By Adam Swift
From fireworks to electric scooters to nuisance traffic islands, Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley filed several successful motions at Monday night’s council meeting addressing quality of life issues in the city.
One motion requested the mayor ask the public works department and the traffic commission to evaluate the channel/traffic island located at Hall’s Corner (at Newhall and Malden Street) due to repeated vehicles striking its curbing and recommend appropriate safety improvements, including but not limited to reflective yellow curb paint, delineator posts, and/or warning signage.
Several councillors, including Ward 6 Councillor Chris Giannino, testified to the problems caused by the traffic island.
Ward 3 Councillor filed a successful substitute motion requesting that the traffic island at Hall’s Corner be removed, which Kelley agreed with.
With the warmer weather and Fourth of July around the corner, Kelley also filed several successful proactive motions.
The first motion asked that the mayor request that the parks and police departments implement proactive public safety and enforcement measures at Griswold Park during the July 4th holiday due to recurring resident complaints about illegal fireworks.
“Every year, there’s a number of complaints from fireworks being shot off at Griswold Park,” said Kelley. “I know this year being our 250th anniversary – I am all for celebrating and being patriotic – but fireworks are illegal and in this particular area it seems that they are a particular nuisance for the neighborhood. There is always the fear of injury, of course, or damage to houses or fire to properties.”
Last year, Kelley said there was a patrol near the park for part of the evening and everything was under control, but the patrol got called away and things got out of control.
“It’s just a terrible scene for the neighborhood to have to deal with, so I’m hoping we can just get ahead of it this year and have these departments work together proactively to try to curb this from happening this year,” said Kelley.
Kelley also introduced a motion asking the mayor to request the Traffic Commission, as well as the public works and police departments, to review and identify appropriate locations throughout the city for the installation of signage prohibiting the operation of motorized and electric scooters on sidewalks and pedestrian areas, particularly in high pedestrian traffic areas, school zones, business districts and senior pedestrian corridors. Further, the motion asks that the departments provide recommendations regarding appropriate signage language, placement locations and any additional pedestrian safety measures deemed appropriate.
That motion was placed in the council’s public safety subcommittee for future discussion. Several councillors noted that state legislation is in the works to address the use of motorized scooters and bikes, and that language could be incorporated into Kelley’s requests in her motion.