Complete Streets & Bikeway Committee

City of Middletown Complete Streets Committee Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, July 10, 2023, 7 PM Location: WebEx Attendees: Laura Baum, Howard Weissberg, John Hall, Lisa Liesener, Zoemma Warshafsky, Tom Quirk 1. Current/ongoing projects: ● Air Line Trail – Farmington Canal Trail (ALT-FCT) Connector Study Update ○ Rivercog got the project authorization letter from the state. River Cog has to work out a contract and scope/manhours with VHB for preliminary design. ○ Howard can reach out to RiverCOG to find out how far they are along in the process. ○ John mentioned that some studies have already been done ■ Tighe and Bond study related to Airline Trail and connection to bridge in Portland. ■ Milone and MacBroom (now SLR) has done some work on the Newfield Corridor Trail. ■ Current scope for VHB should be to determine the best route (or route options) to connect ALT at YMCA camp in Portland to trail connection at the Meriden-Middletown line. ● Saybrook Road (East Main to Tryon) ○ Involves road widening and they are still working on gaining property rights. ○ Detailed discussion about plans for Saybrook, the history of the project, and discussion of next steps. ○ Some people have retracted their permission that had previously granted it. ○ City will have a meeting with Cardinal soon. ○ One small section will cost $3.5 million. ○ Water project is occurring this fall - still not losing time just yet but we have a problem ○ Discussion of having a multi-use trail instead, just on one side. Or 10' wide travel lanes, 5' shoulders (4' if we have to), 6' monolithic curb sidewalk (no buffer) ■ Lose the bike lanes because we just don't have room? ● Saybrook Road (Randolph to Aircraft) ○ Still doing crack seal now, will see how it fairs over the winter. Next year they will do a rubberized chip seal as a surface course on the concrete section. Phase 3 the following year would be to cap with asphalt. ● Micro-Transit and Micro-mobility (bikes/scooters) ○ No bikes/scooters this year. No updates or information about what is going on with the vendor. ○ e-bike rebate program was very popular. Lots of people applied. ● Bike Friendly Middletown application 1  ○ John Yarmolovich would like to see Middletown become a Bicycle Friendly Community and wants to learn more about the process. Laura has connected John and Cat Young, who has done work on this previously. ● Washington & DeKoven Dr intersection ○ City trying to get an internal meeting with DOT so city can have a sense of what's coming ○ They are making inroads into the pedestrian bridge. DOT has been asking for info from Cooper Robertson. ● Washington & Rte 3/Vine intersection work ○ Initial fix would be a sidewalk down Vine St to Washington Terrace. There was a question about whether there has ever been a Master Plan for this area. ● Complete Streets Leadership Academies ○ City has had their encroachment permit approved. ● Events 2. Reports from other pertinent regular meetings/events: ● ECOIN ○ Meeting with State Representative Kia Belton on Monday July 24 5-6pm at the DeKoven house. ● Sustainable Middletown / CT ○ Working with Serena 3. New Business: ● Safe Streets for All (S4A) grant ○ City submitted an application ○ Multi-modal arterial transportation plan (four corridor studies) ○ Newfield, Main Street Extension, South Main, Washington ○ ~900K ● CS to invite the new Director of Economic & Community Development, Christine Marques, to future meetings. ● August meeting ○ Laura proposed canceling the August meeting due to travel/vacation conflicts. Notes: - Next meeting (likely will be canceled): Monday, August 14, 2023, 7 PM (WebEx) - Next quarterly Public Works/Planning depts. Meeting: TBD 2