planning Board Liaison), Hank Manz, (Selectmen’s Liaison), Jerry Van Hook, George Gagliardi, John Frey Others Present: Bob Hausslein, Richard Spencer (Treasurer FoLB), Bob Dangel, Terry Gleason Absent: Sandra Shaw (Recreation Committee Liaison) Minutes: June 11, 2009 minutes were accepted as corrected. DPW Meeting : Peggy and Abe met with Bill Hadley about the $175,000 voted at the 2007 Town Meeting for Bikeway paving and root control. At this time the Town Manager has not released the money. Approximately $25-30,000 will be needed for root barriers. Fixing the drainage might be possible through a proposal for CPA funds; Peggy will get the forms and information and work with the town to file before the November deadline. George with the help of Laurel, Jerry, Abe, and Peggy will meet with fire and police to come up with recommendations for improved intersection signage, gates, and bollards to develop a Town Meeting warrant article request (Bill Hadley suggested that the approximate cost for such improvements would be $10,000). Money will be needed for paving – both for repairs in the short term and then in the longer term. Peggy requested that Bill Hadley appoint a specific liaison to have responsibility for all bike path issues. Bike Racks : It is unclear at this time whether the state has released the funds for the MAPC bike rack program. Richard will contact them, since it is his understanding that the state will reimburse towns for racks as long as invoices are submitted by November. Dave Pinsonneault reported to Marita that the bike rack at the post office has become a problem, because the wood chips were not put under the rack as was promised to the HDC. The new Post Office manager is objecting to having the bike rack being there partially because of the eyesore of long grass growing underneath the rack. Dave has promised to meet with the new manager. Marita commented that it was important to maintain good standing with the HDC by following through on the original agreement to put wood chips under the rack. Tri-Town Meeting and Sideline Striping : Terry Gleason proposed inviting Mizrak Sultan, who is bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for Mass Highway, District Four, to meet with interested people from abutting towns about striping policies and practices. Terry said that Bedford uses a default 11’ for its street lane widths. He said that Bedford is particularly interested in minimizing cut- through traffic. The date of the tri-town meeting will be announced later. Richard Canale reported on a very positive meeting with John Livsey, Carl Valente, Christine McVay, police, and fire regarding a draft proposal for general traffic calming measures and standards. People making striping decisions need to be educated so they will not default to former practices, he said, saying that “folks are very comfortable with tradition….not context”. Jerry and Bob reported that they had set a list of goals for examining how Lexington streets are striped, and Jerry provided copies of his general goals for this project. They are seeking volunteers to do some research in abutting towns. Each volunteer should find out current practices, whether the towns have bike committees, and what street actually enters Lexington. Peggy will take names of volunteers and assign towns. Towns abutting Lexington are Woburn, Burlington, Bedford, Lincoln, Waltham, Belmont, and Winchester. Stew recommended approaching the planning boards and/or engineering. Terry said we should guard against calling striping “bike lanes” because bike lanes have their own specification. Striping is either fog lanes or shoulder demarcation. Striping is a traffic calming technique as well and contributes to the safety of all users. Our goal is to help the selectmen develop a policy for equity in mobility whether they are drivers, walkers, and cyclists. Different modes should have equal access. Eliminating an accident rather than responding to one is more cost effective policy. Abe stressed that we should begin with streets that are newly paved. Other Business : ?? Battle Road Scenic Byway Designation: Richard reported that a $150K planning grant has been awarded to kick off a 2-year corridor plan to propose the Battle Road area as a national scenic byway. Three groups will form in September to work on aspects of the plan, including an inventory of resources (e.g., bike facilities); this is a good opportunity to obtain funds for the West Lexington Greenway and other resources we want to develop. ?? Hartwell Avenue transportation plan: Richard reported that the Planning Board has hired Rizzo Consultants to help with the policy definition to be adopted for that transport corridor. He asked that a person be designated to represent bike interests; Peggy volunteered to be the LBAC Committee liaison when the planning board develops policies on the future infrastructure needs of Hartwell Avenue. ?? Richard reported that Federal funding for surface transportation is in jeopardy because of lack of matching funds from the State. Meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM. Record of the Discussion of the Friends of Lexington Bikeways Treasurer’s Report: Rich reported that $6,539.67 was in the FoLB account. Bike path plowing in December 2008: Peggy reported that the town received a bill for $1,105 from the sidewalk snowblower contractor who covered the first two storms last winter. Although the plow did little or nothing to make the path usable, we feel obligated to pay him. Peggy spoke with David Williams (representing the Trustees for Public Trusts) about the invoice; he suggested that FoLB approach the trustees to cover two storms in the upcoming winter instead of asking that this invoice be covered with their funds. We will confirm that in writing. The past experience with winter plowing can be chalked up as “a lesson learned.” Tour de Lexington (June 13) : A huge thanks was given to Laurel for organizing and Abe for furnishing refreshments. The police detail should be reexamined next year, since the assigned officer was unable to keep up and help with intersection crossings. We should plan another ride next year, perhaps with a barbeque at the end. thrd Farmer’s Market : We managed the bicycle corrals on both June 16 and 23. June 16 corralled 78 bikes and June 23 (cold and rainy) about 30 bikes. We agreed to design and purchase a “Friends of Lexington Bikeways” banner that we could use at such occasions. We will offer to do another corral later this summer. Running Company/Shire 5 K Run : An estimated 185 people participated on June 14. We collected signatures of runners who support Bikeway plowing. We look forward to receiving a check toward next winter’s plowing from the Running Company as offered. Conservation Trails and Trailwork : ?? Mike said there are volunteer trail construction opportunities on almost every weekend this summer as well as a few small weekday projects. ?? Friends of Arlington Great Meadows will hold a meeting at Follen Church Tuesday, July 14, 7:00 p.m. ?? Terry Gleason reported that Bedford wants to put down stone dust on the Bikeway extension. He would like to convince his town that the paved Bikeway has not negatively impacted conservation land in Lexington and requested a letter from the Conservation Committee regarding the condition of conservation lands (vandalism, parties, dumping) and the impacts of the Bikeway. Mike agreed to write such a letter. Bikeway Stewards : Bob walked the entire length and reported that the two worst areas are behind Bermans, (litter, rubble, and erosion) and behind the Lexington Fire Department (Japanese Knot Weed). The path is hopelessly overgrown and beyond the scope of volunteers. We should remind the DPW to do major brush cut back. CPA funds may be available to help eradicate invasive species. FoLB Wearing Apparel : Marita reported that reflective vests from Ben Meadows are $25 each. Perhaps we can borrow some for our next bike path clean up. She reminded members that shirts with the Minuteman logo from Tri- con are $20. ($5 if you supply your own shirt). Marita offered to make vests. Enthusiasm was mixed; reflective quality was an issue. Stew mentioned a company, which sells T-shirts directly online; we supply the artwork and customers order directly from the web site. The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m. Information Distributed : ?? Agenda for meeting ?? Draft minutes from June11, 2009 ?? Goals for striping developed by Jerry Van Hook and Bob Hausslein. Recorder : Marita Hartshorn Editor : Peggy Enders