Complete Streets & Bikeway Committee

City of Middletown Complete Streets Committee Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, July 11, 2022, 7 PM Location: Online WEBEX Meeting Attendees: Laura Baum, John Hall, Zoemma Warshafsky, Lisa Liesener, Tom Quirk, Chris Holden - Host 1. Current/ongoing projects: ● Return to the Riverbend Master Plan ● Air Line Trail – Farmington Canal Trail (ALT-FCT) Connector Study Update - ○ John reported that RiverCOG wants to try and combine the RiverCOG project ($315K) and the Middletown project 9$500K bond commission grant). John recommended Mayor contact Martin Heft (OPM) to help facilitate. ● Micro-Transit: bike share program RFP - Chris Holden will see if this is still moving forward at all or is perhaps on hold now that Joe Samolis is gone. ● Bike Friendly Middletown application - Cat is still interested in working on this but not available yet. Maybe in the fall. We’ll keep it on the agenda. ● Washington & DeKoven Dr intersection - intersection is nearly impossible for pedestrians to cross safely. Chris has contact info for person at DOT who could advise. ● Washington & Rte 3/Vine intersection work - not sure timeline of DOT work on crosswalks and signals. ● Lyceum Road - ○ Currently open after some temporary fixes were made ○ Letter was sent to the Common Council, Mayor, and Chris Holden from Laura and Beth Emery on behalf of this committee asking the city to keep Lyceum closed. This topic is on the agenda for Wednesday’s Public Works Commission meeting. 2. Reports from other pertinent regular meetings/events: ● Middletown Public Schools Health and Wellness Committee - no updates ● ECOIN - Discussion on best use of potential grant funds (bioswale, tree maintenance, etc) ● Sustainable Middletown - no updates ● Sustainable CT - no updates ● MxChamber Environment and Infrastructure meeting - Chris Holden provided an update on a new pilot program with DEEP for waste removal in the city sanitation district. Residents will be given 2 bags for trash, 1 for food waste, recycling is as usual. Program would be used to determine bag price for overall program. Rollout may come out in Sept or Oct. 3. New Business: ● Committee membership - Laura followed-up with Debra Stanley about her membership and she sent an official resignation email to the Mayor. The committee now has two vacancies. Current members are Laura Baum, Beth Emery, Lisa Liesener, and Tom Quirk. We had thought Cat Young was an official member but she is not. Laura will email Linda Reed 1  to ask about party affiliations for all members so we have a sense of who we can recruit to fill the vacancies. ● Plan to cancel August Complete Streets meeting due to people being on vacation. ● Pameacha Pond work ○ Requires State approval, DEEP typically in favor of dam removal. Road and sewer project has been separated from dam removal project to keep it moving while dam removal is debated. They may keep some small water body in the area without a dam. Rendering plan available on FB group page (Save Pameacha Pond); includes walking paths. Road project will include sidewalk from High St to So. Main on Pameacha Ave. ● Wall St. rework is getting under contract. Saybrook Rd work is state funded and is stalled out right now. Main Street Extension rework by Stop & Shop is waiting on homeowner right of ways. Notes: - Next meeting: September 12, 7 p.m. – Location Online: WebEx - Next quarterly Public Works/Planning deps. Meeting: October, TBD 2