Advisory Bike/Walk Taskforce

City of Norwalk Norwalk Bike/Walk Taskforce Meeting Minutes June 5, 2017, 6:00-7:30pm Health Department, 2nd Floor Library 137 East Avenue, Norwalk CT 06851 Attendees: Nancy Rosett, Tim Callahan, Peter Franz, Colin Grotheer, Emily Gayton 1. Since the minutes from the April rather than the May minutes were distributed, the May minutes will be reviewed at the July meeting. 2. Nancy Rosett summarized the most recent changes to the draft ordinance to make this group a permanent part of the City government. This draft will be presented to the Ordinance Committee at its June meeting. If they approve it, a public hearing will be scheduled for the committee’s July meeting. 3. Jim Carter send in the NRVT report as he was not able to attend the meeting: Last month the NRVT finalized agreement with Rec & Parks. There will be a 22 x 32 pad with brick pavers near the central plaza/flag pole. It seems like there would be enough space to accommodate bike share station. 4. Nancy Rosett reported that Susan Sweitzer of the Redevelopment Agency forwarded the link Colin Grotheer created (https://sway.com/sigjlXBmekL4FGLf) showing the problems with the Clay Street bike trough and some designs to correct the problem with the consultant who designed it. 5. Nancy Rosett summarized the meeting with the Mayor to review the progress on our strategic plan and solicit his input. 6. Our submission to the Aetna Foundation for a grant to mark out east/west and north/south bicycle routes through the City did not make it to the second step. 7. We will be sponsoring walks before the free concerts at the beach this summer. We will be raffling off prizes each night and the Mayor will be leading some of the walks. 8. Nancy Rosett will send out an email asking people who are planning to attend one or both days to the 2017 Bike/Walk CT Summit to contact her to arrange carpooling. 9. Walking Update: NorWALKer maps for the Silvermine, Tracey, City Hall, Downtown Norwalk, and South Norwalk are now translated and printed in Spanish. All translated neighborhoods will be available on the website soon. Walks for the month of June: oSaturday, June 3 in Silvermine – Meet at Silvermine School at 8:00am. oSaturday, June 17 in East Norwalk – Meet at Marvin School at 8:30am. oSunday, June 11, meeting at Sono Baking Co. at 9am oSaturday, June 24 in West Norwalk – Meet at Fox Run School at 8:30am. If you know of any locations throughout town that might like to display NorWALKer maps, please let Kaitlin know. We just printed more maps and are eager to distribute them into the community. The Connecticut Children’s Medical Center’s Injury Prevention Department donated a HUGE amount of giveaways, brochures, and safety information about cycling and  pedestrian safety (among other topics), so if anyone needs giveaways or info sheets to distribute at events, please contact Kaitlin. Please share the following information with the Taskforce, from an organization called United by Blue: My name is Cara Hertneky, and I'm the Cleanup Operations Assistant at United By Blue, a Philly- based outdoor brand with a commitment to waterway conservation. For every product sold, we remove a pound of trash from oceans and waterways through company-organized cleanups. To- date, United By Blue has hosted 186 cleanups and has picked up over 1-million pounds of trash! This summer United by Blue is partnering with over 10 REI stores in the northeastern United States for a two week long cleanup road trip! I'm reaching out to you to let you know about a cleanup we are hosting in your area that the NorWALKers may be interested in! United By Blue is teaming up with REI Norwalk for a cleanup of the Norwalk River on Thursday June 15th from 5pm - 7pm at Oyster Shell Park in Norwalk, CT. United by Blue and REI will provide snacks and all of the cleanup supplies. All volunteers will receive a custom United By Blue "Cleanup Crew" hat! This is a great volunteer opportunity and way to celebrate the summer! As a part of Connecticut's sustainable community, we would love to have the NorWALKer group, your community partners, and your peers join us in preserving the Norwalk River! Would you be willing to share this opportunity with your community contacts and/or through your social media channels? I've attached a printable/shareable poster! Learn more and register at UnitedbyBlue.com/REINorwalk. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the event! 10. Tim Callahan reported that Kaitlin Latham had contacted the intern who worked with the Police Department to gather crash statistics to get her password. Our liaison at the Police Department is not in so we need to wait for her to return. There is still some work to be done so one of the summer interns at the Health Department will be assigned to complete the study. 11. Peter Franz reported there has not been any change to the design of the business card for us to hand out. He suggested we leave the back of the card blank to save money and provide a space for us to write additional information on the back. It would be more effective to have the rules of the road we were going to put on the back of the card on our website as we won’t have the space constraints we would have putting them on the card. We will order 500 cards to start. 12. Nancy Rosett reviewed the draft Purpose and Need Statement for the Route 7/15 Interchange Project. Pedestrian and Bicycle Access are included. The meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm.