Transportation Committee (TC) Meeting Minutes, November 17, 2022

 Present: Mary Day Mordecai (chair), Barbara Watkins, Earl Horn, Erin Hammerstedt, Ned Hulbert,

Absent: Alison Weber.

Next Meeting:  Monday, December 12, 2022, 8:30-10:00 am at HHI office

 1) MAST Grant 1 (2020) –

Mary Day will write the final MAST report for the 2020 grant, which will be due at the end of the year. We need to continue to write quarterly updates for the 2021 grant until the end of 2023.

The TC public meeting was held at the Harrisville Library on October 11 to review impacts of Main St and 137 Radars and of the Trail Improvements.  Despite the small attendance, a very interesting conversation ensued, which will help us in determining plans for the future.

2) MAST Grant 2 (2021) 

  • Alison and Mary Day met with Kate Abbott, Principal of WMS, and SAU Asst Superintendent Ben White to request a contribution from the school to help with cost over-run on the school speed radar project. Mary Day has also discussed with Henry Underwoood of SWRPC about whether MAST can make a contribution.
  • Mary Day reported that she has spoken with one resident living close to the radar installed in the church parking lot who is unhappy. Mary Day has answered questions posed by the resident and provided additional information about the decision-making process, the need for the radars, and how they work.  So far, no other residents have expressed concerns about the installations.
  • TC agreed that we will meet with the Town’s new Police Chief, after TC presents to SB its radar data, to request the Police Dept provide school speed limit enforcement and management of the School radars, as well as the other two radars.
  • Earl reported on the school radar installations completed on November 15. Our Town Road crew had installed piers and poles for radars the previous week.  Tattersall spent all day putting in the AC radar, speed limit and beacons, as well as installing the solar radar unit equipment on the southern approach.
  • Lessons Learned: Earl reported on our learnings, including technical and material needs which our vendor did not address. The vendor has provided great responsiveness and tech support and has discounted some of our costs.  More money needs to be built into future grants to reduce volunteer time. We need to hire professionals in the future so that volunteers do no more than coordination and planning. The aesthetics of (sign) size for any Town installation (radar or otherwise) should also be a future consideration.

TC reviewed resident survey comments on the Main St and 137 Radars from surveys completed at the TC booth during Old Home Days and from input received at other times:

  • All concerns that were noted, with one exception, are about state roads: Main, Chesham, etc.
  • Residents continue to note pedestrian safety worries. Some questions were raised: Do we have significantly more pass-through traffic than in the past?  Did Covid bring more summer house residents converting to year around use – thus more traffic?
  • We feel that auto, pedestrian and bike traffic volumes continue to grow.

Mary Day shared 2014 Master Plan Transportation Section.  She requested that committee members read it for discussion/input at our next meeting.  The TC will be the team to develop an improved version of that section for the revised Master Plan, as managed by the Planning Board.