The Fall River Traffic Board convened on February 16th, 2022, for its monthly meeting. After reading the open meeting law and taking attendance, the board approved the minutes from the January 19th meeting by a unanimous 3-0 vote. The board then addressed several applications for handicapped parking spaces, denying requests for 34 Pear Street due to the applicant possessing only a temporary placard, and for 602 Dwelling Street because the property was a single-family home with a driveway. The application for 35 Aetna Street was also denied as the applicant failed to appear for the second consecutive meeting. Conversely, the board approved handicapped parking applications for 294 Barnaby Street, 225 Washington Street, and 185 Smith Street, all by unanimous 3-0 votes, citing multi-family residences with no available driveways. Applications for 162 Tremont Street and 138 Blackstone Street were tabled until the next meeting due to the applicants' absence. The board also denied a request for a new stop sign at Albion and Chesworth Streets, instead proposing alternative traffic calming measures such as speed limit signs, 'slow' signs, solar-powered lighted pedestrian crossing signs, and increased police presence. A request from the Water Department to replace a previously existing stop sign at Indian Town and Blossom Road was approved unanimously. In other business, the board unanimously approved the rescission of handicapped parking spaces on Linden, Buffington, Connecticut, Tuttle, Williams, Pitman, 3rd, Trip, and Oliver Streets, as the individuals no longer required them. The board decided to invite residents from Atlantic Boulevard to the March meeting to discuss ongoing parking concerns, noting that 'no parking' signs are already in place. Additionally, it was mentioned that lighted speed limit radar signs would be installed on Northeastern Avenue following a recent rollover incident and resident concerns. The meeting was then adjourned.
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okay this is the uh february 16th meeting of the fall river traffic board prior to beginning the meeting i'm going to read the open meeting law pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or
0:23unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible uh first thing i'd like to do is take attendance manage secretary helen rigo she's not president natalie mello yeah sergeant dolan president an office of tom powers president okay helen rico is absent from today's meeting at least right now she is top item on the agenda is citizen input is anybody here for something that's not
0:58on the agenda that just wanted to uh address the board okay nobody's here for citizen input next item is the minutes from the previous meeting that was held on january 19th we've got them in our packet i make a motion that we accept the meeting minute for the january meeting second officer faris seconds the motion anyone opposed to approving the previous meetings minutes madame clerk can you roll call please
1:31approval of the january traffic board minutes natalie mello yes sergeant dolan yes and officer faris yes okay we've approved the meeting minutes from last month's meeting i'm going to jump out of order here so that we can accommodate one of the applicants for a handicap spot and that's the application for 34 pair street which is request number three
2:16okay pear street is a dead end short street off of i think walnut i know it's one of those streets yeah it's the last house on the left hand side of that dead end street and on top of that the placard the handicapped placket is only a temporary placard based on the fact that it's a temporary placard in our past practices we don't normally approve a handicapped parking space there i can ask you this
2:46man because you're here is parking an issue down on that end of the street right now um
3:02is his condition something that's going to continue in life because the the the handicapped placard he has is only temporary yeah at some point you're going to have to ask the doctor okay that if his medical condition is not going to change then he needs when they when they fill out the application when the back of the application where the doctor has to fill it out he will have to put there that
3:34it's a medical condition that's going to continue in this way medical affairs in boston will mail you the plaque that's good for every five years the long-term one right so you can get that so based on based on the fact that the temporary placard and our and our past dealings here i'm making a recommendation or i'm gonna make a motion that we deny this application until you can get a permanent placard
4:02so that they can erect the signs and all that on your street so i make a motion that we deny and we allow her to come back at a later date when she gets a permanent placard nope okay natalie seconds my denial anyone opposed to that madam clerk did you roll call please sure 34 pay street denial until applicant can produce a um permanent plaque card natalie yes sergeant dolan yes deny it of harris tonight
4:43okay mayor it's denied until you can get a permanent placard okay thank you so much and you're free to leave thank you you're welcome okay now we're gonna do them back in order these are tables from the previous meeting the first one is 602 dwelling street woman's here that's listed as a single family house and there's a garage i'm sorry there's a driveway and an eight stall garage the
5:17cars don't if you go down here the cars don't fit in the garage it's used for storage the only cars i can fit in there is the antiques but to put a car in there like mine i have a monster you can't open the doors they're very short it was uh massive zoned it years ago and that poop in there it's only set up for storage okay the house is listed as a single family house yes
5:45what's that but yeah you're listed as a tenant my husband and i are in the process of getting divorced i can't afford the house so i stay in the house he lives at his parents i'm scott and i give him 400 a month and he pays all the bills in the water all right all the garages had storage for his business and the trucks kept getting tickets so he has to have those work trucks in the
6:13driveway i've been parking right on scott's street right in front of my house my side porch it just you know i gave up calling the police because of the traffic down there with the new school i just i can't i can't walk two blocks away to go home you know i i can't base my day in doctors on they come at what about seven a.m and they don't leave until 10 or 9
6:42and in the afternoon they stop parking in front of the garages at uh quarter past one and they're there until 3 25.
6:53we did rent out a couple for people with motorcycles and they had to leave because there's no getting injured i stopped calling you guys the day they bend me up against the garage i gave up i don't even look out my window but the point is i should be able to come home and i can't i i can't okay and this house has a has a driveway that's his business trucks
7:21he he gets tickets he's got wide trucks one of them is an ambulance that he converted but does he does didn't you say he doesn't live there anymore no he lives at his mother's on scott street right across the street okay i live around the corner scott and dwell he is counted forty stop that's where he lives right well based on it being a single-family house with a driveway i'm going to recommend that we deny this
7:48application now i've never approved them before i'm not going to make a special case for this it's based on past practices so i make a motion that we deny 602 duely street second natalie seconds anyone opposed i'm clear can you roll call please motion to deny 602 dwelling street natalie deny sergeant dolan deny and officer tonight okay all your applications being denied ma'am next from the previously tabled is 294
8:28barnaby street people seated in the back um this is a multi-family residence on a tight street there is no driveway to the house i see no issues at all i i make a motion that we approve this application anyone care to second that motion i'll second that officer faris seconds it anyone opposed to approving 294 barnaby madam clerk can you roll call please motion to approve 294 barnaby street natalie motion to approve
9:04sergeant dolan approved and office okay 294 barnaby street passes thank you you're welcome um i'll give my spiel when you write that down anybody here that's also going to get it get approved for handicapped space you may have a neighbor that gets a visitor down the road that has a handicap placard so this space even though it's in front of your house and it's for your use on occasion you're going to get a neighbor
9:31that's got a placard that may park in there during the holidays or what have you i understand there's no uh area of the law that covers that so they're they're legally able to do that if there's no placard then they can't park there obviously okay yeah tell them how long um any application that's approved today through the traffic board the next step will be the maintenance screw will go to
9:56each house and do the measurements for the space as close as possible to the entrance that is used by the individual those measurements then go to city council it'll go to city council meeting and then it'll be referred to the ordinance committee so it could take anywhere between six to eight weeks before you see the polls outside your house okay okay you're all set thank you you're welcome
10:19next on the agenda is 35 aetna street anyone here from 35 aetna okay this is the second time it was table last month i'd make a motion to deny the application for 35 aetna street second officer faris seconds it anyone opposed clerk can you roll call please denial of 35 agnes street for no show a second time to the traffic board natalie um yes sergeant jolin yes tonight and office of paris
10:55okay 35 aetna street is denied now the current applications for handicapped parking first one is 225 washington street gentlemen here in front of life same as the barnaby street it's a multi-family residence there is no driveway at all for the house tight parking on the street i make a motion that we approve 225 washington street anyone care to second that second down officer farah seconds it anyone opposed to
11:31uh proving 225 washington street madam clerk can you roll call please approval of 225 washington street natalie approved sergeant dolan approved an officer approved approved sir are you representing the the woman applying in speaking english and they're speaking this later speak british
12:22next is 162 tremont street nobody's here from 162 tremont street i make a motion that we uh table it for the next meeting 162 treatment i didn't care the second knot second table officer ferris seconds it now you're going to post the tabling yet madame clerk can you do all call please table 162 tremont street for no show natalie um yes sergeant dolan yes tablet in office of paris table okay tremont street is tabled
13:01uh next in our packet was 34 pair street we've already handled that one next on the list is 138 blackstone street nobody's here for that one either i make a motion that we table 138 blackstone street for a no show second to table officer ferris seconds it anyone oppose the tabling 138 blackstone questions you will call please 138 blackstone street to table it due to no show natalie tablet
13:39sergeant dolan yes tablet and office of paris tablet okay 138 blackstone street is tabled next is 185 smith street gentleman here like the other multi-families it's same situation multi-family residents no driveway available i make a motion that we approve 185 smith street anyone care to second that motion second conclusion officer faris seconds it anyone opposed to approving 185 smith street
14:21for handicapped space natalie yes sergeant dolan yes and officer approved his license has the old address just to let you know so let's double check these also yeah okay all set sir it's approved thank you very much you're welcome okay that's it for the handicap applications next is under miscellaneous requests uh request for a stop sign at albion and chesworth sir yes sir is there
14:56a letter or something that came with this um i submitted one approximately six months ago yeah i think i got an email here yeah i think it's the email reminding and that's all i put there sorry do you need something else um uh well i didn't i didn't i didn't read your letter i'm guessing because there's already a stop sign on chessworth correct approaching albion i'm guessing you want one
15:26northbound on lb and that chessworth correct um i've been there approximately 25 years the next closest stop sign is further up approximately 500 feet at the intersection of donnelly and albion where it has that little branch and it goes down so vehicles start picking up speed at donnelly and they're flying down there coming pretty quickly and um there is a an eminent danger in
15:48the center where there are children that leave talbot and they cut through chestworth street and they go across the street right at that intersection and proceed going northbound albion and also in the summer there's a lot of pedestrian traffic due to lafayette pool and everybody walking up and down and across trustworthiness the uh stop sign is pretty important to myself and the other
16:13residents that are in that neighborhood i've been there approximately 25 years i am a tenant at will on the third floor on 6th the army on street my landlord is in florida so he tasked me with coming to do this plus it was my idea there's been a lot of close calls on that street as you gentlemen are aware of that street is a they park on both sides of that street
16:34so there's a lot of pedestrians that and a lot of people that are exiting vehicles and vehicles coming down albion there's been some pretty close calls it's a really really scary environment right now the past five years i've noticed an increase in the amount of vehicle traffic that travels down albion street and i'm just concerned for our public safety that um the sign is eminent and you know is extremely important
17:00okay um i didn't get to get to read the letter but listen to your explanation uh i know we can't disrupt the flaws of traffic sergeant i completely get that you know we can't have a stop sign 500 it's actually something you can you can google yourself because uh i've mentioned at some of these prior meetings stop signs don't necessarily slow cars down what they do especially when they're in places that
17:25they normally wouldn't be like this is a t-shaped intersection so we normally wouldn't make albion street stop so statistically they make the motorists irate and the motorists race between stop signs and it creates a bigger danger correct secondly you may get motorists that don't even want to stop the stop sign and then you have a pedestrian that thinks it's safe to cross the street because they have a
17:47stop sign and that's how they get hurt um i wasn't able to do any studies on on on any accidents at this intersection prior to this meeting but i can look yeah all right there's been nothing there in the last uh maybe 11 years we can look at other things speed limit signs maybe nothing's posted okay we can work on we can do that one of the things that we can also do um
18:15i ordered some as of now but we just ordered some um pedestrian crossing signs that actually light up yellow so if that's an area where a lot of children do walk in and i've seen children walking uh from talbot we can place those at the intersection so that as cars are approaching and it's on 24 hours a day yeah because they're solar powered so i just ordered six but i am getting more from the state so
18:44we could probably put that one that's actually better yeah you can also make sure now is it albion that has no speed limit signs i'll be honest nothing posted from top to bottom it is such a it's a pretty much a thorough one you know it's a side street better i'll have my guys go there tomorrow and place a couple of speed limit signs as well as some slow signs that we can do
19:06and then the pedestrian one just you know probably take about a week or so before i get those suns in okay and i would imagine we're gonna hit the more heavily traveled pedestrian areas before uh albion and chesworth i know that it's busy when lafayette pool is open but that's not um a busy intersection when compared to other areas of the city and the quick question for your sergeant um
19:29chapter 90 enforcement out of the question that area no we can send just because i know it's tight you know but i'm figuring the bike could be somewhere what do we have 220 miles of streets tom 496 streets um we can send guys there okay uh i'm not going to lie to you albian and chesworth won't be a daily boss possibly but i'll send the police presence there so that they can uh monitor the area
19:57that area i believe is the same it's um pretty much the same vehicles that come down there every day for the most part so i think if they see just some type of prevention there for a good two three hours hopefully it'll slow them down plus the signs will be very helpful really appreciate that thank you very much all right sir thank you guys thank you have a good night
20:18and uh last well not the last time next item in the agenda um there's a re request from the water department to replace a stop sign did we do a motion to deny the challenge oh i'm sorry you're right thank you uh i make a motion that we deny installing a stop sign on albion street at chesworth street i don't even care to second that motion second natalie seconds anyone opposed
20:45to not installing a stop sign there can you do we'll call them out of clark um to deny the stop sign at chest forth in albion natalie deny sergeant dolan did i in office deny okay that's tonight but we have other ways to handle that area now we'll move on to the request from the water department to put a stop sign at the intersection of indian town now let me tell you what happened wait a
21:20minute let me tell you something this is this agenda says indian town and blossom road the letter says indian town and blossom hill it's blossom road it's not boston hill enough so there's always been a stop sign down there so i received a call a couple of weeks ago i think it was during the first snowstorm it got knocked down it got you know probably destroyed so i of course i went into ordnance
21:49because i always do that just to make sure and i didn't see an ordinance so i told the gentleman who takes care of that whole area down there that i would have to well first of all it was the environment police that called that was the first call i got then i got the second call from mr labassier i went and see uh paul from i said i need something in writing
22:09that it needs a stop sign so i can put it into ordinance and then put it back so um they're what they stated on the letter so they really need it down there due to i guess a lot of activity during the night with vehicles so well that changes my whole race it can be busy up there but i had indian town in blossom hill on their letter so i don't know if you can still approve
22:31the letter the official letter they sent you is is mentioning blossom hill drive which is a dead end street off of indian town and i would not give them a stop sign it's um what is my it's uh it's indian town road and blossom according to the agenda yeah i will double check that but i'm pretty sure that this is correct because blossom hill drive i don't even think it's accepted by the city as of
22:58yet so blossom it's got about 10 houses on it but it's it's a t-shirt very similar to chestworth and albion so this this is a busy one based on your explanation i make a motion that we do approve a stop sign at indian town and blossom drive anyone care to second my motion second yeah anyone opposed to a stop sign in indian town and blossom road mata clark can you do both call please
23:30yes stop sign approval for indian town road at blossom road natalie yes sergeant dolan yes in opposite virus all right so once again the stop sign is approved that indian town and blossom road and i will use blossom hill drive and i will respond to you if that was correct okay next on the agenda are rescinded handicapped spots requests from the traffic department have the following handicap spaces
24:00rescinded due to individuals no longer utilizing the space because they have either moved no longer drive or passed away linden street buffington street connecticut street tuttle street williams street pitman street 3rd street trip street and oliver streets they make a motion that we rescind those handicapped spots will anybody second though that'll be seconds to anyone opposed madame clark is
24:32motion to approve rescinded hp spaces natalie yes sergeant dolan yes yes okay where we're sending those handicapped spaces any other matters that are on the agenda oh yes it's not on the agenda we need to decide to um the issue at atlantic boulevard oh i thought we were inviting the residents here correct but we had said let's wait till the winter is over and it gets a little bit better
25:09just let me know what month you want that because then i have to get all the addresses from the assessors mail them the letters so we can do the march meeting or we can they're just concerned because summer is going to be coming soon and that's when activity gets going down there where people want to go down there for the good days okay but in the meantime there's there's no no parking signs on
25:31the whole street now okay let's make it the march meeting okay that's fine next week i'll get all the addresses and then i'll make sure they get it in enough time that if they can make plans to attend okay and i'm just going to mention again on northeastern avenue we had a rollover and people are still concerned and i think they're putting something together so of course the residents to come here all right i'm
26:02sure uh i know we discussed before the meeting just so that it's public uh one of the spaces that we're going to put those lighted speed limit radar signs is on northeastern avenue i know like i told you they just came in i'm going to say last week early last weekend and i know that our department is working on installing the remaining ones throughout the city and i know that northeastern avenue is one of them
26:26so they did a few phone calls so i don't know what's going to be coming of it so i'll just let you know any other matters make a motion to adjourn anyone cared a second second safari seconds it anyone opposed to adjournment clerk can you roll call we'll call to adjourn meeting at natalie yes sergeant dolan yes officer yes okay this meeting is adjourned