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Design Public Hearing
April 5, 2017
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Hosmer Elementary School
Cafeteria
1 Concord Road
Watertown, MA 02472
For the Proposed
Improvements at Hosmer Elementary School
Safe Routes to School
Project File No: 608004
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
HIGHWAY DIVISION
Thomas Tinlin
Highway Administrator
Patricia Leavenworth, P.E.
Chief Engineer
PRESENT
David Shedd, Project Manager, MassDOT
Anthony Christakis, District 6, MassDOT
Linda Walsh, Right -of -Way Bureau, MassDOT
Kristopher Surette, World Tech Engineering
Bill Mertz, World Tech Engineering
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SPEAKER INDEX
Name Page
David Shedd 5, 9, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29,
30,31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 39,
41, 42, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50,
51, 52
Linda Walsh 8
Kristopher Surette 10, 24, 25, 26, 28, 37, 38,
39, 40, 50, 51, 52
Mike Travers 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
Bill Mertz 24, 33
Matt Shuman
27,
28, 29, 42, 47
John Foley
25,
29, 30, 31, 32
Unidentified Speaker
30
Seta Campbell
34,
35
Jessie Kneeland
35
Nathalie Tarbet
37
Lisa Feltner
37,
39, 50
Angie Kounelis
3
Edward Sheehan 44
Walker Christy 45, 47
Marian Ferro 48, 49, 50
Gail Basington 51, 52
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EXHIBITS
Description
Project Brochure
Sign -In Sheet
Page
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P R O C E E D I N G S
DAVID SHEDD: Can everyone hear me okay,
we do not have a microphone. My name is David Shedd, I
am the Project Manager for the project we will be
presenting tonight. This is a Safe Route to School
Project. I work for the Roadway Project Management
Division in the Highway Division Headquarters.
Just so you know your attendance at the
hearing tonight is going to be formally recorded. We
have a sign in sheet upfront up here, so if you have not
signed in, if you could sign in before you leave
tonight, so your attendance can become part of the
public record. Also up here if you have not picked one
up yet there is a handout that has details of the
project and a little bit about the process that we are
going to be going through in the design of this project.
Before I get started, I would just like
to introduce the panel for tonight's discussion. From
the District Office District 6 we have Geri Vaton,
Courtney Dwyer, and Anthony Christakis. From World Tech
Engineering which is MassDOT's Design Consultant, we
have Kristopher Surette and Bill Mertz and Rich. I
would also like to acknowledge Representative John Heck
who is here tonight and the Watertown Councilor Angie
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Kounelis. Our transcriptionist tonight is Tammy
Hillery. She is from Arlington Typing and Mailing and
she will be making a verbatim transcript of tonight's
hearing for the record.
Also, just for the record, the hearing
notice for tonight's hearing appeared in the Boston
Globe on March 22, 2017, March 29, 2017, and the
Watertown Tab on March 24 and March 31. A copy of the
notice that was advertised in the paper is included in
the handout.
The purpose of the hearing tonight is to
present to you the project as it stands right now at the
75% design. We are here tonight to answer any questions
that you have, solicit any input that you can give us,
and tell you a little bit about the project moving
forward.
The project is at a 75% design level. It
is not complete. There are two more submittals that
will come into MassDOT for review. We are expecting the
design of the project will be completed by the end of
the summer and we are hoping to advertise for
construction before October 1 and that would put us
starting construction sometime in spring.
The project is funded for this federal
fiscal year. The current construction cost estimate is
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approximately $1.1 million. Federal Highway
Administration is funding approximately 800 of the
project through the Safe Routes to School Program.
There is a small portion of the project that was
ineligible for the federal funding under the Safe Routes
to School Program, but it was added to the project by
the town and it will be paid for by the town. This is
the portion of Boylston Street from Hazel to Fairfield.
Kris will talk more about that in a few minutes.
Construction of the project will start
approximately the spring of next year and will last
about 8 months. As you are hopefully aware, the purpose
of the project is to improve safety for kids walking to
Hosmer. The Hosmer Elementary School has been an active
participant in the Safe Routes to School Program since
2008. The school participates in bike and safety
education programs every year and continually the
national walk to school and bike to school.
Hosmer also hosts Wednesdays, Walking
Wednesdays to school. Watertown and the Hosmer
Elementary School applied for infrastructure
improvements through the Safe Routes to School Program
Right now there are probably a hundred schools in the
state that are part of the program. They applied for
infrastructure improvements several years ago along with
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dozens of other schools and they were selected based on
the assessment that was done by MassDOT. They were
selected to advance in this program and be awarded with
funds for design and construction of this project.
In a few minutes World Tech will describe
the project in detail but right now I would like to ask
Linda Walsh to describe the right away process.
LINDA WALSH: Thank you, David. When the
Commonwealth acting through the Massachusetts Department
of Transportation Highway Division indicated that it
would accept this $1.1 million project for funding under
our Federal Aid Program your municipality accepted
certain responsibilities. One of those responsibilities
is to acquire all the necessary rights in private and
public lands for the design, construction, and
implementation of this project.
My function is to review and recommend
procedures that your municipality will utilize in
acquiring these rights. The procedures used must comply
with both federal and state regulations. The current
design plans indicate that there are both permanent and
temporary easements required.
Your municipality may acquire the needed
rights through a combination of donations, eminent
domain, deed grants, permits or rights of entries.
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Frequently, local municipalities will appeal for
donations. The donation procedures minimize the
acquisition cost for your community. Although donations
and/or rights of entry are not required, the property
owners are entitled to an appraisal and just
compensation.
This project cannot be advertised until
the new proposed right-of-way is secured and the Right -
of -Way Bureau issues a right-of-way certificate.
Affected property owners rights are protected under our
Massachusetts General Laws, primarily Chapter 79. And
because this project is receiving Federal Funds, the
property owner's rights are further defined under Title
III of the Real Property Acts of 1970, as amended.
I will be happy to answer any general
questions concerning the right-of-way activities during
the open forum, and I will be available after the
hearing to answer any specific questions you may have.
Thank you.
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you, Linda. Kris
will now describe the project in detail for you. I just
want to remind you the project is not yet completed.
You will be able to ask questions and make comments
after the presentation. Thank you.
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Design Public Hearing Watertown, MA April 5, 2017
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: Thank you, David.
Thank you, Linda. Welcome to the design public hearing
for the improvements of the Hosmer Elementary School.
First, this is a little repetitive but my name is
Kristopher Surette I'm an Engineer at World Tech
Engineering. This is Bill Mertz Project Manager from
World Tech Engineering. Linda Walsh, Right of Way of
MassDOT and Dave Shedd Project Manager, MassDOT.
Let's go through and identify the key
components of this project. The project proponent is
the Town of Watertown. Us World Tech Engineering we are
responsible for the design. We are the design engineers
hired by MassDOT. MassDOT is responsible for
administering the design process and providing resident
engineering services.
The resident engineering services are a
representative for MassDOT will be out there during
construction advising the contractor and making sure the
design is constructed in a way that is acceptable to the
plans and all the applicable design standards. Federal
Highway administration is responsible for overseeing of
all components of the project.
First, I want to go through a little
history of project outreach. As Dave mentioned MassDOT
infrastructure assessment was conducted in 2012 by TEC,
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another engineering firm. The assessment identified
deficiencies and provided design recommendations to
address such deficiencies. That report is on hand today
and is available for reviewing.
In February, we had an abutter
informational meeting. I recognize some similar faces
from that meeting. At that meeting, we discussed the
project in detail similar as to what we are going to do
tonight. We discussed key design issues, discuss
schedule, it provides an open forum for abutters to
discuss the project in detail. How it is going to
affect their property and what implications moving
forward that they will incur.
As Dave mentioned Hosmer School, itself
is part of the Safe Routes to School application program
for a number of years now. The application was
submitted by the school. They are the ones who
initiated this process. They initiated the project.
The program is composed of two different parts.
One is an educational and encouragement
portion. This part of the program needs to be conducted
prior to where we are today as far as infrastructure
improvements. Now the educational and encouragement
program as Dave mentioned is walk and bike to school
days, it is educating pedestrians about safety,
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ridership, and health benefits. So that part of the
program is required prior to these infrastructure
improvements being implemented.
MassDOT grouped these applications
together and then the award for the infrastructure
improvements was scored on a merit base. As we get into
the project this is an overall project map area. You
can see it is the same image that is on the boards
throughout the room. Just to define the area on
Boylston Street is from the Hosmer School to just past
the Fairfield Street intersection. Then on Chauncey
Street again, it goes from the Hosmer School just north
of Hancock Street.
So why do we need this project? As you
can see by the pictures on the slide here the lack of
physical barrier for pedestrian and vehicles is evident
throughout the project. There is a lack of the curb;
there is a lack of definition between the roadway and
the sidewalks adjacent to the roadway. This causes a
problem because cars whether it is during school or
residence they approach onto the sidewalk and it
inhibits pedestrians from traveling safely on the
sidewalk. It is supposed to be a clear definition
between the sidewalk and the roadway for drivers and
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pedestrians and without the curbing there that creates a
problem.
Also, we are within a school zone. It is
an elementary school. This is technically a school
zone. If you go down Boylston Street or Chauncey Street
there is little to no signage or pavement markings
denoting this is a school zone. So the increased
signage and pavement markings highlighting this is a
school zone will make drivers aware that they are
encroaching into a school zone, what the established
speed limit is, and they will have to take precaution
that they are within a school zone.
For intersection geometry, many of you
live local within the abutter streets. For instance,
here we have on the right-hand side here; we have the
intersection of Hazel and Howe Street. Access of
pavement width, poor definition of vehicle travel paths,
it creates confusion as to who has the right away on the
streets. The pedestrians have a long crossing to get
from one side of the street to the other. There are too
many distractions going on for a driver or pedestrian as
to the lack of clarity for drivers and for pedestrians.
The access pavement width is definitely a
critical issue that we are addressing as part of this
project. This slide here is project goals. So what we
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have here is we have two things. The blue is the goal
and the gray text is what we are doing for remedy of
that project goal.
So the first, as this is a Safe Routes to
School Project it is to encourage students to walk and
bike to school. We are doing that through the
reconstruction of the sidewalks and implementations of
shared travel lanes. As you see on the boards and
within the design plans, we are showing sparrows on the
roadway and what those do is allows motor vehicles to be
aware that they are sharing the roads with bicycles.
The reconstruction proposed sidewalks with the granite
curb, again, as previously mentioned, creates that
separation between vehicles and pedestrians.
Second, we are enhancing safety for all
users. Again, the addition to granite curb and the
grass strips that provide a buffer between pedestrians
and vehicles. That buffer makes pedestrian while
walking on the side of the road makes them feel more
comfortable. Like there is a space between the vehicles
and the pedestrians. It is a safety measure for the
pedestrian.
Next one, a clear path of travel for
pedestrian and vehicles. As I mentioned the realignment
of the intersection within the project corridor, in
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particular, the Chauncey Street/Boylston Street
intersection adjacent to the school. We will go into
these in a little more detail as we move through this
presentation but this is a poor angle. What we are
doing is teeing up the intersection, making it easier
for vehicles to identify pedestrians and oncoming
traffic at that intersection.
Again, promoting school zone awareness.
We are within a school zone so we want to make sure that
everybody knows we are in a school zone. We want to
bring attention to drivers that we are in a school zone,
what the speed limit is and to be cautious of your
surroundings.
So proposed improvements. The next two
slides, I broke up the presentation for roadway
improvements and for pedestrian improvements. So for
roadway improvements, we are realigning the intersection
of Chauncey Street and Boylston Street as well as the
other side streets as well. We are changing some of the
geometry for ease of driving and for defining the travel
way for vehicles approaching the intersections.
We are also doing some of the drainage
improvements that come along with these geometric
changes. So the drainage system within the project area
will be modified according to the design. There will be
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new catch basins with sumps to help with some
environmental compliance issues. So the reconstruction
of the drainage system is ancillary to the proposed
geometric improvements.
For pedestrian improvements,
reconstruction of the sidewalks are granite curbs and
buffer strips. Construction of bump outs and
crosswalks, this is a big thing. What a bump out is it
reduces the crossing width at the intersections for
pedestrians. So it allows pedestrians not only to
reduce the crossing widths but to also veer out if
there's a car parked 20 or so feet from the
intersection. It allows (A) for the cars to see the
pedestrian, but also for the pedestrian to see the cars
coming. So bump outs are a great safety feature that
are easily implemented in these reconstruction projects.
All the crosswalks in the project will be
ladder style, it is painted at the crosswalks at the
intersection at School Street and Boylston Street will
be a texturized surface. So it allows vehicles to
identify that there is a crosswalk there. It is a
higher visibility crosswalk within a school zone, so it
makes sense to promote the crosswalk there along with
some advanced signage.
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Again, this is the same picture I keep
referring back to the overall picture of the project. I
want to concentrate on the three boxes. These are the
three major intersections within the project and we are
going to go through them one by one, left to right and
highlight each of the intersections and what we are
doing to each of them to answer some of the questions
and what our design intent is.
The first one is the intersection of
Chauncey Street and Boylston Street. The Hosmer School
is up in the top left-hand corner. This picture is a
before -and -after. It is the same view in each slide and
we superimposed our design onto the aerial image. As
you can see in the before picture the skew of Chauncey
Street comes into askew on Boylston Street. What we did
is we straightened that up, again, like I said, it is a
safety feature. You're coming into an intersection and
it is askew you have to turn over your shoulder, look,
and it is difficult to identify cars and pedestrians
coming. Teeing this intersection up making it a 90-
degree approach makes it easier for vehicles to see
oncoming traffic and pedestrians so close to the school.
Again, as we talked about bump outs, this
is an example of a bump out. It is about 4 or 5 feet
off of the curb line. Again, it allows pedestrians to
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peek out over the cars and it shortens the crossing
distance across Boylston Street and at any of the
crossings. So it is a nice safety feature so close to
the school.
Next, is the intersection of Boylston
Street, Hazel Street, and Howe Street, again, like I
talked about the excess pavement and the existing
condition. What we did we change some of the geometry
of Hazel Street and Howe Street, so they tee into one
another. This allows vehicles to know who has the right
of way on these streets and to make sure that people on
Howe Street will stop there and that allows people on
Hazel Street to pass through. Hopefully, it will
alleviate some driver confusion in this area. The
reduction of pavement width allows for some green space
here so it is good for recharge and again for storm
water treatment. It is less runoff going into the
drainage system itself.
Then as you can see here, we do have a
wheelchair ramp going across the street. Throughout the
project at any intersection, we are reconstructing all
the wheelchair ramps to current ADA compliance with the
tactile warning panels to make sure that we are ADA
compliant throughout the project.
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This is the intersection of Boylston
Street and School Street. Again, we are showing bump
outs at the intersection shortening the crossings and
then this textured area here is what I previously
mentioned, it is the textured crossings. Again,
providing a visual queue for drivers approaching this
intersection. School Street is a heavily traveled
street, so we want to highlight the crossings there. We
do that with the textured surface with advanced signage
to make sure that people know there is a crossing here
and to be aware of your surroundings.
Going back to the slide, I want to focus
on the cross-section view. So basically looking down
the street at a driver's eye what that is going to look
like. I highlighted three different areas here A, B,
and C. So to visualize this we had to do a little
exercise here. Pretend you're standing in the street
looking up the street, pointing to the arrows. So
you're facing the street looking up the street looking
at the arrows. So that is how are going to look at the
next few slides here. Again, we are going to go A, B,
and C.
So slide A is on Chauncey Street adjacent
to the school. We are looking up Chauncey Street going
away from the school. The existing condition here we
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have two 17-foot travel lanes, sidewalk on both sides
and then a varying grass strip. So the key here is the
lack of the physical barrier between the road and the
sidewalk.
In our proposed design, we have two 10-
foot shared lanes, shoulders on each side of the road
for parking and then a sidewalk on each side of the
grass strip on the right side traveling northbound.
Section B is Boylston Street, I believe
that is before the intersection on Hosmer Street, so in
this area right now there are two 18-foot travel lanes,
a sidewalk on both sides varying width with a grass
strip heading eastbound. The proposed condition, again,
two 10-foot shared lanes, shoulders on both sides and
then sidewalk with the grass strip traveling westbound
and a 5 '-� foot sidewalk traveling eastbound.
Section C is on Boylston Street heading
towards Fairfield Street. So again existing condition
two 18-foot lanes and we are doing one 12-foot shared
lane, a 10-foot shared lane, and then a shoulder. This
street is not marked. So what I am saying is we are
just allocating space. Then sidewalk on both sides with
a grass strip separating the sidewalk on each of the
approaches.
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The project schedule, Dave highlighted
this a little bit. We have completed the 25 and 750
design submittals in November. Here we are at the
public hearing in April. We are hoping, we are
scheduled for a fall advertisement with construction
starting in the spring.
So how will traffic be affected during
construction? As we are, we are doing extensive
pavement reconstruction. We are reclaiming the roads.
So that means the roads will be pulverized. That is a
granule material that is traversable but it will be some
intermittent shifting of traffic using signage and
police details during construction. There may be some
temporary road closures while they are actually
pulverizing the road but as soon as the road is
pulverized, you can drive on it. If any closures would
happen they would be minimal at best. Just when the
actual operation is there for safety reasons.
For pedestrians, as this is a school
zone. All construction will be coordinated with the
town with the school to make sure the construction is
minimally invasive during school hours and school
activities. The schedule would be conducive to the
operation of the school.
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During construction, there are facilities
to provide temporary ADA ramps and travel past that are
still accessible towards ADA compliance that is used for
construction activities to make sure those routes are
still accessible during construction. Construction will
be substantially completed in one construction season.
So like, I said if we get this out to bid in the fall
construction will begin in the spring and the majority
of the work would be done in that one construction
season.
Our next step as a designer is to
resubmit these plans. We take the feedback we received
from MassDOT, from abutters, we make revisions to the
plans and we are scheduled to do that again this spring.
This summer we do have a tree hearing. We are removing
one landscape tree on the project, so we do need to do a
tree hearing with the town for that.
After that in the fall, we submit final
PS&E documents, plans, specs, special provisions, and
estimate to MassDOT. That package is then advertised
for construction. So the contractor would bid on it.
The contract will go to construction when the spring
comes in 2018.
Here is my contact information. There is
contact information in the packet. I believe this
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presentation is up on the MassDOT website, so if you
need to refer back to that you can. Thank you and like
I said, thank you for being patient and we will open up
to any questions and comments that you may have.
DAVID SHEDD: Before we do that, I just
want to explain the process and little bit. We are here
to answer questions and take comments if you could
please stand up and state your name and spell your last
name that will help with the recording. Also, if you
take a handout tonight if you leave and you think of
some comments later today you can fill out the comment
form and send it to me within 10 days and it will become
part of the official transcript. If you want to take a
couple extra and pass them out to neighbors, please do.
It is also customary to ask if there any state, local,
or federal officials who would like to talk first. I
welcome that now.
(No response)
DAVID SHEDD: Okay, hearing none, I guess
I will open it up to questions.
MIKE TRAVERS: Mike Travers I own 3 Howe
Street, 1 - 3 Howe Street. I am one of the largest
abutters here getting that green space. I have several
questions I don't know if I should approach the screen
here?
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DAVID SHEDD:
MIKE TRAVERS:
extending the driveway here?
BILL MERTZ:
MIKE TRAVERS:
me?
Sure.
My house is here, you are
Correct.
Will this be maintained by
BILL MERTZ: Yes.
MIKE TRAVERS: Can I park my car there?
BILL MERTZ: In the driveway?
MIKE TRAVERS: Yes.
BILL MERTZ: That is just basically an
extension of your driveway.
MIKE TRAVERS: So an extension of my
driveway? So, the sidewalk runs here down to here which
I maintain. I do the snow removal there. Now, this is
going to be significantly extended out here, who is
responsible for that snow removal? Is this still in the
school buffer zone?
BILL MERTZ: No.
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: You're outside of
the school zone, the school zone ends about right here.
MIKE TRAVERS: Okay, because they do not
do any snow removal here for school days. So this is a
significant responsibility for me. There will be
parking along the green area here on the side?
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KRISTOPHER SURETTE: Yes.
MIKE TRAVERS: Are stop signs going in
here?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: Yes.
MIKE TRAVERS: So this is my extended
driveway to here, what is this orange across the
sidewalk?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: It is just to depict
that that is a driveway as opposed to the sidewalk. The
wings on that are similar to the wings on a wheelchair.
We have to transition from the sidewalk down to the
driveway. So that is just a graphical representation of
the driveway.
MIKE TRAVERS: I understand, so there is
a tree here it is city land. It is basically dead. I
was going to ask to have that removed anyway. I assume
that is going to be removed. Is there a tree hearing for
that?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: Yes. We are going
to go through the whole landscape throughout the whole
corridor it is going to be assessed. We got comments
from MassDOT and the town. We are going to go through
assessing trees where we can add or have to remove
trees.
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MIKE TRAVERS: There are two catch basins
currently one here and one here. Are those going to be
-- I assume this one is going away. Right now, you have
grass covering it.
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: Yes, all of the
drainage basically within the gray paved area you have
here all the drainage will be redone.
MIKE TRAVERS: It is my experience that
this will increase the activity of rodents. Do you have
a rodent plan in place? I am just asking.
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: No, but in what way.
MIKE TRAVERS: Well, whenever I have seen
in my business, construction, especially concerning
sewers and catch basins it rounds up the local vermin.
I have a house right here so --
DAVID SHEDD: We could add that to the
project. I think maybe the town has done a lot of this
kind of work so we can check with the town if that is a
problem.
MIKE TRAVERS: I just want to bring that
up. So it is on the record. I would like to know at
some point, who is going to be responsible for the snow
removal for this length of the sidewalk. Thank you very
much. I appreciate it.
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MATT SHUMAN: Hi, I'm Matt Shuman I am
the Town Engineer. I just wanted to address a couple of
those questions and comments that came up since they
were sort of addressed towards the town. I just wanted
clarification on the driveway parking. Even though it
is an extension of the driveway since it is located in
the right of way I don't believe that you would be
allowed to park in the driveway extension.
With regards to the sidewalk. The town
will not plow the sidewalk in that area. As you pointed
out, we will continue to not be plowing the sidewalk.
However, because of the extension of the green space and
the increase in green space, we would maintain the green
space as we do the other green spaces around town.
Finally, with regards to the rodent
control. I won't speak for MassDOT but typical town
contracts do require a rodent control plan.
MIKE TRAVERS: That is what I thought.
So let me get back to you because I see a lot of those
orange spots. So my driveway is being extended, I have
to remove snow from it, but I can park in it, is that
what you're saying?
MATT SHUMAN: Yes.
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MIKE TRAVERS: How is that fair? How big
is that? What is the scale of that? Can anybody answer
what the scale of that is?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: 20-feet.
MIKE TRAVERS: So you are extending a 20'
x 15' --
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: 15 to 16-feet.
MIKE TRAVERS: Okay. So you are adding a
300 square foot responsibility that I have to remove
snow from and I can't park there?
MATT SHUMAN: I would defer to the zoning
enforcement --
MIKE TRAVERS: You are asking for an
injunction -- you are asking me, okay.
MATT SHUMAN: Okay.
DAVID SHEDD: Do we have any more
questions?
JOHN FOLEY: John Foley, 139 Boylston.
With relocating the utility poles, how long? It is
phone, cable, electrical how long down time for that?
That is three different companies involved. How long is
that?
DAVID SHEDD: As part of the project. We
have a meeting in the field with all of the utility
companies that are on the polls that are affecting this
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job. Utility companies they own the poles and the own
the wires. They are if it is not their design they have
the approval of it. I don't believe there will be any
shutdown. Our utility engineer Anthony Christakis is
here tonight, he can correct me if I am wrong, but there
should not be a shutdown of any service, I don't believe
SO.
JOHN FOLEY: Of any service?
DAVID SHEDD: I don't believe so.
JOHN FOLEY: And what about the
underground utility work, I guess? Is that sewer, gas,
water --
DAVID SHEDD: The town is doing some
underground work before we come out. The gas line is
going to be replaced and water as well or just gas?
MATT SHUMAN: Just to answer that
question, we have been working with National Grid to
coordinate gas replacement. That would most likely be
this summer, and as part of our road contracts, the town
replaces any substandard water services. So for water
service is basically not copper from the water main to
the property line the town will go in and replace that
that will also occur this summer. If you have any
questions about the water services we do have a list of
which ones will get replaced. You can contact me.
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JOHN FOLEY: Regarding the curbing, there
is a mix of grass strips between the street and
sidewalk, and asphalt strips between the grass and
sidewalk. I understand the concern with the parking on
the physical sidewalk. However, if you drive around the
park at Boylston Street especially east of Boylston
Street, Hosmer Street cars actually park on the asphalt,
which allows for more room on the street.
Now if your replacing that curbing right
where the asphalt is isn't that going to tighten that
situation? My main concern is during the winter. Right
now, some of the streets are pretty narrow, the way the
cars park. When you drive down, I notice you are
reducing the width of the street by 3 feet. That makes
a big difference with cars parking and traveling in both
directions. I go through there all the time and you
have to watch all the cars approaching you making the
situation really tight. Like I said, during the winter,
this winter wasn't too bad, but two or three years ago
we had that huge storm --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can't hear you.
DAVID SHEDD: It is definitely a little
tighter, but I think we are allowing for the industry
standard for lane widths in parking widths. The idea
here -- with all that extra pavement, the cars tend to
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travel a little faster and we are trying to calm the
traffic a little bit and still allow for the proper
amount of space for parking, lanes, and sidewalks.
JOHN FOLEY: The goal of this program is
to make it safe for children walking or bicycling to
school. By tightening the roadway doesn't that make it
a little more unsafe for them?
DAVID SHEDD: I don't -- we are
tightening it to the standards --
JOHN FOLEY: Reality doesn't reflect
that. When people drive, when people park, some people
park far away from the curb, some people park the wrong
way.
DAVID SHEDD: From a safety standpoint,
we acknowledge that if you have a lot of pavement cars
are going to go faster and speeding is going to be an
issue.
JOHN FOLEY: I've never really seen
speeding.
DAVID SHEDD: No.
JOHN FOLEY: It may be occasionally here,
and during school hours people tend to -- because there
are more cars involved. People tend to slow down a bit.
You have crossing guards there and I don't believe there
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is a problem with speeding. The thing about it is you
call the buffer zone in the school area.
DAVID SHEDD: The bump out.
JOHN FOLEY: The bumper area that you are
calling it, so that encompasses about 20% of the kids
coming into the school. So that is a small portion of
it. It does not contend existing conditions. So
another word you may 10% in the zone area (inaudible
phrase) so nothing is really solved.
DAVID SHEDD: Okay, we only have a
limited scope of where we can --
JOHN FOLEY: Is this more of a need or
want?
DAVID SHEDD: I'm sorry?
JOHN FOLEY: This whole project is it
more of a want or a need? Is it truly needed?
DAVID SHEDD: I think it is, yes. I
think it is needed. The goal is to improve the safety
for the kids walking to school, and I believe that is
what we are accomplishing. So yes, I would say --
JOHN FOLEY: Do you have any general
safety concerns involved?
DAVID SHEDD: I have seen -- we have had
a lot of these projects and you may not have seen
something bad happened out there, but some of these
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projects you do hear a kid got clipped crossing the
street or something worse. A lot of the areas that we
improve are similar situations to what we have out here.
So you may not see it now, but there are some safety
issues and we are making it better. So something like
that does not happen.
BILL MERTZ: The way this project started
was the school approached this program because they
obviously identified a need for improvement for
basically kids walking to school. So as part of the
assessment, the original assessment is what is the need
to find a need, MassDOT, and the program acknowledges
that need. They did a complete assessment of the
project and identified the major pedestrian routes. The
major routed where kids are walking and then go and
identify the deficiencies associated with that.
So you have kids walking down the
sidewalk, you go out there and do an assessment you see
cars parking halfway on the sidewalk and the child can't
walk on the sidewalk, so they had to walk in the street.
That right there is a need. So that is where the
project id derived from. So it is addressing a need.
Not because we want to reconstruct the streets.
This is not a roadway reconstruction
project. It is a safety improvement project and it is
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really driven more towards pedestrians as opposed to
making wider lanes for cars to be processed. We only
have from the back of the sidewalk from one side to the
back of the sidewalk on the other side. So as Chris had
mentioned it is a reallocation of the space trying to
accommodate all the users on the roadway, not just the
vehicles.
DAVID SHEDD: Thanks, Bill.
SETA CAMPBELL: Seta Campbell, we are on
Boylston Street right across from that big large green
space. My concern is that the street is going to get
narrower -- I am all for safety, I raised three kids in
that house and we walked to Hosmer, first of all, over
20 years and I have never seen a safety issue.
When it is narrower we park on the side
of the street, a lot of people park on the side of the
street to go to walk to Hosmer. They park in front of
our house. If there was a car parked on one side and
there's a car parked on the other side. The roads get
much narrower. I am concerned for firetrucks going
through it is going to be an issue. Narrowing the
streets are customary in Watertown I'm seeing lately. I
don't think it is going to make it any safer.
I understand raising the sidewalk, 6
inches like you said. I understand that to make it
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clearer -- the walkways need to be clear, I understand
that but making the streets narrower, I do not think
that is going to help the safety. It is going to create
more dangerous situations. We are there 360 days year.
The kids are there 180 days a year. I think we are
going to be suffering from this issue.
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you.
SETA CAMPBELL: Also, I'm sorry, DPW
plows the snow right across from the big green area they
store the snow there where are they going to put it now?
DAVID SHEDD: I guess they will probably
put in the green area. That is my guess.
SETA CAMPBELL: Then the kids can walk
there.
DAVID SHEDD: The sidewalk will be in the
front.
SETA CAMPBELL: Then you are on the
street again.
DAVID SHEDD: The sidewalk is in front of
the green area.
SETA CAMPBELL: That is going to have
snow.
JESSIE KNEELAND: I am Jesse Kneeland, K-
N-E-E-L-A-N-D. I live one street over on Concord Road.
I have a child in kindergarten and another kid will be
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in kindergarten soon. I walk to school with my children
every day and I -- in addition, we also bike quite a
lot. I think concerns of individual property owners
obviously, those need to be worked out, but overall this
project is fantastic.
I really think there is a big problem
right now with these intersections that the lanes are
not clearly defined. When I am biking through this
intersection the cars show no respect for a bike that is
trying to take the lane and use that space as we are
allowed to do. I think the increased signage for bikes,
the increased signage in terms of the lane designation
are fantastic and I think especially the intersection of
school Street is a huge problem if you're trying to
cross there with kids in a stroller or kids -- holding
the kids by the hand and they are trying to run away and
at the same time their cars going to their 40 miles an
hour routinely.
I respectfully disagree with people who
say safety in this area is not a problem. I have a
couple of young kids right now and I struggle a lot with
trying to keep control of them while also safely
bringing them to school or to the playground. Or
walking to restaurants in the area. So I think
especially the clear definition of sidewalks is going to
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be really important. There's a lot of times when
there's someone parked up on the sidewalk and you take
the stroller out into the street because what can you do
you can't actually get through. I think keeping people
from parking on the sidewalk is fantastic and anything
we can do to improve that is appreciated.
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you.
NATHALIE TARBET: I have a very easy
question.
DAVID SHEDD: Can you state your name?
NATHALIE TARBET: Nathalie Tarbet, 191
Boylston St. This is my house right here. My question
is, the sidewalk will remain, right?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: Yes, we are just
reconstructing that.
NATHALIE TARBET: Okay, I am delighted to
see this bump out on either side, but this will become a
huge snow repository because currently, the huge snow
repository is up against our fence. As you come up
Fairfield and you can't see around -- anyway, it is not
like I'm complaining. It has to be done but it is going
to be a problem.
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you.
LISA FELTNER: My name is Lisa Feltner.
I am a Town Councilor. I was wondering if you could
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talk a little bit about how you arrived at the design
and balancing the need for green space, how this makes
it safer for kids on bikes in the street and finally
thinking about ADA and on street parking. I know a 7-
foot width is standard, but 8-foot current ADA and given
people getting in and out of cars, so if you could help
us understand that.
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: So the concept of
the design that we see here was taken from the
assessment report that was published in 2012 by TEC who
was in association with MassDOT. So the basis of the
design was taken from that report. What we did was
using the proposed layout in that report, we took it and
we said, are we addressing and pedestrian need, are we
addressing the vehicular need, and are we addressing the
bicycle need?
Again, this is a neighborhood, they are
residential streets. They are all local roads. This is
a unique project that aside from School Street where we
are tying into and reconstructing the bump outs at the
intersection all the streets in this project are defined
as local roads, residential roads. They are not
collectors. They are not arterials. So it is a
balancing act.
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We are implementing the safety features,
but we also have to look at the fact that these roads
are residential roads with a school in them. We took
into consideration all these needs but we also have the
limited space of a residential street. So we have the
sidewalks, we have the sharrows for bicycles, we
accommodate the need for parking with the shoulder, but
we do have the sharrows alerting vehicles that there are
bicycles present here and that we need to watch out for
them. It is a balancing act with an urban residential
street. We have to make sure that we are allocating
space for all users and we did that to the best of our
ability with the land available to us.
DAVID SHEDD: The green space didn't
really drive the design is all it just sort of fell out.
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: It was a byproduct
of the design.
DAVID SHEDD: So we are creating some
green space and we were hoping that we could work with
the town and put some nice things in there to make it
look nice.
LISA FELTON: Can you explain -- did you
identify bike routes to this area? Like where people
are coming from on the bikes. I know it is a problem
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and we have a lot of, especially children riding on the
sidewalks. So if you could speak to --
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: The bike routes were
part of the study of the assessment report. Bicycle
routes were established and there was a heat map as far
as bicycles coming from what areas and how many. Like I
said, we took that information and we figured out how we
could address that need on a residential street so we
did that with the markings and signage. We are still
accounting for bicycles but we have to take into
consideration that these are local roads. It is a
residential street that is -- we are not -- if this is a
collector or an arterial street, it is a different
scenario.
We are trying to address -- we are
trying to make a multimodal area on a residential
street. So this is a very unique situation. This is
the first thing that I noticed when we started this
project. I was like, we are designing this in a
neighborhood essentially to ensure that we address all
of those multimodal needs. We did that to the best of
our abilities. All of those heat maps and trip
generations for bicycles was established in the
assessment to MassDOT, the assessment report published
in 2012.
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DAVID SHEDD: As part of the assessment
the school gives us GIS data, everybody's address that
goes to the school so we can figure out where everyone
is coming from. In general, and that is where we
concentrate on where to do the improvements. So
apparently, there was a good amount of kids coming from
this area going to school. So we focus on this area.
The addresses don't differentiate between who is walking
and who was riding a bike, but they do take counts of
how many bicycles are on the bike rack and we like to do
a before and after to see what the improvement is. That
is determined as part of the assessment.
ANGIE KOUNELIS: Angie Kounelis, District
8 Town Councilor which would be this part of the East
End. First of all, thank you very much to MassDOT for
listening to the concerns that were brought forward and
for considering this project improvement for Watertown.
Overall, I think the consensus is that
this will be certainly an added enhancement for the East
End of Watertown. I know that there are property owner
issues and we are not going to leave anybody hanging on
the downside, believe me. Mr. Schuman is here, I think
Dennis is here also and Officer Sgt. Sampson the Traffic
Commander we need enforcement issues. We are all going
to be able to work together.
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I think MassDOT will put the project
together and any individual property issues. We will
meet and try to address them to the best of our ability.
I have heard from residents that there might be snow
that will be piled on to the intersection. So I think
that is something that we need to address because that
will be a sightline issue as well. If a resident has a
driveway that is going to be increased by 20 some odd
feet I think that is something as a community need to
address as well. We are not going to leave anyone
hanging. We are going to communicate.
That is what this meeting is about and
moving forward any other issues, we can address in-
house. Is that correct? Thank you. Mr. Schreiber is
here also getting from Community Development and
Planning, and he reports to Mr. Magoon was the Assistant
Town Manager and Director of Community Development and
Planning. Thank you very much for attending this
evening and voicing your comments.
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you.
MATT SHUMAN: Just on behalf of Public
Works I would like to thank everyone for coming out.
Thank MassDOT for working to move this project forward
and to fund the project. I think we all know it will be
a successful important project. I would like to thank
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the Hosmer School, particularly the principal as well as
the police department, community development, and
planning for being involved in pushing this project
forward and of providing us input as we move along.
I just want to address some of the
comments about the road width on the project, and I do
understand it is going to be a large change for the
neighborhood. I would like to echo some of the comments
that Mr. Surette made regarding the road width and
trying to cognoscente of these being residential
streets.
I'd also like to point out that the road
widths are incredibly wide right now. The road widths
that are proposed are actually wider than some of the
street that we put back in other neighborhoods. Part of
the reason for that is trying to accommodate the
parking. We have really tried to balance the needs of
all the users, balance pedestrian safety and parking in
this design.
I would also like to say that we did
review the layout of the streets with the police
department and that they feel comfortable with that.
Snow removal came up with a couple of people and
certainly, that is an issue for DPW in terms of changes
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for us. We need to consider how our snow removal
occurs.
Finally, just want to point out that this
is a great opportunity for beautification in the
neighborhood. The curbing is great for protecting
pedestrians, but it also enhances the green space and
allows us to get green buffers in. You can see some
really enhance landscaped areas. I think this is going
to be a great asset for the neighborhood. Thank you
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you. Anyone who
hasn't spoken yet?
EDWARD SHEEHAN: My name is Edward James
Sheehan. I live at 141 Boylston. I am located right
about here. This is where I live. I'm starting off
with the street widths. I know I don't want to dwell on
it, but so saying the street is going to be narrowed.
Cars coming around here right now they have time to slow
down a little bit. If there are cars parked on both
sides and so when there are cars parked on both sides it
is literally one-way. So you are looking at a very very
short period of time for two cars to come to a halt at
that specific intersection. I am guessing that is going
to take place at plenty of other intersections.
That is the other thing I have noticed,
in other areas of town where certain residents are now
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thinking about turning roadways into one ways because
otherwise, you are playing a game of chicken where you
have a two -second decision to pull over the side, and
who is going to pull over. It is a logistic problem for
drivers. I think it is making it a lot less safe for
drivers.
Other than that, go back to this
gentleman, he should not have to do that. That is
ridiculous. As far as plowing goes, shoveling this
area, my buddy over here that is a lot of shoveling for
someone. There is an elderly couple here that are not
here tonight. This is their lot. That is a lot of
work. These people are 80 years old.
What happens when Chauncey Street -- so
everything gets bumped out through here. It is pretty
much becoming one ways. I think a lot of people will
see this throughout different parts of town, certain
streets. So that is a very legitimate concern. It does
make traffic less safe for drivers. If you have someone
on a bike also in this congestion it is potential for
pedestrians as well. That's all I got.
DAVID SHEDD: Thank you.
WALKER CHRISTY: Walker Christy. I am at
54-56 Chauncey St. I have been there for 15 years. I
think a lot of what you guys are trying to do makes good
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sense. I think snow removal and lawn mowing becomes
different for some of us, as Ted pointed out. I have a
massive driveway which I am happy about in a lot of
ways. It takes a majority of the snow from that corner
so shoveling for me is the job.
One of my biggest concerns and I think a
fairly easy solution, I think, Matt, I know you are
representing DPW here tonight but you guys have that
bombardier thing that cleans the sidewalks in front of
the school. This is a school zone project, that thing
can rip through a sidewalk in two seconds and we are out
there for hours shoveling cement.
If the town is going to make an
investment in improving a school zone, I think one of
the things when it comes to winter and getting kids to
school. Snow removal has been something that we've had
to do in the snowmageddon. The truth is a storm that is
more than 4 inches if you can send the bombardier out
and whip it out in an hour our verses us throwing our
backs out.
We are happy to have the kids and try and
make it a safe environment for them. But every time I
shoveled the crosswalk in front of my house, and I mean
every time, I go to bed at 11 o'clock at night I wake up
at 5 o'clock the next morning and no lie I have hundreds
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of pounds of snow back in my crosswalk. I try to do my
best but I'll be honest with you. There are times where
I am willing to throw my hands up because I have already
done it four or five times trying to stay ahead of it.
It is not sustainable for us is a
neighborhood, I think, particularly for anybody who is
on the corner to keep doing that when there is equipment
out there. I would imagine it's an hour or two
investment for someone with that piece of machinery to
go and throw the snow out of the way. It only seems
fair.
I am just one -- I will ask the question
for the people who are getting the large parcels of
grass in front of my house at the intersection at
Boylston and Chauncey over by Hazel and Boylston there.
Those are going to be maintained by the town, am I
correct? That was the answer I heard at the last
meeting.
MATT SHUMAN: I don't think we committed
to doing each little grass strip there.
WALKER CHRISTY: Not each little grass
strip. I am talking about the large bump outs where
mowing becomes significantly -- I'll tell you what if
you're going to put that in front of my house mow it
because I don't want to. That's it for me.
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DAVID SHEDD: Thank you.
MARIAN FERRO: Marian Ferro I live
basically at Ground Zero, where Chauncey comes down
Chauncey dumps out into my driveway pretty much. I also
grew up in that house. So I have seen big differences
in this place and it seems to me everybody seems to
drive their kids to school. The only time I see kids
walking to school is when I see parents coming from
where they parked their car. So I don't know how many
more will walk and bicycle. I think a lot of parents
are afraid of their kids getting snatched or something.
Even though it is not a common thing. I have talked to
some woman who said I know it's not common, but I
wouldn't want it to be my kid.
So I don't know if it will encourage
more walking and bicycling, etcetera. I do think the
narrower streets will cause problems. When school goes
in and out I have to watch it I can't get out of my
driveway. There were so many cars. It was totally
clogged in.
With narrow streets, I don't know about
that. It is ridiculously close. I just don't know -- I
don't think it's going to be helpful so much. I also
had a question and I forget which person was talking
about when the streets are done it is going to be down
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to ground down or something. For those of us who live
on the ground down streets, you said they can be driven
on or something. Will we be able to get in and out?
DAVID SHEDD: Nobody will be closed off
from their house. You may be driving on gravel instead
of pavement and it will be on a temporary basis it may
have to be graded up so you can get into your driveway
on a gradual slope, but there will be any interruption
of everybody getting into their houses.
MARIAN FERRO: I know it is hard to
estimate but how long -- what is the amount of time you
think this whole part will take?
DAVID SHEDD: You mean the pavement part?
MARIAN FERRO: Yes, the parts that are
really -- yeah.
DAVID SHEDD: It is difficult to say.
Once we get a contractor on board he has the ability to
generate a schedule. We have to approve it, but I would
think that they will do things off the road as much as
they can, like drainage and the sidewalks. Then they
will have their crews come in that do the grinding and
hopefully, they get the pavement soon after. I can't
really tell you how long that will be.
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MARIAN FERRO: Is there anyone who would
be responsible for notifying us the residents that this
is going to happen tomorrow?
DAVID SHEDD: Yes, we will be -- once we
have a contractor on board, MassDOT will have an
engineer assigned to the project. He will be coming out
to inspect to make sure everything is done according to
plan. I am sure there will be either biweekly or weekly
meetings that will include the town and utility
companies if we are doing that kind of work, and
probably the principal.
Once we get to that point we will work
with the town on how to get the word out when something
is going to happen whether it's through a website,
sometimes we put leaflets in doors. So, we will make
sure. It is not that much of a sprawling area that it
can't be covered easily. I am sure we will be able to
figure something out.
MARIAN FERRO: We do tend to fall through
the cracks a lot of times.
LISA FELTNER: I forgot to ask, in the
evaluation I was wondering if it was determined if there
is any parking lost now?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: There was no formal
traffic counting as far as the comparison to before and
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after, but we are maintaining those sections. We are
maintaining the shoulder areas for people to park on.
The goal of this project is not to reduce parking.
There may be a few spots, people park close to the
intersections now and you're not supposed to so there
will be clear signage. I believe 25 feet from the
crosswalk you cannot park. So that area will be defined
as a no parking area.
That is obviously a safety concern for
people to be able to see over cars and see if the
traffic is coming along. But in no way are we intending
to reduce parking in the neighborhood except for
immediately adjacent to some of these intersections
where people currently do park. That is all.
DAVID SHEDD: Anybody else have any
questions or comments?
GAIL BASINGTON: I have a question
because I was late. What is the A, B and C? My name is
Gail Basington. I live on Chauncey Street and the A is
in front of my house, so I just wanted to know what it
was?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: It is going to be
painted there, no, no I'm just kidding. It was just a
reference to a future slide that this is what --
basically, what I said earlier, is pretend you're
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standing in the road facing the arrows and that is what
the road is going to look like. It was just a
reference.
GAIL BASINGTON: Since I was -- I had
another engagement and could not be here. Is there
information for those of us who could not come?
KRISTOPHER SURETTE: There is a handout
here that explains the project. It explains the public
hearing process, the description of the project, and the
schedule moving forward. It is a good summary and I
believe the presentation is on the MassDOT website as
well.
DAVID SHEDD: We will be around after as
well. If you have questions, we can go through them
with you.
GAIL BASINGTON: Thank you.
DAVID SHEDD: Anybody else?
(No response)
DAVID SHEDD: Okay, thank you for coming
out tonight. We have a few things that we have to work
on. We had some good comments tonight the shoveling,
the grass, parking in the driveway. I will take that
back and work with the town and continue on. I would
like to remind you to pick up a handout and if you have
any other comments please send it to me within 10 days
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and we can still make it part of the record and that is
something we can still take a look at.
We are going to be here for a while. We
have plans, we have the colored plans so we can answer
any other questions that affect your personal property.
I guess at this point I will declare the hearing closed
at 8:30. Thank you
(Whereupon, the proceedings were concluded on
April 5, 2017, at 8:30 p.m.)
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C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Tammy A. Hillery, do hereby certify
that the foregoing record is a true and accurate
transcription of the proceedings in the above -
captioned matter to the best of my skill and
ability.
Tammy A. Hillery
** All names not provided were spelled phonetically to the
best of my ability
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