[0:00] and you can go ahead and call the meeting to order.

[0:05] » All right, Dan.

[0:08] » It is me. Yeah. >> Uh I would like to This is Dan. Uh call

[0:14] this meeting to order.

[0:18] What else do I have to say? >> I will call roll.

[0:21] » Thank you. >> Um let's see. Daniel Ilon

[0:25] » here. >> John Kilstrom

[0:27] » here. Mindy Proski >> here.

[0:30] » Andrew Wrathman, >> Benjamin Hurt

[0:34] » here, >> Kenneth Ingstrom

[0:36] » here, >> Michelle Hstrom

[0:38] » here, >> and um Lieutenant McNab is filling in

[0:44] for Chief Schmurber tonight. And I don't see Andrew Labonte, the council liaison,

[0:50] but sometimes he signs on later. So, um, if you want to go ahead, Dan.

[0:56] » Yep. uh make a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting

[1:03] » and I will go down the line. Mindy, >> I'll make a motion to That's okay. I'll

[1:08] make the motion to approve the meeting minutes.

[1:12] » Then we need a second. >> Okay. And Mindy,

[1:17] » yes. >> Uh Michelle,

[1:19] » yes. >> Dan,

[1:22] » yes. >> Ben,

[1:23] » yes. >> John,

[1:25] » yes. and Ken. >> Yes.

[1:27] » All right. It's approved.

[1:36] » All right. Um, we have a new member. Correct. So, Michelle Hellstrom,

[1:45] welcome. Do you want to maybe introduce yourself?

[1:50] » My name is Michelle Hellstrom. Uh my husband and I have lived in Gladstone

[1:54] for a little over 11 years now. Uh we have two French bulldogs as kids and uh

[2:01] they keep us pretty entertained. So just happy to be starting to get involved in

[2:05] my community.

[2:09] » Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Welcome.

[2:14] » All right. Next order of business. Uh it's been a while since our last

[2:20] meeting, but we are needing to elect a new chair.

[2:26] Um and our meeting notes say and vice chair. I'm assuming that is under the

[2:30] assumption that I'm elected as chair. Then we do a new vice chair. Is that

[2:34] correct? Okay.

[2:38] Gotcha. Okay. I nominate Daniel for president of the

[2:44] traffic board. chairman of the traffic board.

[2:53] » Second. >> And I'll go down the line. Mindy,

[2:57] » yes. Michelle, >> yes.

[2:59] » Dan, you can't vote for yourself. Ben, >> yes.

[3:02] » John, >> yes.

[3:04] » Ben Ken, >> yes.

[3:06] » It's official. >> Can I elect someone for vice chair? I

[3:12] would like to nominate Ben Perk for vice chair.

[3:19] » John Kilster, my second >> and I'll go down the line. Mindy,

[3:24] » yes. Michelle, >> yes.

[3:26] » Dan, >> yes.

[3:29] » John, >> yes.

[3:30] » And Ken, >> yes.

[3:31] » Okay. You

[3:41] Okay, next order of business. Um, open it up for roundt discussion.

[3:48] » Didn't we just do that? >> I thought we approved the minutes

[3:50] already. >> Yeah, out of order. Did that begin?

[3:52] » Yeah. >> Mixing it up in the new year.

[3:57] » Oh, I did do it out of order, didn't I? You know what? I was look I was actually

[4:01] looking at the minutes from the last meeting and I think that was the order.

[4:04] I I'm sorry. You're right. I did.

[4:10] Okay. So, business from the board is next on our agenda.

[4:19] The only thing I have is I know that after we met last time, we shared that

[4:23] presentation on the traffic data and chief member had asked for more

[4:26] information about time of day, weather conditions and a

[4:32] few more things. I did not get time to do that over the holidays to find that

[4:37] information. However, I did confirm that it is available and so we can dive into

[4:41] that and pull that out. So, I'll try and have that ready for next time. But, um,

[4:46] yeah, that's the status of that. I know that we kind of left that hanging last

[4:48] time. So, I'll try and work on that. That's all I got. I guess on that note,

[4:53] Ben, with you now being vice chair, I wouldn't mind meeting with you and

[4:56] working on that with you sometime some point before our next meeting and we

[5:00] could come talk about it at the next one.

[5:04] Uh, at the last meeting I brought up about the crosswalk at Webster and

[5:10] Oatfield that it's very difficult to see if you're going from Webster to go

[5:16] northbound on Oatfield. And I saw this evening two people almost

[5:21] get hit at that crosswalk because the lights are both green. So

[5:28] the right turn lane comes up and they have a green light instead of a red

[5:36] light or a red arrow like is on the other side uh for the crosswalk there

[5:42] where that's always a green arrow and when the pedestrian

[5:47] uh box is signaled it goes red. In this case that light stays green. you can't

[5:52] see well because of all the the bushes and the traffic control device. So that

[5:59] I believe that light on the right hand lane if that were to be coordinated with

[6:05] the crosswalk light that may prevent somebody from getting seriously injured.

[6:11] Like I say, I saw a car almost take out two people tonight because they couldn't

[6:15] see them and the light was green. >> Thank you. And kids use that crosswalk a

[6:21] lot um going up to Cracksburgger.

[6:27] » Yeah, I will second that. I mean, I take that and my wife take that road every

[6:31] single day to pick our boy up from school. and she has mentioned several

[6:34] times that she's noticed recently I within the last couple months that I

[6:39] don't know if the signal timing has changed but that there have been

[6:41] multiple near accidents with people turning right and then off of Oatfield I

[6:48] guess heading eastbound turning left. So I second that concern. It is one that

[6:54] I've seen as well. >> Yeah, there's a little boy that goes to

[6:58] Cracksburg every day. He's probably about 4 foot tall and pushing his

[7:04] bicycle across and you can't see him. He's just disappears with all that stuff

[7:09] there. >> I'm not sure if that's on the traffic

[7:12] safety the plan, but I'll mention it to Chief Schmurber and have him see if he

[7:17] can check in to see who controls the lights and and I'll have an I'll have

[7:22] him get an update for you next meeting. I think when they did the paving that

[7:27] they said the lights were the control of the county.

[7:33] » Is it possible to ask the uh property owner on the corner to trim the the

[7:39] bushes and the there's a little tree there to improve the sight distance at

[7:44] least. >> Um I'll give you Ivonne McNeel's um card

[7:49] before you leave and she's our code compliance person. you can let her know

[7:53] and she can go and check that out and make sure that it's there's visibility.

[7:58] » Okay. >> Okay.

[7:59] » Yeah. >> Thank you.

[8:10] » I know the uh that crash report that Ben provided um really flags out where the

[8:19] areas of concern are. And and I'm wondering is is it our job or

[8:24] prerogative to physically go and look at those sites and

[8:30] make recommendations or about what could be done to improve the situation or is

[8:36] that more like uh something that public works people or someone else would do.

[8:48] » You know, honestly, I'm not sure. But um Chief Schmurbble will will be back at

[8:52] the end of the week and I will um make sure that he knows about it and we'll

[8:58] get some information back to you once he comes back because it could be a public

[9:01] works thing. I'm not exactly sure. >> So my assumption is that we can make

[9:07] whatever recommendations we feel are necessary. Yes. What we recommend may

[9:13] not necessarily >> be taken into account and or done

[9:18] directly. And I mean that's where maybe public works or maybe on the county or

[9:22] maybe on whoever is responsible for said facility. But I agree. I think it if we

[9:28] feel the need to go out and check what we see as a traffic safety concern, an

[9:33] intersection of concern and can come up with some recommendations and ideas. I

[9:37] think that is the job of the board. If you see something, say something,

[9:43] » too. You know, I mean, if you if you just knowing that a lot of us drive

[9:49] around our town and we see things that we're like, hm, that's that's not

[9:54] exactly safe. Um, this is the place to to bring it up. You're also going to

[9:59] have I had somebody uh come up to me. They knew I was on this board and they

[10:05] vehematly started talking about the Abernathy

[10:11] Mclofflin that and um and they wanted to know what

[10:16] they needed to do and I said, "Hey, we know about that. We are working on that.

[10:22] It's actually in an action plan. So, I hear you. I know what you're saying and

[10:29] know that we know about it. But so, you know, but this is the place where we can

[10:36] if if somebody said something to me and I was like, I have no idea about that, I

[10:40] would bring it here and and ask if anybody else knows about it or I would

[10:44] go check it out myself. Are are we stepping on anyone's toes if

[10:50] if we come up with a list of like well we could do this and this

[10:55] uh you know I I'm not a traffic engineer I think Ben is so like me you have some

[11:02] expertise but if we say well maybe if we you know restripe this or or put some

[11:09] traffic calming system in or something are we like stepping on public works

[11:16] toes or >> no I would think I think the process

[11:22] like there's the process of what we do and then there's a process of how things

[11:25] get implemented and I think what will happen is our role will be to identify

[11:29] those things and I think what we talked about last time is there's a up there's

[11:33] an update to the TSP that's going to be happening which is the transportation

[11:37] system plan um for the city and as a part of that

[11:42] » oh do you have it right that's it here we go uh I think there's going to be an

[11:46] update to that and one of the things that will happen as a part of that is a

[11:50] list of projects or concerns from the city will go out to that and then based

[11:53] on that and what that whoever puts that together says they'll say yes this this

[11:58] is an an issue based on the data and the design here and this is a project that

[12:02] we would recommend and so that's where those projects actually come out of is

[12:04] the development of the plan and then there's a cost estimate and a schedule

[12:08] on how an implementation for each one of those things there so I think it's

[12:11] valuable but how you see that to completion is through that TSP P and

[12:15] then gets on that plan and then that's how things get funded and selected and

[12:18] move forward from there. Does that make sense?

[12:21] » So >> I think also part of our job is to

[12:25] not lose sight of things that we have brought up because they just kind of

[12:29] fall off the the edge of the table. So I would see that we're also to kind of be

[12:36] the the naggers of saying hey this was supposed to happen it didn't happen and

[12:42] is it going to happen? An example would be Dartmouth Street. They talked about

[12:47] changing the way that came would slow the traffic down. You know, they're

[12:52] going to put striping. They didn't put striping and they're going to do this.

[12:55] Some of those things that we've talked about, we just kind of need to, you

[13:00] know, be be the be the nagger sometime about that if this is a a true concern

[13:06] then, you know, cuz, you know, yes, they can park a they can park a squad in the

[13:12] church parking lot and, you know, try to keep people to slow down, but that

[13:17] doesn't necessarily register with everybody.

[13:24] So I think that to answer your initial question, I don't think I personally

[13:28] don't think that it would be stepping on toes to recommend

[13:33] potential mitigation or fixes to safety issues that we see. Now I I think we

[13:39] need to come at it in a way that we can't be offended if it doesn't happen

[13:43] exactly the way we recommend it. But I think it is on this board to make those

[13:48] recommendations. Our

[13:53] focus is traffic safety. So,

[13:58] » what's the best way to build a list? I mean, I think maybe we start off if

[14:02] there's because I think we bring up a couple different places every time we

[14:06] meet, right? And then they, like you said, they fall off the table, right?

[14:09] So, maybe a place to start on that is like after this, if you guys have

[14:13] something between now and the next meeting, just email it out to the group.

[14:16] Hey, here's a location, right? We build that list from there. And then when we

[14:20] have that opportunity to talk to whoever's doing the TSP, we can bring

[14:24] those to the attention of that. Whether the chief does that or whether that we

[14:27] do that through that conversation, I think it's important to start building

[14:30] that list for ourselves to remember these places. So maybe that's our

[14:34] homework for next time is just send out an email, put together a list or an

[14:38] Excel spreadsheet of the places and locations or something like that and we

[14:42] can fill that out. I completely agree and I I would be totally willing to

[14:49] organize that list and build a spreadsheet because I I I'm kind of the

[14:53] same as you. I we have the the meeting minutes now. That's kind of at up to

[14:57] this point our record of what we've talked about and and areas of concern

[15:02] that have been brought up in the past, but I'd love to keep a running table

[15:07] spreadsheet of concern locations that this board has brought up. maybe track

[15:11] what has been done or hasn't been done and have that at our ready for each of

[15:16] these meetings. So, um, yes, please each, if you've got a list of and and

[15:21] I'll go back through the notes. I can start to build this list based off of

[15:24] our previous notes, but I'd love for you to send me an email and send it to the

[15:29] group and I can start building that table.

[15:40] uh just go back the chief mentioned last time the traffic uh plan and that there

[15:45] is a grant that's going to be coming I guess to work on this. So um I would say

[15:52] probably because of uh the interest uh from the chief and our responsibility

[15:59] that probably should be reviewing this and see what's been accomplished on the

[16:06] plan. um things that are still open and can they be done with in a time frame

[16:15] and a amount of money that's available. A lot of this stuff it's

[16:21] it's too expensive and the prices keep going up. But this is the hard copy.

[16:28] It's a lot of pages and it covers a lot of stuff and it's amazing what you'll

[16:32] find in there has already been proposed that we might think of.

[16:40] Where'd you get that? Oh, >> it's online.

[16:45] » So, I have the traffic safety plan on a flash drive or you can find it on the

[16:49] city's website. I believe it's on the public works page and you can just open

[16:55] it up from there, too. So, >> okay, sounds good.

[16:58] » If you want a flash drive or if you need me to print it, whatever you need, just

[17:01] let me know. >> Okay, cool.

[17:04] » Sounds like some more homework. Yeah, >> some late night reading.

[17:06] » Everyone going to stay up the tsp.

[17:12] » Thanks for bringing that up, Ken. It's a good call to action.

[17:23] Okay. Uh, any other roundt discussions? Oh, wait, hold on.

[17:30] I was looking at the wrong one again. I guess any other business from the board

[17:34] and then we'll open it up to round table discussion.

[17:39] Nope. I guess it's open to round table

[17:42] discussion.

[17:45] » I agree. That kind of felt like a round table discussion.

[17:50] » There are no other items. Uh let's move on to the police department updates.

[17:58] I >> think you all have in front of you the

[17:59] 20 25 yearin stats. Does anyone have any questions regarding those statistics?

[18:05] Oh, they don't. Oh, okay. Sorry. I thought that was in your packet. Um, I

[18:09] guess I'll read them off to you here. So, uh, from 24 to 25,

[18:15] traffic accidents that involved injury were they remained steady. There was a

[18:20] 0% increase. Traffic accidents with property dam damage were up almost 20%.

[18:27] Hit and runs were down about 9%. Uh traffic stops were down about 4%. Uh

[18:36] citations were down about 10 11%. Um parking citations were up a percent and

[18:43] DUIs were up about 6%.

[18:52] » Just to confirm that was 2024 to 2025. >> It was. Yes. Anyone

[18:59] have any other questions? >> And that's in the monthly report on the

[19:03] statistic page.

[19:11] » That's all I got.

[19:16] Thank you.

[19:19] Any

[19:24] I guess questions, comments from the board for chief.

[19:31] » Did you guys have any questions on the monthly report for uh public works or

[19:35] the police department?

[19:39] The only thing I noticed was the domestic disputes that almost 100%

[19:45] increase in in those >> from 135 to 23. That's a big increase.

[19:53] It happens.

[20:08] Okay. No other questions or comments. We'll move on to Is there anyone from

[20:13] the community on the call? Okay.

[20:17] » Nope. >> Yes. I will say last call for comments

[20:23] from the board, questions from the board. Otherwise, I

[20:28] » move to adjurnn. >> Motion to

[20:30] » motion to adjurnn. >> Did somebody else second it?

[20:35] I second it. And I'll go down the line.

[20:39] » Yes. >> Michelle,

[20:42] » yes. >> Daniel,

[20:43] » yes. Ben, >> yes. John,

[20:45] » yes. >> Yes.

[20:47] » Meetings adjourned.

City of Gladstone Traffic Safety Advisory Board Meeting January 26, 2026

Transcript