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What do the following 52 streets have in common?NORTH: Eastwood, Elm, N. Main, VineyardCome to tomorrow's Planning Board meeting (6:30pm at Town Hall) to find out!SOUTH: Baltic, Barrows, Black Brook, Center, Chester, Columbus, Dailey, Depot, Elizabeth, Foundry, Fox Ridge, Highland, Holly's Lane, Howard, Kilsyth, Meetinghouse, Oakland, Pammy's Path, Parker, Rachael, Randall Farm, Scotch Dam, Shady Rest, Sheridan, Summer
EAST: Cobblestone, Marshall, Turnpike, Union
WEST: Allen, Amber, Bay, Chestnut, Daniel, Deborah Lee, Dela Park, Douglas, Greystone, King Arthur, Kingsley, Lincoln, Mary Dyer, Oak Leaf, Poquanticut, Ramblewood, Rockland, Roundtable, Sandy Pond
Boy, that was close. On a very rainy night, we got 44% of the vote (116-92). We only needed to change a dozen more minds, but arguments from Town officials that we should leave safety decisions in the hands of the Planning Board were decisive.Many thanks to everyone who braved the remnants of Hurricane Rita to support us!
We've posted a copy of the PowerPoint presentation (4.46MB) that Paul will be giving at tonight's Special Town Meeting.
From today's article in the Boston Globe:The public library's executive director, Annalee Bundy, said exiting onto Barrows Street is preferable to the Lincoln Street plan. ''We think it is unsafe," Bundy said of the Lincoln Street exit. ''It was not a good plan because it has a sharp drop in elevation."According to the Library's own plans, the existing Hall driveway has a 10% uphill grade, and the proposed regrading to cut a new road into the hillside behind the Hall would introduce a 9% downhill grade.Bundy, the library director, said the group opposing the driveway, Citizens for a Safe Library, is really just two people, Rohr and Evans.As of today, our group has over 30 members.
Coverage in the Easton Journal continues with another front-page article in today's issue. Inside, the first letter to the editor is from group members Alyce and Mike Burke, summarizing the accidents they've personally witnessed in the Rockery area.
The warrant for the upcoming Special Town Meeting has now been posted. Although the wording of the Library articles has changed since they were first proposed, the results are still the same.We urge all Easton citizens who care about safe access to the Library to vote as follows:
The bottom line here is quite clear. If there's a real reason to move the access road to a less-safe location, the people of this Town should be able to:
- YES on Article 7 -- We want the Library to move forward.
- NO on Article 8 -- The Town already voted twice (Article 12 in May 2002 and Article 16 in June 2000) to fund the access road off Lincoln Street. The only purpose of Article 8 is to let someone other than Town Meeting decide to use that money to build the access road somewhere else.
- NO on Article 6 -- This is the wrong location to build the road.
It's our money and our Library.
- hear those arguments (pro and con),
- go see the intersections in person, and
- then have a direct up or down vote.
We're also mentioned in this week's issue (dated September 1) of the Easton Buzz, which unfortunately isn't online. If you missed it and would like to see a copy, let us know.
Today's Easton Journal ran a front-page article focusing on the proposed changes from the original approved plan:According to library director Annalee Bundy, the original plan that had met with 10 years of opposition and law suits from citizens in town included the Day Street intersection. She said that original design was "not a problem with official bodies." [ ... ] When asked to elaborate on other reasons for changing the location of the access road, Bundy said she really could not comment other than to say, "It's cheaper so it seemed like a better idea."So why then make the change?Town Administrator Martha White said [...] "To make the driveway directly across from Day Street would have necessitated an eminent domain taking of land. Such takings can often be contentious."Since both of these steps were unanimously approved at Town Meeting last year (articles 33 and 34), why aren't they still being pursued? Did safety get too expensive?White also said the driveway configuration would have required an easement from builder Douglas King to maintain a required distance from a vernal pool, something that would have added to the project cost. A 1996 Town Meeting authorized the town to spend $600,000 to purchase property from King for the access road.
Be sure to read the followup article in yesterday's Brockton Enterprise:Difficult traffic patterns in the historic district of North Easton village took center stage Wednesday night during a Planning Board discussion of the Ames Free Library expansion project.There was very little time for public comments, but we did get a brief chance to focus attention on some of our concerns.There was little dispute at the meeting that the traffic layout in the historic district, created in the 1880s before the advent of the automobile, creates challenges and safety issues for drivers.Although not mentioned in the article, the Planning Board intends to schedule a site visit to see current conditions first-hand.
Our favorite quote from last night's Planning and Zoning Board meeting:"You're taking your life in your hands."... the unsolicited description by Chair Christopher Kone of his attempt to perform what we've been calling the "death wish" maneuver. As of the meeting, he and the other Board members hadn't yet seen this website.
We're thrilled to report that the Town has spent the early part of this week restriping almost every single crosswalk and stop line along our preliminary network of proposed routes.Many of these lines had faded almost beyond recognition in recent years, and it's great to have this done before school starts.
Wow, that was fast. We haven't officially launched this site -- much less started talking to the press -- but there's already an article about us in today's Brockton Enterprise.
The agenda has been set for next Wednesday's meeting of the Planning Board. If you want to sit through the whole meeting to see how things work, feel free to show up at 6:30pm. The rest of us will be there at 9pm, when they plan to start discussing the proposed changes to the approved site plan for the Library.
We've added two new pages -- easy turns and hard turns -- to explain the safety of various maneuvers required when driving in, around, and through the Rockery.They're linked off the traffic page, which is still pretty complex and detailed. If you have any additional ideas on how to reorganize that page to make it easier to understand, we're all ears.