Town Council - Regular Meeting

It will from the little bit of research that I've done, it does take some time for when you're doing u snow removal and you kind of have to raise the and I may be I apologize if I'm making light of it. I'm not. But you do there will be some additional time required to accommodate permanent speed humps. Um but I think that on certain streets we should look at that especially with streetscape coming in because um I think we have uh church street that will be affected when we make uh 31 or main street one way. you're gonna have people that are taking Church Street and um Lampert and I think those those folks are even though there are stop signs I think people are going to people are going to

move quickly through those streets. So just to um so College Avenue, Lampert, Church Street were places that I was thinking that maybe we consider those. You know, at least take a look at the feasibility of doing it and what the impact might be. I've seen them in other communities and they work. Um I've heard people say, "Well, you mess your car up." Um, I I don't know. I don't know a whole lot about that, but I think that we should try to open the discussion to to do that. You're echoing everything I've been saying for the past couple of months. Um,

especially with Street Gate coming up. Um, I've talked to a couple of the firefighters, including one or two of the drivers.

Um, there's some push back on that front, but it's about 50/50 with, "Yeah, let's do it. It's not a big deal." and the other half saying we don't want them. Um, but for the couple of firefighters that live in town on streets that are going to be impacted, they're all for it. And living on church myself, that and the stop signs are a big issue. Um, I think speed homes will help with the stop sign issue as well because they're already going to be going a little bit slower. Um, I would like to add though that I think Maple and Blue Ridge should receive one, maybe two, as well.

Which road? Maple and Blue Ridge. Basically, anywhere that you can think that somebody's going to try to turn it into a sneak down to miss the traffic on streetscape. The biggest Oh, and and Hillside, too. Sorry. Um, the biggest issues I think just from my experience and and talking to residents, uh, Lambert and Church are the raceways, college can be, especially when school is in session. Um, but any I'd say any road that's kind of connected offshoots of those should have the speed homes. Um,

I I don't really see college as a cutthrough road, though. Do you? I mean, it was when they were doing the u water line. Yeah. But for streetscape, it's going to be so even if it's a curb that stays in until it deteriorates to the point it comes out, we can re-evaluate. But college is absolutely a cut through in the mornings with school buses and during construction times on 31. Is your one way going to be coming down or up? Coming coming. So, we're going to be one way from 75 to this intersection right here. I know just one, but which one? Coming down coming into town.

Okay. Because if it were the other way, then I think you'd see an enormous increase in traffic on on uh Yeah. College. Well, and I've seen people not want to stay behind a truck that's coming into that intersection and tear up College Avenue, too. And Church Street. And Oh, Church Street. Definitely all the and you know have being someone who's lived at the corner of church and high for 30 something years.

I was here when there were no stop signs and it was a lot worse. But that's not solving the problem because people treat the stop sign like it doesn't there cert isn't there certain times a day like really in the early in the morning and I know this because I until I hurt my knee recently walked every morning at 5:30 you know I mean it's like a straightaway going up and down the street.

I envision not knowing a the logistics and b the the rules against it. I envision one per block. So like one in the 200 block of church, one in the 300 block, one in and and it it's in between the stop signs. It's that additional like you already have to slow down, so you might as well stop for the for the next one. Um but yeah, do we see this going on lower main and lower church as well or is it more so uh I don't think lower main gets enough traffic to

No, I mean I think for the most part it's people coming through New Windsor going someplace else. Not that residents, you know, it's not that residents don't speed, but it's more it's more commuters, you know. Well, I don't know. This is I see I'm I'm not I see folks in my development that that that put the pedal to the metal and ignore stop signs. I mean, I see it every morning. I and I just it, you know, it's an accident waiting to happen. So,

do we want to consider like the main roads in uh Atly and Blige as well? Sners isight, but I don't know that. I mean, I think what we I think we should look at Oldtown first where there'll be, this is just my thought, immediate impact. Has has any traffic studies been done on any of these roads? Not recently, but yes, they have. Not the time, right? Not not the town road.

Well, Church Street has had Yes, there have been there has been at least one if not two on Church Street where they put in the the counters and counted how that was how we got the stop signs in because they realized how many people were going up and down it every day. So, it's been a while, but yeah, I mean that would definitely be a first step. And it was recommended then to put the traffic calming humps in the world and we didn't do it because there was a lot of push back. Yes.

Yeah. Well, I can imagine that there'll be push back um because, you know, it's new. We've and we haven't I we've never had them, but I've been in communities in Elicate City uh city similar to ours u or sections of Elicate City that have it and they work. you know, they definitely work and you know, they other places seem to find a way to make it work. I think we're I don't think I've been in a county in Maryland that doesn't have them some places. Yeah. So, can we can I suggest that we try a street first, one street,

and see how successful we are? And I would say that street should be church street because people cutting in off of 31 and they're using as a shortcut. Yeah, really. Lampert is is the second runner, but Lampert's in such bad shape. We need to get a water line replaced and repaint that. Yeah,

if I recall, if Lambert's not done by streetscape time, the the as long as it's in coordination with other paving that the town's doing, the speed humps weren't that expensive to put in even on like a temporary basis until we do Lambert. Um, my my big my rush is obviously streetscape. Um, and I don't I I would do Lambert and Church, but if we just want to do the one coin flip between the two of them, I would do both as well.

So, we can do um we can use highway user money. And then there's parabolic uh speed humps. They're 3 to 4 in high and 12 to 14 inches wide. So, the calming mounds. Yeah. They're more of a calming mound. Yeah. than a speed hump. They're a lot better. It makes it more manageable to plow. Um, and you know, it it doesn't really affect people's vehicles as far as you know, lower cars nowadays dragging over them. And that's that's that would be a good start in my opinion.

We just I was thinking if we just do church, we're going to turn Lambert into a raceway, right? So, I kind of feel like we need to do both of them at the same time. So the other side of that coin is this current complaint has come from college, right? But so if I can say something about that too, kids are supposed the folks that are speeding are required to have a traffic pattern. Maybe we they can only exit the facility through Blige Avenue and not a residential street like college. Maybe we change the main. Yeah,

that's that's the easiest way to fix that. Meaning you coming out of the col you make a facility you'd have to make a left and go towards Main Street. So coming out of their back such a short section there's no way they can get speed up there. It solves it. Take Blue Ridge to me. Yep. Yeah. How do you I I have an obvious counter to that. How you Yeah. How you going to enforce it? Traffic only and enforce it and send them a letter and it's part of a plan, a a so-called master plan. You make that Well, now we know who we're talking about.

You make that going to indicate any approval of any so-called or otherwise master plans? Just saying.

Yeah. My my concern is uh you know we've we we had a situation in Snater Summit and my I hate to keep bringing that up but I I just think that you know there are we you know everything's cyclical and our our development is having we have more and more little kids and I just see it and I hear it my gosh you know people floor it down golo now And you know it's just time I think that we consider that and you know Oldtown first I would think. So I mean

do we think because I would I assume CPE is our paving contractor for this year. Do you think there would be a bulk discount per speed home? There is when it comes to manhole replacements and stuff like that I would imagine we Yeah, maybe that's the the the factor to like well if it's five for this price or 10 for the same price if you do more maybe that's the deciding factor for it does CP do them

I reached out to him actually um on a personal matter for my condo association just to get a ballpark price for them and I think I think he said they were and this was only three um I think I think it was around like 4,000 5,000 a piece Yeah. The number that's that I heard I don't it was either you Wayne or someone else was 5,000 a hump and even on a tables basically.

Yeah. And even even on see I call the I I call those the speed humps and the short ones bumps. But yeah um the tables um even if it's a temporary measure for Lambert until we get that fully paved. I think it's worth it because there's been a lot more talk about the traffic down there from the residents

at the state highway um public meeting um last week I guess it was I talked with um one of the one of the guys there that's was traffic engineer and um and he he had mentioned that they have they have temporary uh versions of them basically that that get nailed down kind of kind kind kind of deal and he was going to the state highway has not adopted that style yet but they're they're looking at it and considering it. Um, and I don't know if there's any appetite for that or whether we just go with, you know, those might be good on Lambert for like

Well, how about could that be something that we throw on college if

or going to do the two Lambert and Church to maybe address citizens if it's something that's cheaper while we're evaluating that that we could get a a nail down version to put on college. Um, if Wayne's idea didn't work, you know, of having one way out of there, um, I'm even thinking about like in the future if we just have these on hand and hey, we got some complaints on college or Maple or whatever, you can deploy them, calm it for a week or two, and then pull them. What do you think that's going to do with the paving? I don't want to think about it.

It's not It's not going to be a little um a little It's not a nail. It's just It's not just a little nail that goes in. Brand fold them up like George Justin's briefcase, you know. So So I've seen those um I guess we'll call them tables to stay on the same that they've also put them in places where they're putting crosswalks, right? and they've painted the tops of that table as a crosswalk. Now, something that that wouldn't work on Church Street

because of the stop signs because you wouldn't put it there if you already have a stop sign. But maybe there's places other places around maybe Lambert or somewhere else where we do have a road intersection that we could put it we could paint it white the top as a as a crosswalk and just to highlight it additionally is so people you know they're worried about their car saying they don't see them or whatever that

Well, the other thing I was going to bring up there's there's always things to consider and you know you're going to get people complaining about them and And he complained about the speed and he complained about the speed hump, but also two people who would be affected by it. Three people, well, not you, but the the sound of the cars going over the speed humps is also a a vein or an avenue for people, residents complaining over speed bumps. I could see that.

No, no, the speed humps because you're hitting the speed hump at a faster speed than you are a speed bump. Well, there's a street that because I work in Baltimore, there's a street um near Bolognia Road. I'll have to go look at the name of it. That's a residential street and and I cut through on it and a lot of other people do too. And they've put it I don't know what your the table is. These are what I call calming mounds. They're they're as wide as a crosswalk. Yes. And you roll up onto them. I mean, you'd have to really be speeding

like brass. Yeah, plate. It might be the same dimensions as that. I'm sure they measured it. They're pretty close. This looks like it just gets mounted with like anchors, right? Do we even need to might not even need to do anything? It looks like it just surface mounts. Yeah, I'd like them to look at it and see what the most realistic way is to do it. I was just thinking cons to be consistent they have it recessed. Oh, that's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah.

So, all right. Those are my thoughts. We um we we have a feeling one way or the other about the the statues. I'd like to know what see what Wayne thinks about or Gary, either one of you about is there any way that we could sort of secure them. You said they were resin, didn't you? Last time we talked about them. Yeah, they're I think I mean I haven't That's what the person meant. They're resin.

I think they're some kind of I have to go back and read my report from that month because I copied and pasted what she told me. Let me see what if I can find it. But yeah, they're not they're not solid cement. Was that the meeting or was that work session that we talked about that work session? No, the this photo is from the uh council meeting on that. Is that the 41 meeting? Yes, Conor was not running together. I got it. It feels like a work session topic, but I think there was a little urgency to the person who suggested it was asked me to bring it up at the meeting blah blah blah blah.

If we're you're talking about putting them in the mulch in between the existing pillars that are out there, correct? Yeah, that was the suggestion of the donor way to anchoring to the ground. They are put in. Well, I mean, I guess we could take the donation with the with and let the folks know that there's not really any way for us to you know, guarantee guarantee that they won't something wouldn't happen to them. But hopefully people would respect the memorial park. That would be nice. But, you know, they kick the lights over there and everything else. They do. What? Oh, yeah. All the time. They kick the lights. Do we have a camera on that? No.

Not that shows It shows down that doesn't show back into the book. Shows down the street. That's a topic for another night. But yeah. All right. So, we're going to tell them yes and then Well, do we need to vote on that? If it's donation, yeah, we're not there's no town investment, right? Yeah. I'm so by consensus giving us something for a display on one of our lands and it's not a commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is this is just a resident and another person who saw these and wanted to give them to the park and the resident is very involved with taking care of the park. So, Yeah. Yeah. It does a great job. They do. Yep. Okay. You guys all okay with that? Yeah.

I'll just email her. All right. Thank you. Thanks for bringing that up, Kevin. Yeah. All right. That brings us to uh item number seven, which is a motion to adjourn the work session. Oh, one other thing. Am I getting ahead of myself? Yeah. This the Atley Ridge Open Space Basketball Court. Wanted to give a real quick update. So, public works and I met with Remburg Paving um and discussed how to elevate the court to protect it from floods. Um Wayne showed me a picture of what was that 17 or 18

and it was pretty significant flood and and would have would have been all over the where we were going to put the court. So, we um we met with him and and discussed our our concerns about raising it and keep trying to keep it out of the flood plane. So, we're we're going to basically raise the raise the core three or four feet, grade it, compact it, and then grade it, grade down at a mable slope outside of the fence, adjust the um adjust the walkway to match that grade going down. Um he's he just submitted the revised proposal today, so I really didn't have time to get it in front of you guys to vote on it, but I broke down the numbers and we can we can still do it um within the uh approved project open space money. The thing is is you all voted on the first um the first proposal and the dollar amount and um so we want to get that back in front of you guys um probably at the May at the May council meeting too.

We're back to a half court then. Yeah, we were look he gave us we were trying to go from, you know, um looked at a full court, but that even pushes us further down in to the flood plane. And now we think with pulling it pulling it back closer to the edge of the parking lot, coming down a little bit and then just basically grading and filling in the court and then raising the walkway. um we can we can get that done uh within the approved grant, but we got to get it back to you for approval again with this with this thing. So, um Wayne will be presenting that to you guys at the May at the May 6 council. I won't be here for that. So, just wanted to give you a heads up on that having on the agenda for the May 6 council. That's it.

All right. Now, now you can unless there are other questions or concerns, the resident's concerns or any other topics that might be appropriate for discussion. All right. With that, I'll entertain motions to adjurnn. A motion to adjurnn. I'll make the motion to adjurnn. All right. We have a motion to adjurnn. Do we have a second? I'll second. All in favor say so by saying I I opposed. Carries. All right.