3.18.25 Committee on Public Safety

The uh committee on public safety is uh comes to order. This is March 18th, 2025, 5:00 pm. A roll call, please. Uh councelor Dion here. Councelor Kilby here. Chair Hart here. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting uh through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings and transmissions are being made,

whether perceived or unpersceived by those present, and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Uh for the uh first uh on the agenda is a citizens input. We have one and it is would you want to come down Felicia?

Welcome. Yep. You're in the right place.

You're in the right place. Just state your name and address. That's fine.

Microphone's right now. Just bring it closer. My name is Felicia Quimbra and I live on 25 Railroad Avenue.

Okay. Railroad Avenue.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. That's okay.

Um here because I wanted questions really, but I guess you know I'll save the three questions.

Um the noise I live right next to the tracks. Okay. And the train's going to go by there what 70 times I think. I I believe so. We're gonna Yes. Yep. So I see I know where it is.

Okay. Does she want to come down?

Um Yeah, she can. Yeah, you can come down if if you want. Absolutely.

No, not yet, guys. Hello. Just state your name and address. Susette Aivera.

Um, uh, 140 Samson Avenue in Somerset.

I'm just here to help my mom. Okay. All right. So, I wanted, this is what I wanted right from day one. I wanted a wall, you know, like you see on the highways and everything for the noise, but they said no. Well, they keep saying no. But this is, you know, I'm questioning only because I want to see what can be done because I really don't know who I can go talk to to get these

answers. Okay, it's that because the train goes by and my house shakes. My house was built years ago. It's made out of rock, not cement, you know, blocks.

So, I wanted them to go in there and check out my my um foundation. Cuz can you imagine like 15 or 20 years from now the foundation starts cracking or whatever. Who's going to fix it? Not the DO tracks. I And they don't want to sign a paper. Okay. They want us to sign a paper so we could put like a lead into our house. Uh like people know that we

signed off to the railroad tracks. Okay.

Okay.

So, uh that's one of the things. All right. Another thing is they when they were building that railroad tracks, they ruined my fence.

This was five years ago when they first started. So, I want my fence done. Okay.

They only want to do half of the fence. What about the other half? How are they going to match? It's my go house going to have, you know, half one color, half of the other. It's in the front of the house. I don't think nobody want that. And it wasn't my fault. It was the railroad tracks. And I talked to Jean Fox and she says, "Well, that was a long time ago. Has nothing to do. We

don't even know who the contractor or whatever whoever did the first, you know, started that project." Well, they go on the computer now. You find everything on the computer. you'll know who did it. So, I want that done, but I want the whole fence. Okay. You know, all right. So, I think Felicia, what like what we can do is as far as you contacting people, you can contact any three of us on the

public safety committee and I'll also have James uh uh you can leave the number for James and we can get in touch with you tomorrow and discuss it a little more in depth for That's what I want. I wanted to discuss it with a few people so I can ask my questions. Yep.

No, we will. We absolutely will. Thank you. All right. My house. Oh, 25 right this way.

All right. Thank you very much. Mrs. Fox is sitting right there.

Yep. Yeah. You know where the St. Vinc

Thank you so much. Thank Thank you very much.

Uh for item number two, can I get a motion to accept the minutes from September 4th of 2024? Motion to accept minutes. Seconded. Second. All in favor?

I. Uh item number three is the resolution. The committee on public safety convened with the police chief, fire chief, representative from the MBTA and any other interested parties to discuss ongoing first responder training, public safety information, and general security plans related to the MBTA, MBTA, commuter rail zones. Why don't you come on down folks?

Yep.

I can slow down. I can sl

Good evening. Good evening. Why don't we just go around the table and have everybody introduce themselves?

Sure. I'm Jeff Bacon, fire chief. Okay.

Beth Fonts, acting chief EMS. JT, deputy chief for police. Uh Richard A director, chief of special services. Okay.

Jeie Fox Rail. Okay. Thank you. And again, thank you all for coming. I know that the uh the um the rail will be active on the 24th. So, it's a it's a good time to meet um go over this with with the citizens of For hopefully a lot of them are watching tonight. Um and I think you know the concern has been the public safety in and around the rails

railroad track. And I also too want to commend everybody MBTA and other officials and Gan for getting the word out digitally and online. There's been a voluminous amounts of documents that have been going to the public and explaining to everybody the uh um everything about the rail for our community. And I really appreciate that.

I just think that it might it was a good thing maybe to meet here and just meet with the the officials directly and go over the possible the um the preparedness that um that I think we have we are ready to we're prepared and ready to go. But I think I want I'd like the public to hear that. So, um, having said that, I think what we'll do is, uh,

we'll go around to the table, but with, um, Jean, do you want to just start off and just let us know as far as the everything is up and ready for the 24th and God willing. Yeah. Okay. This this is we're getting ready for the 24th and it's going to be quite a day. We're going to have a lot of dignitaries here.

This is the largest Oh, just speak into the microphone. I'm sorry.

the largest expansion that the MBTA has done in decades. And it's extremely meaningful because the region has fought for decades to have it. And I'm not going to say it's been a flawless process. You can't build anything this large, this linear without affecting people. Um, but I think by and large, particularly in the city of Fall River, uh, people have been understanding, worked with us. We've tried really hard

to work with people and throughout all the construction and and the buildup to revenue service, the focus has been on safety. It has been on getting the word out that people need to stay off the railroad tracks. Recreating there is is no longer feasible. Was not appropriate in the past, correct? But was significantly less dangerous than it currently is. Since last June 17th when

those test trains started screaming by, the landscape changed. Um, and it's forever changed. People need to remember, too, that you see those tracks go down. Okay, I can walk right next to the tracks. Well, if there's a train that sneaks up on you, it overhangs several feet over the tracks. You're not safe, so stay away. That's been the message. Um, we're in Derphy High School three days next week. Okay, great.

Talking about safety. Um, we've talked a lot about safety. Yes, we have. Um we've had I think incredibly wonderful participation by these two departments um in our our um fireplace safety meetings. The focus uh mostly there is on fire departments. We did the drills one in Freetown and one in November I mean in New Bedford in November. So we had the hottest day of the year in Freetown and then we had a

rather chilly day in New Bedford. But it was mutual aid got to work together.

where we got to see what worked, what didn't work. Um, in advance of all of that, anybody who participated um took the two-hour video training and we also offered um a number of hands-on opportunities. We're going to do another one of those. Okay. Um, April 5th and 6th. It will probably be in New Bedford, but I do know there have been discussions from your crew about trying to do something right here at Weaver's

Cove. Absolutely. And Christian was all over that. So, I think that's going to be doable. We recognize that people have manpower limitations. We also recognize that departments have turnover. So what somebody learned last year, you you've backfilled with somebody else this year.

So in the future, we are going to try to video this hands-on training too, so that at least have a video. You can do a refresher every year. Um, but I will say I think it's going to be in many cases a learning process for all of us. Um, you and I had the discussion on the phone the other day. we don't really know what to expect. Um, we've tried to be as

forward thinking as possible so that we don't have to be reactive. Um, we've worked really really closely with the fire department. We know where the access points are. We know where a lot of the problem areas are. We're not going to find everything. Um, but there is a heavy reliance on on the local folks, first responders, public safety stepping up when and until there's a bigger NBTA presence in the area. So

hopefully that'll happen, right?

um we know there's room for it to happen. Um I guess it's a question of resources and um will you know they once they see how much activity we have here it's a big area um they may revisit their thinking on that but for a cruiser to come down from Dorchester we talked about that it won't be quick so this is why we spoke about um in three months we should meet once

again see if they brought that up brought that up that was your brainchild whereas in three months we're going to meet once again um to go over some of the issues that We may have exactly not only in for but freel everyone together if we have any issues how we're going to address those issues um three months from the day that the train actually starts exactly and um because I think as

Jean mentioned there's going to be some flaws there's going to be some problems some hiccup and we're going to have some situations so I thought at the meeting um we should probably once again meet in three months and then someone suggested I forget who it was we should meet maybe in another six months to see if we resolved those problems. Exactly. Um and I I do appreciate you saying that

because from our perspective, the the mission and goal of the fire life safety committee was completed with revenue service. But the reality is because this is new territory. We probably are going to be a little more vigilant and wary and we may find some things that we need to bring to the committee and figure out a strategy to address them. Just excellent idea. I'm Michelle Dion first

and then council Kelby Go. So, ha, have we uh Fall River participated in any of the trainings that were in in those two locations? Very, very much so. You brought that nice piece of equipment so I could cool off afterwards. Yes. So, so last month um my training division in coordination with Guolis and MBTA um made mandatory that two-hour training uh for familiarization and safety uh for

all of the firefighters. So, everyone in our department took that online 2-hour course. And because they took that, they're all eligible to uh participate in the April 5th and 6th training in New Bedford. Um, as I understand today, I was speaking with my training chief.

There are 10 spots available for that training. And he did assure me that it was going to be recorded so that we're going to send the right people out there who can then train the members of our department at the our layoveryard uh when we do have access. It looks like most likely on the weekends when they're running a limited schedule is when it's when it's going to be the most feasible

to for us to get hands-on at the layover yard and we'll be able to on duty have our firefighters go down there and be trained by the members who have taken this training. So So do you feel that um the equipment that we have and the manpower that you have is adequate for this extra because at this point this is extra um public safety.

As far as the fire department is concerned, I I'm looking long term. Um I look at the train coming. Uh I feel like what we have now um is adequate as far as manpower goes, but I look further out into the development of that Route 79 corridor and look ahead and say uh I don't know if the manpower I have is sufficient. Um, I've been an advocate since I started that my firefighters

need to um be able to generate revenue for the for the city to be able to survive. And I've been pushing since my first interview with the city to have firefighters working on medical units as part of that. And I've discussed it with uh the previous um EMS chiefs and I think it's it's a direction that we have to head in for the benefit of the citizens and for the ability for the

Fall River to have the fire department that we currently have which I think we could be staffed higher now but to protect the numbers that we have in the long run especially with the expansion in the city. I know at a recent city council meeting I had asked the question about uh once the waterfront is developed what our limitations are going to be and at that time you said there

was going to be there's a study being done. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know when that's going to be completed because so um last week or the week before we gave the uh company doing the study all of our run data for the last uh five years and it's going to take them a while to compile all of that. And the reason that we did that was just because looking

ahead um I I know that we're going to be we're going to be short, right? So I want to be able to show that quantitatively uh to to prove that listen, we are going to we're looking ahead and we're not going to have the manpower to pick up all of these calls or this the station locations. It's it's going to be a pretty thorough study to to look at the impact on that waterfront

and on the train that the train has on our responses. Yeah. And overall, that's very important because we need to be proactive and not reactive. Exactly.

Because uh that could be a total disaster. Um again, considering what that 79 corridor is going to look like in addition to the train coming through.

Exactly. Um so I think that's conversations that we need to have. Um you don't have a an anticipated date when that study will be completed. Uh so I believe the contract said uh 6 to 8 weeks after he was provided with that data. So, um I I'll call him tomorrow and get on him and see and see if he can lock down a date for it. Um I would like

to get it uh before summer so that we can really have hard conversations and figure out where we need to go. Okay.

And I'd appreciate that. Um to bring it to the council so that the council can see what what the recommendations are and also um to send it to my committee public works and transportation.

Absolutely. So that we can uh have an in-depth conversation. Yeah. I would like to prepare like a uh a PowerPoint perhaps and uh and come down and and and really go through the whole the ins and outs of it and uh and what we can do and what we need to do. All right.

Appreciate that. Yeah. Um Deputy Deputy Chief, I'm sorry. Um have you have has EMS been able to also be involved in this process? And how do you feel in terms of your you being stretched a little further than uh normal? So, I'm relatively new, so I've been brought kind of up to speed on our we have a logistical plan. I think that most of the people I guess it's going to be

whether the patient is on the train and if that's the case will be at the depot or if it's going to be something that's kind of on the railway. I know that everybody who went through the initial training at least from EMS has kind of left the department. Um, I wasn't aware that there was another training available, but I'm hoping that maybe if something else comes up that we would be

able to be invited so that I can get some of my current staffing available. I certainly wouldn't I would make sure that police and fire and EMA were included in anything that we do in the city uh moving forward access to those trains and you know we worked together with um with the deputy chief to to come up with our responses and who should be responding tech. So, every call on a

train is going to be some sort of a technical rescue. Getting somebody out of the train becomes a a difficult a difficult uh situation. So, uh we'll work in conjunction with them with the apparatus and vehicles that we have uh for them to be able to do patient care and not have to worry about how they're going to get them out of the out of the train or out of the area where the where

the tracks are. So, EMS will be included in future training. Absolutely. I'm not going to negate the I'm not going to negate that the EMS providers need the opportunity to have the training so they're they're aware of of what the risks are for themselves. And I'm a big proponent of collaboration. And I think that EMS and police and fire should maybe at some point have some collaborative training. And if that's

available, I know that I'd want to make that sure that my people are involved in that training because when there is an event, if anybody's injured, it is going to involve EMS. Right. Correct. So, we're ready. Um, we have more resources than we've had in the past and I just want to ensure that I'm really pushing training. I'm pushing collaboration.

I've talked to um the chief about it. I think that we should do some inclusive training. We lost some of that with co we lost some of that in-person training and being able to get together and being able to work out the logistics of it.

So, I feel that we'll do it. And again, like she said, there may be hiccups, right? But as long as we do what's in the best interest of the citizens and the patients that we're taking care of that's well you can only be proactive to to a certain degree and as we know hindsight is 2020 and and sometimes and until you uh get into a situation you can't anticipate it and so right then

the best thing then is to address it correct it and move on. Um, I can say as a counselor that I I want to see all four be collaborative because I mean this is a community we need to protect.

Public safety is public safety and we need to all uh share in that. Um I'm also assuming we're going to be needing more patrols with the train being active. So again, manpower, equipment, etc. How do you feel? Well, I mean you would you would treat the depot as essentially a new business opening there. So, it attracts long-term parking of motor vehicles potentially for several days, maybe weeks, depending on

how long somebody's having a stint in a in a Boston uh stop, if you will. Um, so obviously we need to have some focus in the initial weeks to have focus on the cars that are there parked, making sure they're not being vandalized or broken into. Uh, but as far as what Jane said earlier, we don't know what to expect.

that's going to be uh kind of a learn environment uh until we get a call down there. So, we've done some stuff. All of the dispatching in Forever comes out of the police department. So, our dispatchers are obviously going to be tasked with tracking where those calls are going to be tagged in. So, we're creating specific sites in our RMS system so that we can easily pull statistics out to aid the fire

department and EMS on like how much of a burden is uh coming with the added traffic, if you will, but also logistically because if there's something on the rail that happens that's outside of the uh depot station or outside of the layover station, we need to know like where we're sending it. So, we were talking internally in our department around that because if a call came in that somebody was hit by a

train up near the country club, uh we want to be able to find that later, a year later to find out what kind of call is or if we have ATVs that are normally commonly riding in that area between the country club and the Freetown station.

um that's kind of, you know, we're going into that season where that recreational behavior has to kind of seize or ultimately can't happen because there's really not much room down there and and we'll be looking at a disaster. But from our standpoint, it's really tracking the data, making datadriven uh decisions on what we're doing. As far as added patrols, I think it's just going to be

an initial added focus and getting our officers aware of what our role is because a lot of times we're the first ones there because we're constantly patrolling. How do we create a safe environment for the the secondary uh units coming in for the medical response and obviously the technical rescue? Uh so we have some some documentation that's going out to our officers this week regarding uh at railroad crossings

what the number is to call and giving out the identification number to that dispatch because then they're able to look right and see where that train is and shut the tracks down. Uh that's our that's our biggest uh role is making sure that we do that. Uh last year we had already put out some information to our dispatchers and our officers, but again another refresher. We've gotten

some stuff from Mass Coastal as well as far as some pass out cards to put in all the cruisers. Uh so quick reference stuff. So really it's going to be making a phone call either by the officer on scene or the dispatcher to alert the MBTA or Mass Coastal uh that there's an issue. The other issue that comes up too is the unhoused. They like to congregate near the tracks down Pontto Delgada

Boulevard over there. So, we have our uh neighborhood engagement and enforcement team. They've been out there proactively kind of making contact with them in partnership with Mass Coastal to try to clear out. I think the chief mentioned when you did that rail ride that when you get to the slower area of the tracks is when it becomes more populated. We really can't have that down there. So,

we're trying to partner with Mass Coastal to clear out that. As far as MBTA giving us any type of aid, the MBTA police, uh right now that's not really in the logistics at all. uh they're going to respond obviously for any major thing, but it's going to be kind of keeping them informed of what's going on down here. Uh so we're running concurrent jurisdiction basically similar to the state police where the

state police have jurisdiction all throughout Massachusetts. Something happens on the highway, we usually, you know, punt to them. Something happens in the city, they can take it, but they typically sometimes punt to us. It's usually a discussion at the scene. When it comes to the railroad stuff, you know, somebody could be pickpocketed on a train. They're not going to report it till they get to the floor of a depot.

Unfortunately, we'll have to do our best in figuring out where that happened and then report it accordingly and then forward it to MBTA police just so that they're aware. But I think those are the things that are going to fall on our hands uh where people end up here and then report crimes that may have happened on their train ride.

And you sir, yes ma'am. You have a very uh complete concise plan. So in emergency management we have to mitigate before something should happen. So they require us to have plans in place for anything that should happen within the city. So I've been part of the committee as Gene knows for a couple years now, public safety committee, going to these meetings, being involved. Um so when I

started going to these meetings and started thinking about evacuation points, points to get into the railroad tracks for us is very fortunate because we don't have any street crossings. So that's something we're very fortunate with. Um but we have which is in here I identified all the access points for the fire and police. Uh we only have one gate to get in and that's on Cory Street

on either side and everything else we have to probably cut the chain link fence to get in to the track. Um that's not necessarily we we so we've identified six points where we can uh have staging areas for apparatus or uh medical evacuation and we have six other points with mand gates that we can access the tracks. So, um, those are in our SOP. I'm sorry if I if I didn't send

that to you, but that was one of the concerns that we initially had that I spoke with, uh, councelor Hart about that. We worked with MBTA. Um, and MBTA also, uh, it's a common lock. Uh, we were provided we were provided keys for those gates. Um, and we're kind of controlling those keys because you cannot go through those gates until you have called dispatch and made sure that the trains have been halted on the

tracks. So, we've uh we we determined that um we should be the gatekeepers for that as the incident commanders at any scene that would be required to to to work on the tracks. And uh so we we distributed those keys and our SOP has those locations of those 12 gates. Um Council Hart and I also talked that perhaps we shouldn't be, you know, uh advertising where those gates are. So,

uh, but we are aware of them and we we have those locations and are ready to to utilize them for depending on the scale of the But is that information that you can share? Oh, absolutely. His office is right next to mine. I thought I had shared it, but No, I Well, when we first did this, there was you had access by the chain link fence. That's right.

That's the only way we could get into it. Now, if that was an addition to all this, I was not aware of it. Yeah. I'm sorry. I thought I had sent you our SOP and and we had discussed that, but will you be sharing the DNS? Yeah. Yeah.

Although I mean we will share Yeah, absolutely. We'll share it with you. But I think uh that based on our conversations with the train, they did want to limit the number of keys that were I don't need a key. I just would like to have a Yeah, I think the information is very important. I think I think Yeah. The the the um director of each department, it needs to obviously uh have all pertinent information and be

prepared. So yeah. Um 100%. So yeah, if you can share that, that would be great.

Yeah. And Oh, go ahead, Michelle. I'm sorry. I finished to go on um we establish the evacuation zones for all the north end. So if you have to evacuate from a certain area for certain street, what school you going to go to?

So all this is in the east plan that will be sent to MIMA and that's in the city emergency response plan. Um we tal we also had to identify for MIMA um if we need additional resources um how that would happen. The ambulance task force, police task force, pris county task force. So, we had to put that in the plan as well because they require that.

Um, but everything well except for those additional gates to get in um is in the plan. So, I have to add that in here as well. Um, which I was not aware of. I thought we just had to go through the gated areas. I mean, the fenced areas.

Um, where are those gated areas? I'll share the publicly disclosed.

Okay.

I think what you were talking about, remember we had the derailment a while back? Yes. Mass coastal derailment in that area. Big slope. Only way to get down there was through the chain link.

And and Ryan Coahan said, "Cut the fence. Cut the fence. You have to get there. Cut the fence. Don't worry about that. Don't worry about a workaround. If you have an emergency, cut the fence."

Well, yeah. And that's where we That's probably where that came from. That's exactly where it came from. Yeah. And actually, you were the one that spurred my interest in getting the the gates done, right? Because we talked the first meeting we went to. Yeah. There was no gates at all. We decided that cutting the fence was going to be too long of a delay if somebody needed help on the

tracks and and uh Kolas and MBTA were were very good about about satisfying that demand for us. I think communication works well, right? Trying now that we know. Yeah. Okay. With that, I yield. Thank you. And and before I get to councelor Kilby, I just wanted to what you were talking about, chief, about the points of entry and the gates.

Yes. And how important those were to me and the other committee members because that's that's the that's the bread and butter right there. We need abs absolute per access to anywhere where there's an incident. Um so I'm glad that that's gotten resolved and it's embedded in and so it's it's ready to go. To echo what um Chief Aguar said, uh I would take the zero grade level crossings with the

limited access points for us over the 13 grade level crossings that Freetown has because I just think we're going to have we're going to have a lot less issues because of that. Um I can also add to you that the Bristol County Fire Chiefs and the communities that are uh along the rail, we meet monthly and in those meetings we discuss the rail and the resources. We have a shared resource

list so that if there is a major event, we know who has what resources available. Um, and MBTA did give us a grant, had a large grant for all of the communities along the rail in Bristol County. And, uh, Fall River New Bedford got a lot of the extrication equipment, uh, including airbags that can lift the train if there's if they need to, uh, to cutting tools that can cut tracks. Uh

and it's we because we have the largest uh onduty complement of firefighters, we got a lion share of that technical equipment and are uh ready to respond to any of the local communities in the event of a of a of anything happening on the tracks and and just what JT was talking about and Gan I just before I go to council Kilby, how prevalent will the MBTA police be um in the beginning? So

that that is what we're not sure of.

Okay. Um, which is why another reason to have that meeting, but also to maintain communication here. We had a conversation. We're going to make it clear and we have been whenever there's any incident, reportable incident, the T police are informed. And they will do their level best for certainly anything serious, super serious to get here. But the closest place is Dorchester. Okay.

Which which isn't quick unless we're joking. Maybe they have a helicopter, right? But you know even that these days who knows so what we're looking at and what we need to do is amass the data where are things happening what kinds of things are happening um and I think that will help them figure out what is the best course of action for them you know there was talk a while ago about actually having a separate annex

somewhere in the region that hasn't advanced the train came a little faster than they thought it was going to but I do know that if we continue to uh collect the data and actually parse it and share it with them and they see what's going on that will help inform some sort of a decision. Okay. Thank you, Council Kilby. Yes. Um well, my questions really have been um been asked in terms of support from the uh

MTA. Um and I was going to similarly ask questions with regard to, you know, all of the uh different community leaders in public safety.

Um, Miss Fox, congratulations to you. I mean, you you've been uh many for many many years.

You've been working on this project. So, I I mean, it's it's probably a real big sense of fulfillment to you. And um could just for the people who are watching, hopefully many people are watching that meeting, what exactly is your role now? Um, it's evolved. I've been I have been uh I was the project manager when we were going through um the design engineering and the permitting at Mass DOT and then when we

got the go-ahhead and the bond bill was signed and there was funding it moved into construction at the MBTA and that was in you know 15 16 and then I I switched over still as a mass dot employee but as the project's director of community engagement through so you're employed by the training. still do. I'm still dealing. Oh, Department of Transport. Okay. All right. Um, in terms

of the police department, um, there used to be, I don't know if there still is a homeless camp right near Okonnell boatyard.

I mean, you're familiar, right? I mean, they would actually build shanties and um, almost like a Hooverville when it's been there for many years. First, is it still exist? I don't believe it's as established as it once was. I think we're getting a lot of transient movement over there. That's right there.

Right. That's right. That was under construction for a long time. Yeah. I think there was a there was a significant amount of construction to redo that overpass for the train. And I think that amount of activity down there kind of eradicated what was was a a camp. Um but we have our our teams out there just touching base. Obviously Pont Delgatada. Uh we're going to the areas that there is concerns. We obviously had

some issues down there like the Turner Street area down behind U Executive Plaza. Uh people on the tracks. Uh there were several times we had some vandalism calls where people were on the tracks throwing stuff onto the cars below. Uh that's been subsided. Uh obviously there's no real trend to that. It's just sometimes it's juveniles maybe getting into mischief. Uh but our big thing is

making sure that the safety is out the safety message is out there to get off the tracks. And I I shared this with Gan last week when we spoke is that the residents of Forever are watching that train scream by and they almost still don't believe that it actually is happening. It may stop you there. It um it's it's definitely going to be a cultural shock, so to speak, for for a

lot of people, a lot. Correct. And um and including myself, right? I mean, I I love hearing the ch train whistle from uh from where I live. I I do love that.

But I'm sympathetic to the individuals who came down. Literally, the the train is right behind their house. Yes, absolutely. Um there's going to be and I'm glad um you were very transparent saying that there is going to be hiccups because let's not fool ourselves there is. But we're not the first community. We were chat chatting earlier. We're not the first community to get the train. No,

not at all. And I think there's similarities too like Worcester. They're far away from Boston. So we have partners in those agencies to kind of uncover their pain points too. What they have with the coverage for the NBTA police. We're going to work with them as a partner law enforcement agency regardless. Uh but first and foremost, we're still going to respond. We're still going to do what we need to do. Uh

that's not the citizens fault of figuring out jurisdiction. It's really on us, but we'll make sure the service level remains the same. And it's going to be a wakeup call for us elected officials as well. Uh our budget process starts very very soon. So with the all this new um infrastructure and transportation coming in and all the all that comes along with that um there's there has to be a key focus in these

departments. It has to be. So, I mean, the roles are going to change. Um, the duties are going to change and we have to adapt to it. And, um, so it's I'm so so happy this has finally come. Um, and, um, it's definitely going to be a great benefit to our community because transportation is a key to everything to, you know, to everything. And um um I I just it's going to be a wakeup

call to this to not only the residents but to all of us the new dynamic that is happening. So but all the questions I was going to ask uh have been asked.

Yeah. Yeah. I think u I mean I think um I'm okay with the questions that have been asked as well. I mean, is there any kind of um maybe Jean, uh just to end this particular portion of the meeting, um what's the message to the community of Greater Fall River? Uh as far as the public safety goes and um the excitement around it is very important to us. Um

but also too that it's a it's a it's a uh it's a locomotive. It's a It's a It's It's speeding through. It's going to be speeding through the city. And maybe even shed some light on how long does something like that size train take to stop. Yeah. A train. Well, this is a consist of five coaches in a locomotive, right? And if it's going 55 miles an hour, it takes a mile or 18 football

fields to stop, right? And they cannot turn. And you standing on tracks will not necessarily be able to discern the direction. train is traveling in. So because the continuously welded rail has changed the clicketity clack that we used to hear with the 10 mph freight y to something that really kind of blends in until it's on top of you. So my message is yes, I am very excited about

this and we've worked hard on this in the city of Fall River. All the elected officials, a lot of residents have worked hard on this, come to all the meetings, wrote the letters, did it did what needed to be done and now we need to get that message out that now you need to stay safe. You're very fortunate you don't have grade crossings because those are absolutely bane of my existence right now. Yeah, Bridgewater,

we have one up there when I But you you you have narrow right ofway.

and you do have points where we've seen some not so good behavior that's also dangerous. So, uh, we want to continue to to echo that. I'm going to continue to work with kids. We have the videos online. We can show kids anytime. Um, in fact, a lot of the material from my website has been adopted by the T for all commuter rail. So, there's some good safety messaging up there for anybody.

So, I just want people to stay away from the tracks, take advantage of this new this new piece of transportation that we've worked so hard for. And I want to couple that with the boulevard project because that's also going to be transformational. It's going to be economic development to beat the band in Fall River. Exactly. Um as you maintain on the speed on the speed. Yeah. Um the

speed plan. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

So that the when it approaches the city limit, this the city border.

So what does it enter at speed? Does it enter?

There are sections where it can go up to almost 80 miles an hour, 79 miles per hour. Do you know with entry when it enters a you know when it's coming out of it doesn't matter where it's entering if there are grade crossings it's going to go if it can't. Right. So um where you see acceleration deceleration is mostly it's starting and stopping point.

So station to station. So, for example, from the depot to the Freetown station, they might get up to 60, potentially a little bit more. Um, there are certainly legs of the corridor where they're going to hit those speeds and they have they already have during testing. They had to do testing at 79 miles an hour in at most of the crossings. So, yeah, they they scream through. Okay. Thanks. So,

if I can just offer one thing. So, uh, uh, through the meetings that we've had, Operation, uh, Lifesaver, that's me. I'm a volunteer. Yep. So, it's an excellent resource. You can look it up online.

Just Google Operation Lifesaver. They have some really great materials and fascinating stuff on there about the train. And uh two things that stood out to me uh in the last couple weeks when they released the schedule, it's feasible that between Monday and Friday, every 30 minutes there will be a train on the track somewhere, an MBTA train on the track somewhere in Fall River. And that doesn't discount the freight

trains. Those will also be operating. Um and just this past Saturday, I was down Saturday morning near Weaver's Cove and I had the opportunity to hear the train come through. And although I've been to all these meetings and they told me, "You won't hear it. You won't I'm a You're going to hear it." I was standing there and it sounded like a gust of wind was coming through the trees. I agree.

And then it just it went by had to be doing 50 miles an hour and you wouldn't have known it until it until you could see it. And by that point, it's too late. So I just want everyone to know that I am aware of this. I was mentally prepared. I thought I was mentally prepared for it, but it blew my mind.

And they will be on the track every 30 minutes, one direction or the other, from Monday through Friday. That's right. They will between 4:00 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. Yeah. About 4:30. Yeah. I'm sorry. Between about 4 a.m.

We we also talked about the freight train, Jane. You were in that same track. Freight freighten that we have sidings because because the commuter rail trumps freight, but freight has to operate. It's commerce, right? So, we have sightings at a lot of the stations.

There's one at the depot. They're elsewhere. So, if a freight train needs to get off the tracks, they can move over. They can move over. Yep.

Very good. Um, thank you all very much.

I appreciate you coming. Uh, and I'm glad that we uh got a chance to meet before it's actually took off the project, but um but very important, I think, to the public uh for maybe uh educating them. And I think we got the best in the business that's going to be uh for the public safety matter. So, um, uh, so we're going to move on to number two. Um, should we make a motion number

four? Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Go ahead, council. Seconded. Second. All in favor?

I I on item number four, it's the Committee on Public Safety convene with a representative from the MBTA uh, and any other interested parties to discuss potential solutions to reduce noise pollution in the Weaver Cove layover area. So I think what we what happened was there was a a few people got uh some uh um asked a certain number of counselors. Uh I think what's what hap what's happening I my my understanding

is the trains that are in the layover are idling in the win only in the winter time like that's my guess because they have to I'm still tracking down the actual protocol for that. Okay. Because we have plugins at the layover. So cold weather under 40 typically they plug them in to keep the diesels warm.

However, there's a threshold and we went through a period of very very cold nights and they did idle them that night. They didn't tell us till we asked.

So I'm trying to get the actual protocol. They've had to share this with a couple of other communities. We are in fact in the north and we do get 10 degree nights. Right. And if that's something that people need to be prepared for, I think people need to be aware of it. Right. They were told plug them in. How how how what is the noise level like? I because I I it's well I've

only got an idea from the quiet it's it's a rumbling noise. It's just a rumble and I bet you if it's everything else is super quiet. It's not white noise, right? You know, most likely you if you know your parents house where you grew up, you could hear from there. Oh, okay. Very clear. Where where the St.

Vincent's was on that North Main area where Yeah. Yeah. On Langley and Rose and because I can hear from where I live. I could hear it from the other end. I mean, you can hear because it's the dead of the night, too. Right. So, I I you know, I apologize to everyone because I had no idea there was a threshold below which they would not plug them in for fear they wouldn't be

warm enough. Right. Um and we only did that several nights, but of course it occurred over a weekend was part of it and people were annoyed. And if thankfully it's winter, it's not summer where things are idling. We've had problems with some freight engines idling um in other areas. Um and a lot of times they'll do that just because they're mechanically not in the best condition and they're afraid to turn

them off. But you know, that's also a polluting thing. You don't want that.

You don't want the noise. You don't want the diesel fuel. On the other hand, I understand that for three hours on a super cold night, they may just have to idle, right? And then it and it's a uh I mean, if if you didn't do that, then be not gonna Exactly. Right. Right. So, it's se it's seasonal. They can expect it to It's totally seasonal, but the people and I I've actually I've pinged

them like three times. They have real language that they've shared with at least two other communities in the Commonwealth that explains what that threshold is. Um it may be slightly different if you're coastal because of the dam than than you know inter interior, but um I I still haven't heard back from them. So, okay. Once I do, I will share. But I think I think you can count on 10 probably being legitimate

number and I would say yeah, leave it on. Right. Okay. All right. Well, are there any other questions?

Well, thank you for your time. And again, thank you, Jean. Thank you. We appreciate everything you're doing here.

I am I have to tell you, it's been really a pleasure working with the city.

Um, you know, really even through times that weren't so great, like when we were doing the clearing of the trees and people were worried about habitat and things like that, people were so reasonable. They asked the right questions. It was elevated to at the city level, your level for example, or state rep, it we were treated beautifully and I have to say I appreciate that. But that's

definitely been a constant another coming down from east going through east and in that area during the early development. Yeah, it was tied up and I mean different what route was it going to take? Exactly. We had 65 alternatives at one point.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You're very welcome. We were able to do this. Is there a motion on the I think we were able to address the second one. So, um I would make a motion to grant leave to withdraw. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. Is there any other motions?

Motion to second. Seconded. All in favor? I. Good meeting. Very good. Thank you.