Salem Bike Path Committee
Minutes of Meeting
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A regular scheduled meeting of the Salem Bike Path Committee was held on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 7:00 PM in Meeting Room 313 at City Hall Annex, 120 Washington Street.
Members Present: Christine Michelini, Stan Franzeen, Dan Shuman, Will Peck, Jerry Judge and Nancy Sachetti. Also present was Staff Planner Frank Taormina and the City’s hired engineering consultant Gary Hebert from Fay, Spofford & Thorndike Engineers (FST).
Members Absent: Rachel Hunt, Jeff Bellin, and David Pelletier
Public in Attendance: none
Chairman Shuman called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM
1. Approval of Minutes
J. Judge made a motion to approve the May 13, 2009 Meeting Minutes, seconded by C. Michelini and approved unanimously.
2. Public Comment
No public comments were taken, as no one from the public was in attendance.
3. Salem Citywide Bike Plan
Chairman Shuman turned the meeting over to Gary Hebert, a traffic engineer from Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike Engineering (FST) on contract with the City to assist the Committee/City with the formulation of a Citywide Bicycle Circulation Master Plan.
G. Hebert (FST) thanked the Committee for their input at the previous meeting. He stated that all their brainstorming was plotted onto the Citywide Bike Routes Map. He then reviewed all the proposed bike routes on the complied map with the Committee. He then asked the Committee to determine which routes where the most important to them in terms of implementing first. Discussion ensued.
S. Franzeen stated that all the entrance corridors into Salem should be a priority. The Committee agreed. S. Franzeen added that he is most concerned with bike commuter routes in and out of the City.
N. Sachetti asked if the Committee should reach out to neighboring communities about our plans to create bike lanes along our entrance corridors. Perhaps they could continue our efforts into their communities. Perhaps we could give Beverly, Marblehead, Swampscott, and Peabody a copy of the final plan. The Committee and the Consultant agreed.
G. Hebert (FST) continued with his presentation, which included reviewing all the proposed on- and off-road bike routes in the City. The Committee then began ranking and prioritizing each of the routes with the Consultant.
G. Hebert (FST) then reviewed the cost estimate for implementing the Priority Pilot Route (Green Line Bikeway). He also showed the Committee the cost estimate for maintaining the pilot route (striping cost, signs, etc).
Chairman Shuman asked if the City has the money to implement the pilot route and if not where do we get it.
F. Taormina responded by stating that the City would likely have to find grant money to construct the pilot route.
G. Hebert (FST) mentioned that the cost estimates are meant to put things into perspective for the committee and to allow the City to determine how much it would need to allocate in order to implement the planned routes in the plan. He added that the Committee and City must also understand that the maintenance costs are also costly, and that if any of the routes are implemented they need to be maintained in order for them to be visible and affective bike routes.
G. Hebert (FST) then reviewed the cost estimate for the construction of all the other proposed on- and off-road bike routes in the City. In short, the total cost to implement the 4.4 mile Priority Pilot Route (Green Line Bikeway) is $66,000. The total cost to implement the 3.9 miles of Class I Routes (entirely off-road bike path) is $1,300,000, the 6.4 miles of Class II Routes (on-road bike lane) is $141,000, and the 22.6 miles of Class III (shared on-road bike routes) is $175,000.
G. Hebert (FST) mentioned that the next step is for the Committee to review the proposed bike routes and determine whether any additional Class II and Class III Bike Routes should be added or removed from the proposed map.
F. Taormina stated that he would e-mail the Committee Members the map and the estimates.
G. Hebert (FST) stated that his contract with the City only allows him to hold one more meeting with the Committee.
Since the consultants only has one more meeting available under contract, S. Franzeen suggested that Gary not attend the next meeting. The next meeting should strictly be a Committee Meeting to review everything that has been discussed to date. The Committee agreed.
F. Taormina proposed a timeline as follows….at the next Meeting in July the Committee could compile their comments and forward them to the Consultant. He mentioned that there is NO meeting in the month of August which allows the Consultant to put together the DRAFT City of Salem Bike Circulation Master Plan and distribute it to the Committee and other City Officials for comments. He proposed that the Consultant’s last meeting could be in September, where the DRAFT plan could be reviewed with the Committee to solicit comments before FST finalizes the plan.
The Committee and the Consultant agreed with the timeline.
4. Old/New Business
No old/new business was discussed
Adjournment
Chairman Shuman asked for a motion to close the public meeting. J. Judge made a motion to adjourn, seconded by S. Franzeen and approved unanimously. The meeting was officially adjourned at 8:32 PM.
Respectfully submitted by:
Frank Taormina,
Staff Planner/Harbor Coordinator
BPC 6-10-2009
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