By Adam Swift
Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio wants residents to be better informed about the traffic commission’s public hearings.
At last week’s meeting, the council approved a motion introduced by Argenzio asking the mayor request the traffic commission coordinate with 311 to send out a robocall to alert residents to commission public hearings that could result in a major change to parking or traffic patterns that affect an entire street or area of the city. The alerts would include, but not be limited to, parking restriction changes or changing a street to a one-way.
The calls would only need to go to the particular area that would be affected by the hearing.
“I was chairman of the traffic commission for six years, and this was the biggest complaint that when major changes were made that there was a small little blurb in one of the local papers and people didn’t know about it,” said Argenzio. “Things that affect parking, the direction of streets, it should be conveyed to the residents so that they can come up and speak on whether it is something they are in favor of or opposed to.”
In other business, the council moved a requested change in the food truck ordinance to a public hearing.
The request was made by Councillor-at-Large Juan Pablo Jaramillo to allow not more than one food truck at a new location in the parking lot at 108 Beach St., directly abutting the Revere History Museum and facing Sonny Myers Park.
Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya added an amendment to the motion seeking to limit the hours of operation of the food truck to 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“The location is inconvenient for the Immaculate Conception School; it is in the parking lot where they park their vehicles,” she said.
Limiting the hours would ensure that there is not a conflict when people are picking up their kids at school, Guarino-Sawaya said.