Traffic Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Well, this meeting together order at 5:30. Uh, I'm going to jump around a little bit. I'd like to uh accept the minutes from last last quarter's meeting. I had a bunch of corrections. Bob, go ahead. I don't think I don't think uh Mr. Breen was here. Kim, can you confirm that? I don't think Jason, you weren't here last meeting. I don't recall. I don't recall, but I didn't have anything to do with the minutes either. So, yeah, that's why. Yeah, you he was you were here. Because I talked to you when you came in January 5th meeting, right? Yeah. Yeah, I do believe you pissed me off about something. I don't know. Said no packet.

Okay. Sorry, the meeting minutes look fine then. I'm I want to piss you off. Then you can go ahead and make a motion. No, seriously though, just a couple of That's Alexandria Nut. N- U T. Just because I did look where she lives on on Woodland down below under what's her name is spelled wrong. Yeah. Alexandria Nut. N U T. Okay. Under new business item uh C. New business item number two should be Verie Lane. See that second sentence. Yep. Oh, do you have the minutes? I can give I'm just writing it down. I can give these to you.

Okay. It should address the uh suggest that the residents address their concerns to the tree warden, the town tree warden. Just so that Okay. And that was it. You want to make a motion accept that to corrected as a I'll make a motion to accept the January 5th, 2026 uh meeting minutes as amended. Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I

passed. Any opposed? Okay, we're passed. So, I'll take care of that. Uh, I'm not a a public comment. I'm not going to open it now. I'm not sure why we have some people here. So, maybe you could come up. Sir, could you state your name and address and speak into the mic? My name is Jason Parent. I live at 3810 as your way. I'm sorry, Jason. I'm here in the capacity of the school district to talk about the bus routes though.

Yeah. I the reason I talked to Dan was essentially I was under a misconception about something and I wanted to clarify and make sure that you had the school district had some input into the fact that if we dropped the speed limit townwide to to 25 miles an hour whether that was going to affect your bus schedules or anything else. So I wanted to give you guys a chance to make any type of a comment that might be appropo for the meeting. So that's why I asked Dan to send someone. Yes sir. Is that happening later in the agenda or would you like No, we can do it right now.

Do it right now. Okay. Yeah. So, we did contact the bus company. They do not foresee that as an issue that will not slow down the bus routes. A lot of them as you know in those routes are stop and go anyway. So, they really rarely um you know are going above 25 anyway on all those routes. So, they looked at the list of uh roads that you provided and said that would not impact the bus routes. Okay. Great. So, that's for information only. I wanted everybody to know in case that came up from the town council whether it was going to cause a problem with the school district. So Jason, thank you very much. I'm sorry. I apologize. Moving on, I think I would like to welcome Chief James Young to the committee. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome.

And we meet I I assume u um you your deputy chief had told you that we meet once a quarter and it's the first uh Monday of the month except for July which is usually the second Monday. So welcome aboard. Thank you for coming. Glad to be here. Thank you. And for that I'm going to turn over. Ma'am, are you here public? Go ahead. I thought you passed. I did not pass. You waved your hand. Yeah.

Ray Berlin, three Gary Drive. And by the way, public comment is important. Well, I know that. I hope you appreciate that. That's why it's first.

Okay. So um we have uh some conditions in town that is referred to as congestion. We also have some serious issues in town about traffic safety. And um I reviewed a study that was done in 2004 which pointed this out. I would uh respectfully suggest that we need to have an updated study done of traffic here in the town of Londereerry. We have not only residential roads that go through the town of Londereerry, we also have both state and federal roads that go through the state of uh town of Londereerry which we have very little control over. However, it impacts the safety because a lot of it is cut through the town of Londereerry and we've had a number of fatalities. Um I think I was mistaken early. I thought there was one today. Uh I think I I was looking at something that happened in the past. However, um and by the way, uh I'm going to speak a little bit uh for my wife who is not here, but uh she's on the road and um I'm going to speak for her because she has some uh serious concerns, particularly I live on three uh uh Gary Drive uh but that's off Hardy Road in Pillsbury and that intersection is a little confusing to a lot of people, particularly people that are not familiar with the area, particularly people from our neighbors, the state of

Massachusetts. And I don't know if they have different rules down there, but apparently they don't feel as though they have to stop at stop signs. Um I almost got hit the other day uh down at Burger King, which is in London. I'm pulling out of there and there's somebody pulling in and they're heading right at me and not slowing down. So I stopped unfortunately it didn't hit me. So uh let's get back to the point and that is I I think that uh we need to here in the town of Londereerry uh do some updated studies and I believe the town manager and others on the committee are working on that. So I appreciate that. So, um, thank you for allowing me to speak and once again I said I was speaking for my wife was liable to walk in at any moment. Well, yeah, Charlie. um because she w was very concerned about that intersection Gilchrist Hardy Road in Pillsbury and and now with all this other building that potentially is going to happen, it's going to put further burden not only for congestion but for safety. So, uh I think this is very important and thank you for what you folks do. I think one of the things we're going to go over in the meeting tonight is essentially uh the town manager and a separate committee that's been brought on board to specifically address the problems and the critical intersections within the town uh is one of the things that has been a a major goal of Sean. So we'll be talking to that tonight

and and and just briefly uh we we have developers that come in and they do their own studies. Okay. But with all due respect to them, they spin it uh to their, you understand, and to be perfectly frank, that's why we have some of the, for instance, a study down at Young that's been going on down there for a while for the state with that new development. So, yes, we're looking at those also. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Appreciate it. And just reiterate what he said.

Then with that, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Sean. So, the traffic management working group has made considerable progress. It's a staff u committee uh or group. It's working group to be able to move a lot of these issues along. We've identified uh 44 different uh sections of roadway and intersections in the town that uh we feel that uh need either further study or have demonstrated traffic safety or traffic congestion issues. We have prioritized those into 12 functional areas. uh uh 12 of those intersections out of the 44 that either have safety issues or congestion issues or or a combination of the two. Uh and those are the ones we think should be prioritized. Our plan is to make a presentation to the council will be June when we plan to do that. Uh to go over that uh what our strategy is in ter terms of traffic enforcement and in terms of infrastructure improvements and a lot of those because we don't have good data need we need to collect data and come up with a plan. We just don't have a lot of that information in our community. We do have some state intersections on state roads that um are in the 10-year highway plan. There's two of those. Uh but there are others that also need to be looked at. And we also have funding that was passed in the most recent town meeting. a transportation fund uh that allow will allow us to actually purchase some of those traffic counting devices and speed counting devices that we'll be able to collect real-time data in our community that we'll be able to use to take the next steps in terms of what improvements are going to be. Um so again, a lot of progress on that. There'll be a presentation made to the council in June uh with action items to move forward. Some of those are on state roads that will require advocacy at the state level, which we need to do a much better job of uh to get whatever limited funding there is uh into London to deal with some of these issues. Uh so that'll be a component of that as well. Um our

next meeting is going to be on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. uh upstairs. Uh they're not per se public meetings because they're they're staff meetings, but if people want to go, they're allowed to come in. Uh I know we're going to have at least one person wants to come in and listen, which is fine. Um yeah, so that's kind of the update. In terms of the intersections that Ry had mentioned in particular, uh we have been meeting with Procopia, which is the development that's going to be is proposed to go in there. They'll be going before the planning board on um is it Wednesday night? The Yeah, Wednesday night. And we've uh roughed out a uh draft development agreement with them. And that will involve uh I'll call it four intersection improvements. So Hardy in Pillsbury, the addition of an additional stop sign and moving the intersection a little bit uh making some improvements in terms of the layout of the roadway there without getting into too much detail. That'll be done by the end of the summer because we have a sewer line that's going through there. So that's already planned to be done and we expect them to pay for uh their appropriate cost or uh impacts of that. at the corner of uh Gilchrist and Pillsbury. We expect a cash contribution from Procopia for their uh impacts on that intersection and then that will lead to hopefully study and then what are our options whether it be a signalized intersection roundabout or whatever else that might be needed over there. There's a third intersection which you can't actually see yet will be the entryway into this new development that they have and we uh are demanding a turn lane be constructed by them there. Otherwise, we're going to see traffic cues uh getting into that development. And then at the corner of Michaels, the fourth intersection, the corner of Michaels in Pillsbury, that'll be a three-way stop there because right now, traffic is zipping through there and it's people have to take their chances to get out of that roadway. It is at level of service F presently. Uh with the improvements we make, uh that will simply be switching

that level of service F from the Michael's uh side to the Pillsbury side. but it will slow traffic down and will allow for a pedestrian crossing that is there with additional illumination and we expect them to pay for the cost of that as well. Uh so that's sort of an update on Pillsbury which is one of our high priority corridors right there with the issues um that we have. Um so that's my update for the traffic management working group. Uh John, you want to add anything to that because you're part of that group. We have a captain from the police department and a lieutenant that's involved with that. Uh Dan is also uh uh goes to those meetings because he's obviously on this on this committee and then we have uh Mike Bizian who's been the planning department in terms of the GIS component u which is helpful to us.

I assume the st are you going to need any approval or any recommendations or anything to the council by this committee or is this a standalone committee that's serpenting and taking care of it all based on the the charter that they have? So the people on this committee, Dan goes to that meeting. Uh certainly the chief is updated, the police chief is updated by he's got two staff members on it and then we have John who uh sits on it as a staff member as well. We'll provide the information to you. Um and it would be helpful for the the traffic safety committee to opine on that, make a recommendation to the council as well. Should we plan on having any kind of a special meeting to do this so you're not going to have to wait for a later date? So, you'll let me know and we can call a special meeting to do that.

It will be helpful to do that. I'm just not sure exactly what because we haven't pinpoint which meeting in June it's going to be with the council and we we have some task items. John's working on the criteria for where we'd put a 25 mph speed limit in the town. So, he has to draft that and he's going to make a presentation to us on Thursday on that what that draft language looks like. Well, if you could give me some early notice, we could possibly have the July meeting moved to either side to take care of that situation so that we won't do any hold up because I assume we want to get started on this as fast as we possibly can.

We do. We want to we're identifying those areas where these traffic counting devices and radar uh units will be and they're going to be permanently attached devices. So, we're going to purchase those and install those at those locations. That's what we're getting the council hopefully to approve. We're going to identify the priority ones. We can't put them on every street in the town. We don't have enough money to do all that, but at least uh purchase some of those and and get them installed because they have to they're the agents to expend the funds out of this new transportation fund.

Okay. Uh I'd like to add a comment to the study and have it be considered. Uh one of the things that's always kind of bothered me, and I'll let the chief, uh the fire chief speak to this, Chief Young, if he would like to. I I'd like to have three additions made to the list. The first addition is I'd like to see something done for the police emergency exit or I think we should have a do not block the intersection someplace around that area so when we have these peak times in the school with the school districts and possibly voting the cruisers can get in and out of the parking lot. Right now, I've seen I've seen one at least one crews are trying to get out of there during one of the peak times of the day. And I think it might be helpful that if we could put a do not blocking in that area with the state and I'll let Kim talk to that if he thinks it's not necessary.

No, we do get backed up a lot during the school hours um and voting and yeah, I I don't know if that's ever been talked about before through the state. I don't know if you are aware of that either. No, but I mean since I've been here, would it hurt? No. But I I think they do a pretty good job of getting out of there when they need. Well, I I agree, but I'm just saying where we're doing all of these things. Add something just for more visibility, maybe.

And but the reason I'm saying that, Kim, I didn't want you to feel left out because I think the two fire stations, uh, Grenade Field and down on 102 when I was in Marramac the other day coming home, they have a fire station on Route Three, and there's an emergency light there that they can control when they're coming out of the station. And I know uh maybe the chief can correct me on this. I know that the 102 station tends not to go out that way sometimes because it's quicker to go the back way, but that still adds time to their to their response. So I and I think at some point Grenia Field Road is going to get to be the same time with the amount of traffic we're seeing for the airport. So I think where we're doing this thing, it makes some sense to have those three things considered to possibly help the flow and the safety of the three departments or the three the three stations. So, I'd like to add that to your list of possible things to look at with the state

where you're going to the state with so many of our intersections that are on state roads. I think it's not out of the question to add that into it. Well, we'd have to pay for those. They're not going to I understand that, but I mean, to me, it's a safety thing and a response thing. But, but are you talking a a light though, Bob, to stop people, or are you just talking do not, you know, do not uh do not block the box? No, I'm talking on the two fire stations. I'm talking about the lights where that they could control the lights when they're coming out. They could push that button they've got and change the lights. And as far as the police station, I think the do not block should be enough. But the light that the light would be located at their driveway. Yeah. The fire stations. Yeah.

Correct. Uh it would be across 102. Uh what's that? Cross. That's Young. Young. And it would be across. It would be just in front of the station when they're coming out of there because the line of sight for that station coming I think going west is is not really great and coming east and going east it isn't either. Yeah. So I just think that's apppropo for us to ask for that and where the others where the other towns seem to have it it would be appropo for us to ask for it I think because again as Sean indicated because I had had that discussion with do with district 5 regarding the south station years ago and yeah you pay for it you'll they'll entertain it

but I I think that I think that the the prevention price is worthwhile es if none if you can't do grineer I especially think 102 that's a dangerous intersection to begin with and if they've already changed their route to go out the other way I think we should take a look at that because we're getting more and more people in the southside where they it would be faster to go out that way than it would to go out the other way. So those are the three recommendations I'd like to make to add to that list. And this the one and 102 was not has been brought up before. See I don't know I don't know. Oh before your time. Yeah. Well, that's not very long, right? I understand.

Uh, so, uh, in terms of when they built that station, I don't know if there were studies about that or what they looked at. I don't know how old that station even is. Been there a while, but yeah, I have no idea either. Certainly, the the traffic volume has only increased with the development in southern New Hampshire. Well, the traffic and when I get out and go in the morning like the market basket, a few other, it's just bumper to bumper. It's impossible to get out of some of those things. You're right. So, that's my input for what I looked at when you gave me all of that stuff.

Uh, going to the next thing about the agenda. Jason and I are working on the best way to do the agenda and we've got a phantom telephone number someplace in the town we're trying to figure out and a few other things. So, we'll have something for the next meeting. And aside from that, based on the fact that we had some problems with our our recording, I think that's about all we have on the agenda. If anybody would like to make bring anything else up or make a motion to adjurnn, we can do that. I don't have anything, sir. Someone want to make a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor?

I. Any discussion? Opposed? were adjourned.