Complete Streets & Bikeway Committee

1/10/22 Complete Streets Meeting Minutes Monday, January 10, 2022 7:04 PM Attendees: Laura Baum John Hall Zoemma Warshafsky Kerry Kincy - Director of Free Center in Middletown Joe Samolis Officer Pete Botsacos Old Business December minutes looked good to those who were in attendance at the last meeting. DOT had not yet announced the grant awards; awaiting notice if Middletown ALT-FCT connector study will be funded Micro-Transit: Bike share program RFPs hopefully will be issued by the end of January Bike friendly Middletown Application - no updates Other Local Committee Reports: Middletown health and wellness committee: No updates ECOIN: no updates Sustainable Middletown: met with Mayor last week - PW staffing transition which is preventing recertification of silver status MXChamber Environment and Infrastructure meeting: looking to get South sidewalk of Arrigoni Bridge reopened - Officer Botsacos to check into progress New Business: Spring St. street art project Kerry working with Sustainability CT, Russell Library and Complete Streets - want to do an oral history of Middletown and the Spring Street area in new bike lanes. Art will be in front of MacDonough to be done around Memorial day this year. Kerry's notes shared with the committee (kerry@freecenter.us): o OBJECTIVE: Street art on Spring Street bike lanes based on the neighborhood’s history uncovered by our youth. Project Goals: McDonough Elementary School brings kids together from throughout Middletown. Yet, the neighborhood stands apart from the school itself. For example, new bike lanes and traffic patterns aimed at increasing safety around the school have also impacted the neighborhood as a whole (both in a manner the neighborhood favors and in 1  some ways that are inconvenient). This project asks how we can bring the interests of the neighborhood and the school in closer alignment. Spring Free is designed to empower the students of McDonough school with the tools and support to discover the history of the neighborhood surrounding their school and to provide the opportunity to lift up the stories and immortalize the people in the neighborhood. Spring Free also encourages the neighborhood to be seen as integral to the school, to be an important part of the narrative of hope that matters so much to the positive development of our youth, and to be among the important stewards of Middletown history for our children. To do great things as they grow up, our kids need to know from where they come. Spring Free helps that happen. o AUDIENCES: Kids, Their Parents, Neighbors, school, governance committee, complete streets committee, Russell Library, Historical Society o EXPERIENCE for KIDS (max 20 kids for the program… XXX for the street painting day…) o School Principal and Governance committee shares the ELECTIVE program with the students who will also bring the info home to their parents (vote with your feet style… not mandatory from the school) o Students register to participate in the program o Curriculum Day 1: at Free Center on the background of Oral Histories and share some examples o highlight: visit from the Historical Society o highlight: includes review of Portraits of Grace o highlight: includes other ways of collecting histories and stories o Curriculum Day 2: at the Russell Library on research tools and the how to do research (background: how to find out how your community came to be so their is context for the histories to be collected and for developing questions for the people being interviewed)… o visit to the Russell Library on research tools o kids do research on the spot (using books and things already pulled)… we will need 6 adult research assistants o send kids home with some “homework”… come back with “who” they will interview o Curriculum Day 3: at Free Center. Students are provided with the toolkit for collecting oral histories and are sent home with instructions for collecting the stories o tools required: tools for video recording and tools for picture taking including a “table tripod”. o Curriculum Day 4: at Free Center. Review the histories the kids collected as a group. Work with them to edit and refine o collect oral histories of the kids o we will need assistants/partners with laptops (and some training) to help refine the raw info. o Curriculum Day 5: at Free Center… exhibition of the oral histories the kids collected. o opening reception o press invitation o Street Painting Day: open to the whole neighborhood. (From Pease to Pearl… just one block both sides) 2  o stenciling is set up on closed street the day before ( possible partnership WESU/Jonah Center) o Backgrounds are predetermined and organized o Paint for each panel is set up by the panel o Intro to the day: gratitudes, instructions for the day, lunch instructions, rest rooms in the school o kids and neighborhood come out to paint (there are MANY facilitators to help organize this) — kids make cards… coloring the background of templates o (they can keep as many as they want after they make X amount needed for donors) o Snacks and lunch and drinks o Lots of photo opportunities o tend to booboos as they happen o When done: preserve art on the street. Document the art for posterity. Clean up the days mess. CS wants to do a traffic count of cars, walkers and bikers on Spring Street to compare before and after the reconfiguration. The last one was done on September 17, 2013 (Tuesday shifts 6:45-8am, 7:45-9am 2:45-4pm, 3:45-5pm) so the new one should be the same time. New one will target 9/13/22 or 9/20/22. Previous survey also covered multiple other locations throughout the city. CS will revisit this topic in the spring to begin planning. New items for agenda should be submitted by the Wednesday prior to each month's meeting. New Police Chief Eric Costa and Capt Rick Davis was promoted to Deputy Chief. Offc Pete speaks with Lt Godwin on Complete Streets items. The meeting ended at 8pm. The next meeting is scheduled for February 14th at 7pm 3