Central MA Transportation

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Public Safety Committee 5/11/06

The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7PM. I arrived a few minutes late but the meeting had not begun. This was probably to to the lack of a quorum. The committee members are Kaddy, DeSalvatore, Donnelly, DiNatale and DeMartino and only Kaddy and DeSalvatore were present. Donnelly arrived and th meeting was brought to order around 7:15. Kaddy announced that DiNatale was expected to arrive later. Councillor Hay and Tran were present, both had petitions before the committee. Councillor Boisvert was in attendance but I believe he arrived after the meeting had started.

The first two petitions addressed were councillor Hay's

357 – 05.         Councillor Stephan Hay, to investigate ways to alleviate parking and traffic issues on Arn-How Farm Rd. during events at Fitchburg High School.
 
362 – 05.         Councillor Stephan Hay, to establish “No Parking” area on the north side of Arn-How Farm Road from Ashby State Road to the intersection of Billings Road.

These petitions had been refered to Mike Spano (Emergency Management Agency) at the previous Public Safety Meeting. Petition 357-05 was given leave to withdraw (in effect it has been done, events at the High School are now to be coordinated with the Police and Fire Departments). and Petition 362-05 was amended to include both sides of the street and approved as amended.

The next two petition saddressed were  29-04 and 253 -04.

29 – 04.           Councillor Joel Kaddy, to include the following wording to the Code of the City of Fitchburg Ch. 169, Sec. 58 under B grouping, “#9)  Within five feet of a driveway or alley of another.”
 
253 – 04.         William Hubbard, Clinton St. resident, to expand the “Resident Only” parking ordinance to include Clinton St.

Councillor Kaddy withdrew 29-04 as he could not get support from the Police Chief. This was a silly petition anyway that would have allowed people to park in front of thier own drive way. Police would have had to check if the car blocking your driveway was authorized to park there before writing a ticket.

253-04 was also given leave to withdraw. Reports indicate that the intersection in that area is being redesigned and the parking issue there may be resolved with the changes.

Councilor DiNatale arrived during discussion of the last two petitions.

Next petition

338 – 05.         Councillor Stephen DiNatale, Councillor Kevin Maynard, Mr. John Masciarelli, Mr. Paul Gauvin, Rev. H. Edward Chalmers to construct electrified cautionary signage at 278 Water St. and 243 Water St.
Trailer report from officer MacNamara - 45000 cars passed the trailer while it was there, 23 mph was the average speed, the 85th percentile was 30 mph. Lots of traffic at certain times of the day (specifically the rush hour, at which time the traffic comes up to about 125 cars every 15 minutes.) The volume of traffic makes it difficult to cross at times. The chief is on board with the electrified signs. The proposal is to install "Smart 450" signs from Custom Signals. These are similar in nature to the signs in front of St. Leo's Church and on Day Street in Leominster. MacNamara indicates half the funding could be in place by September through a grant from the GHSB (Governor's Highway Safety Bureau)
Comment:The source of funding suggested is actually a federal grant. That's what the GHSB does, seek out federal money for redistribution to local agencies like the Fitchburg Police Department. The click it or ticket campaign falls in this category. Councilor Hay seems to like the idea because it is state or federal money. The reality is it is Tax Payer Money and if it is wasteful spending it is waste regardless of what bucket it came from. Ultimately the source was taxpayers. Oh and this is wasteful spending. There's no safety benefit from installing this type of sign.

Councilor Donelly suggested to John Masciarelli that he might consider making a gift to the city to assist in paying for the signage. John took offense but indicated he'd consider it.

Without funding in place it was proposed (by councilor Hay if I recall correctly, who is not a member of this committee) to pass the petition to force the funding to be found.

The petition was accepted.

Next and most discussed was councilor Trans petition

84 – 06. Councillor Dean A. Tran, to include one sheet with the following information: name, age, sex, race and address of all Level 2 and 3 sex offenders sorted by address with water and sewer municipal bills (residing in Fitchburg only).

There was a lot of discussion on this petition. The primary concerns are:
  • there may be legal issues with including type 2 offenders
  • the effectiveness of this method of distribution.
Comment:It seemed clear that information for type 3 offenders, the most likely to be repeat offenders can be distributed but it is not as clear if the type 2 offender information can be distributed in the same ways. The petition will be refered to the city solicitor for an opinion BTW the numbers tossed around were 149 total type 2 and type 3 offenders. There are 43 type 3 offenders so simple math is 106 type 2 offenders. As to the effectiveness of using the water bill as a mechanism to distribute sex offender information it was generally considered ineffective. A number of other mechanisms were cited that seemed more plausible. It was pointed out that anyone can go to the police station and get the information is the want it. This petition seems to be another piece of Feel Good Legislation, well intentioned but ineffective. Sorry, councilor Tran supporters but that's the way it is. Admittedly I voted for Tran but he has been a disappointment, producing nothing of substance to date.

The last petition was 205 – 05. Councillor Joel Kaddy and Peter Bovenzi, to install stop sign on View St. at Prospect St.

Comment:This petition has been held in committee for a long time. At the last meeting concilor Kaddy referenced a letter from the Engineering Dept in support of the sign. I has pointed out at the ward 6 meeting that there are NO traffic engineers employed by the city. He acknowledged that at this meeting. The bottom line is that the petitioners haven't been able to establish a NEED for this stop sign. In what I consider a desparate attempt to demonstrate NEED they modified and passed the petition to install it as a 90 day trail with a request that the MRPC (Montachusette Regional Planning Commission) do a traffic study at that location.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Hmm, how much is Fitchburg charging?

It's not about roads and traffic but it sure is interesting.

To cover the cost of handling bulk items Fitchburg increased the fees charged to residents for disposal of items like appliances, electronics items and tires on January 1, 2006. Here's the new fee schedule.

Fitchburg Fees

The new fees just didn't appear to be in line with the real costs. Today the following appeared in the online version of the S&E.

Recycling company open

Hmmm.