[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[9:36] This is a 31.25 million dollar project. It's a 80-1010 cost sharing. So 80% of this project is being paid for by federal dollars, 10% by the
[9:49] the U.T. and 10 percent would downfall us.
[9:53] So that's a quick intro from town standpoint.
[9:57] I'd like to turn this project over to Ernie Martin.
[10:09] Okay. Thank you, Rob. Hopefully everybody had a chance to sign in back there on the sign-up. She'd be great if you would, if you haven't, just to get a number of count. How many of you actually attended the open house downstairs and got a little feedback? Thank you for that. That's kind of why we do the open house is just to get information and we don't live here. I live here.
[10:30] hour that way, hour and 50 minutes out of way. We come down here, visit, look at the job,
[10:34] but we don't know the intricacies of the movement set out there from the residential area
[10:40] to the commercial. So you guys have provided us a lot of feedback so far so we appreciate
[10:46] that. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about just the project area. A lot of us know
[10:53] where it is. Based off the map, so you saw downstairs, you know we have root 302, so obviously
[10:58] We're doing some changes on 302 from River Road all the way to White's Bridge.
[11:03] For updating all the signals, we're updating some traffic patterns, we're adding an island
[11:08] from booties corner going north all the way to Franklin Drive.
[11:12] What that means is that there will be no left-hand turns allowed other than the signalized
[11:16] areas from booties corner to Franklin Drive to take those movements out.
[11:21] From there we got Route 35, we're going from Manchester to booties corner, so we're adding
[11:26] a signal at Manchester Drive at Route 35 and upgrading the road to booties corner.
[11:32] So 115 same thing. Intersection of booties corner all the way to the intersection of the
[11:37] east connector. We're adding a signal at that east connector as part of the process
[11:42] and rebuilding everything in between, rehabbing, everything in between.
[11:46] And we'll get into the design details here in a second. White spreads road same thing
[11:50] where the west side connector which is going to be an extension of Manchester Drive
[11:55] Connects into white's bridge all the way to 302 just an upgrade of that roadway 2302
[12:01] With added sidewalk facilities all these have added benefits of bicycle sidewalk facilities
[12:07] Westside connector we're gonna pretty much take off. We're meant to us to drive ends today and extend that to white's bridge
[12:14] Also upgrade the existing piece of being trusted drive as part of the project
[12:20] middle connector road part of that's gonna get developed
[12:24] from the Manchester Drive out to where the middle connector, which is going to be the third
[12:30] connector, which we're going to call middle connector comes down from Franklin Drive down
[12:34] into landing road.
[12:36] Everything right now that you've seen is very preliminary.
[12:38] We're about 25 percent.
[12:40] It's based off the study that the town went through along with main DOT to get where we are
[12:44] today.
[12:46] As Bob said, we received a raise grant.
[12:48] This kind of applied for collectively with the town.
[12:51] As Bob mentioned, it's a 31 million dollar project basically,
[12:55] and we'll get into the finances of that.
[12:58] So here with me this evening, I have my assistant, Jeff,
[13:01] to roll it back, Ethan Flint from VHB.
[13:04] He was going to talk about the design once I get done talking.
[13:07] 20 grind day from VHB.
[13:09] We're all here tonight.
[13:10] We doubt we're downstairs like I said at the open house,
[13:12] heard a lot of great input from everybody.
[13:15] A lot of good thoughts, changes that could be made.
[13:18] Can't promise they're all going to be made, but a lot of good things are going to make us adjust some things that you've already seen down there
[13:25] So once I get done I'm going to turn over to Ethan
[13:26] He's going to talk about the project design of all these elements that I just mentioned and then we're going to talk about the budget and schedule
[13:33] Where do we go from here? What's the next steps?
[13:36] Now we're getting into the Q&A
[13:38] So what we want on the Q&A is just raise your hand and then we need you to come up to the podium so we can get it
[13:47] it on the back table if there are any and I pause there if there isn't there's comment cards
[13:53] with self-gramps stamped address envelopes. You can fill in other things on that, send it in,
[13:58] it's got my name on the front to the DOT, I receive those, my emails on the bottom of the
[14:04] agenda as well, phone number there. So by all means reach out to me. This is only going to benefit
[14:10] everybody if I hear everything that's going on and try to come up with a solution with the town
[14:15] to make everything holistic. It's a big change. Whatever we do out there, traffic
[14:20] pads are going to change, boom, it's going to change whether it's east, west, north, south.
[14:25] They're all going to change. People are going to find different ways to get through this area.
[14:29] What that is, it's kind of right now in a crystal ball. We got some updated traffic numbers.
[14:34] Happening this summer to get more realistic data than the 2018 data that we are now working with
[14:40] because a lot of things have changed since 2018. You know, you start when COVID, I think the numbers
[14:44] just starting to come around from prior cohort to coming back in line. So we need those.
[14:51] So with that, also there's this information sheet back there.
[14:55] It has a lot of information related to the project on there. Again, take it home if something comes to
[15:00] When you read one of those, well, means reach out to me or the town. So with that, I'm going to turn over to Ethan and he'll walk us down through the design of all these options.
[15:13] Thank you, Ernie. As Ernie said, I'm the, I'm with VHB, the design consultant, the department is hired. And I'm the project engineer for this project, and I'll be walking through you through the technical presentation. It's great to see a big crowd here. I appreciate it. You all coming out.
[15:31] It's good to be post-COVID in doing these in real life and seeing real faces again.
[15:39] Sorry.
[15:43] So this project is a continuation of the Northman-Dem moves study that concluded in 2022.
[15:50] And our design is based on the recommendation of that study.
[15:54] And as Ernie said, the design right now is about 25%.
[15:58] So what that means is we took the conceptual plans from the study that were done on Aero
[16:02] and we've put them on actual 3D survey and just made small modifications at this point to present to you.
[16:11] The purpose of that study was to evaluate, analyze and improve local mobility and accessibility,
[16:17] while providing for safety and mobility along 302 and the Windom downtown district.
[16:29] That study built upon a lot of previous studies and utilized a lot of their previous designs and good ideas, so you can see a list of the previous studies that were included.
[16:47] The project location that is probably fairly difficult from those folks to see at this scale.
[16:55] But this is 302.
[16:57] Bring left right down the middle of your screen.
[17:01] This is the River Road End and then heading north to Raymond.
[17:06] The project limits on 302.
[17:09] We'll start at River Road and extend north to White's Bridge.
[17:12] And then on Tanberg Road, the project is going to start down here at the intersection of the new Eastern Connector and extend West through a booties corner to Manchester Drive.
[17:29] We're going to be building a new roadway called right now referring to the east connector and it's
[17:37] going to be start here at the intersection of Dunbridge Circle and extending north to the end of Franklin Drive which is here.
[17:47] Franklin Drive is also included in the project.
[17:51] Across from Franklin there'll be a new roadway that we're referring to is the middle connector.
[17:55] And then there's Landing Road, which that's going to intersect and is also included in our project.
[18:01] And then Manchester Road itself is included with an extension of Manchester all the way to White's Bridge.
[18:08] And then White's Bridge from the termination of the new West Connector slash Manchester Road to 302.
[18:21] You kind of went through this already, but you can see the total miles of each segment on your screen and adds up to a total of about 4.8 miles.
[18:39] One of the big aspects of this project is safety and on your screen you'll see the existing high crash locations.
[18:48] The Department defines a high-crash location as eight or more crashes in a three-year period
[18:56] and a critical rate factor of over one and what that last part means if you're not a traffic
[19:02] engineer is basically, is that location in a above average?
[19:08] So, you know, for instance, 302s of four lane highway, they compare it to other four lane
[19:12] highways with similar amount of traffic and are we seeing more, more accidents than we expect
[19:17] There. On 302, this red line is the locations that are deemed a high crash location.
[19:27] A lot of these have to do with left turns. Left turns from 302 into a commercial entrance.
[19:33] Left turns out of a commercial entrance on a 302, or someone waiting to make a left turn and getting re-rendered.
[19:41] the intersection of Abbey Road and Tandberg is a high cross location, and these just have
[19:49] to do with turning movements in and out of Abbey Road having to do with the queue from
[19:53] to backing up through that intersection and obscuring sightlines.
[20:00] There's a firm on the intersection of 302 and 10burg is also a high crash location.
[20:08] A lot of reruns at that location and the patterns there are just based on reflected intersection that's at capacity.
[20:20] And then the intersection of Manchester and Tamberg is the third high cross location intersection.
[20:31] And those intersections have to wear ends and left turns in an out of Manchester.
[20:42] On your screen, now you'll see some circles, these circles are all the symbolized intersections that are included in the project.
[20:51] The red ones are existing signalized intersections along 302 and the two blue ones here are new
[20:57] signals that will be added. One at the intersection of Manchester and Hamburg and the other one
[21:03] at the intersection of Hamburg and the New Eastern connector. All these intersections will be upgraded to
[21:13] adaptive signals, which mean that there will be some communication between them and there will be adaptive
[21:18] as the child of patterns change and also have preemption with emergency service vehicles.
[21:25] The colored lines for the various roadways, the green lines, to note the areas where we
[21:32] are milling the pavement service and then repaving it. In addition to that, there will be sidewalk
[21:40] improvements, drainage improvements, adding some raised
[21:44] medians in some locations.
[21:46] The red locations are new roadways.
[21:57] Now on your screen, you'll see some blue areas.
[22:00] The blue areas are adding new sidewalk.
[22:05] And the red areas are areas where we're going to be adding new
[22:09] shared use path.
[22:11] So in the shared use path, we'll be a 10-foot paved path
[22:14] for bikes and peds.
[22:15] So, along Manchester, we're going to be adding a new shared use path on the south side
[22:22] of White's Bridge, along the middle connector and Franklin Drive and the Eastern connector.
[22:30] One area that's not depicted here is this small section of landing road, and we'll be adding
[22:36] a stretch of shared use path at that location as well.
[22:40] So when this project is done, there'll be ped facilities on both sides of each street, either
[22:48] a sidewalk or a shared use path, with the exception of white sprays, we'll just have
[22:53] a shared use path on the south side and nothing on the north side, and landing road, which
[23:00] has some existing sidewalk, and then we'll be adding the new 10 foot shared use path
[23:07] between the new middle connector and Manchester drive.
[23:16] So now I'm going to start zooming in a little more and going through segment through segment.
[23:19] So on the screen now you'll see the first section of 302 from River Road to the intersection of Tamberg.
[23:29] The colors on the screen you'll see a lighter yellow.
[23:33] There's this denotes where we're going to be milling the existing pavement and overlay it when you see a deeper yellow.
[23:38] That means that we're either reconstructing the roadway, building new roadway, or taking the payment down to gravel.
[23:50] Route 302 is going to be composed of 11 foot travel lanes and a three foot shoulder.
[23:56] In this section here, we're going to be widening on the east side of the road adding an additional lane and converting the middle lane to a continuous two-way left turn lane.
[24:09] to allow pockets for folks to make left turns.
[24:14] We'll be constructing new five-foot sidewalk on the west side of the road,
[24:19] where sidewalk doesn't exist today, and we'll be reconstructing the existing sidewalk on the east side of the road.
[24:27] In this section here, we're going to be adding a small stretch of retaining wall,
[24:34] adjacent to the stock house parking lot,
[24:38] And that's too allow for the grading with the additional winding for the additional lane without impacting the parking lot there.
[24:49] And then you'll also see that we're adding new raised meeting that's going to extend back from 302 to the area around Amados.
[25:06] Moving ahead now on the screen, you'll see the section of 302 from Tampered to Franklin Drive. Once again, this area will be a million overlay with 11 foot travelways and three foot shoulders. Again, we're going to be adding new five foot cyborg on the west side of the street and reconstructing the five foot cyborg on the west side of the street.
[25:28] Um, throughout this whole segment on the screen, we'll be adding new raised medians, um,
[25:37] that at their narrows will be about four feet wide and not their widest will probably
[25:40] be about 16 feet wide, um, and that's to prevent a lot of rough turn movements that are
[25:48] that are causing the accidents there.
[25:50] And in addition to that at the intersection of Franklin, you'll see that we'll, we're going
[25:54] be removing the right turn slip plane and adding a bus stop pocket there.
[26:10] Now for the
[26:10] last section of Route 302, this is from Franklin to White's Bridge. Again, it's going to
[26:18] be a lymphoot travel lens. In this section, the shoulders vary a little bit into the three
[26:23] to four foot range. Again, we're going to be adding new sidewalk on the west side of the road and
[26:29] constructing sidewalk on the right side of the road. The east side of the road.
[26:42] Moving on, this is Manchester Road slash the west connector. This is the section that exists
[26:48] today from Canberg to, you know, lows. This section will be a million overlay. It'll be a
[27:00] run for travel lanes and five foot shoulders. The road is actually going to be narrowed slightly.
[27:05] the shoulders out there existing are a little wider than five feet, and we're going
[27:10] to be adding a new five foot sidewalk on one side and a ten foot shared use path on the
[27:16] other on the opposite side of the street, and these will be separated from the row row with
[27:20] a six-squid S1 on. And as pre-vosey stated, there's going to be a new signal here at the
[27:27] beginning, at the intersection of Manchester and Tambur.
[27:39] Here's the second half of the West
[27:40] connector, which is going to be an extension of new roadway at the end of where Manchester
[27:45] ends today, extending all the way to Wright's Bridge Road.
[27:50] So this is where Manchester ends today, and we're going to be extending it.
[27:55] And it's going to have an S curve where it's going to be coming into the CMP right away power
[28:03] quarter.
[28:08] There's going to be connections to trails n-road, trails of n-road is right here, existing
[28:13] it, it makes its own as curve here.
[28:17] We're going to be adding connectivity at this location, and at this location, and then also adding an entrance to get to the parcel at this location.
[28:29] Again, there's going to be a five foot sidewalk on one side of the road, and a 10 foot shared use path on the opposite,
[28:36] and those will be separated by six foot astronauts.
[28:43] So, I'll bring it over to the other side of 302, this is the east connector, this will be a brand new roadway.
[28:50] Again, it's going to be run foot, travelway 5 foot shoulders.
[28:54] There'll be a 5 foot sidewalk on one side and 10 foot shared use path on the other, again separated by a 6-lanet split on.
[29:02] There'll be a new signal at the intersection of timbert, there'll be a new intersection with sambar road.
[29:10] The plan right now is for Sandbar to have a stock condition on either end and the east connector itself will have a through movement.
[29:21] We're going to re-align veteran memorial drive. You can see the existing alignment here and we're going to re-align it to better connect to the existing parking lot.
[29:41] Now, on screen, you'll see the stretch of Franklin Drive and the middle connector.
[29:49] For the middle connector shown here, we're going to raise the Evo Sushi in Stakehouse
[29:57] to provide for the new construction of this roadway.
[30:00] The middle connector, again, will be 11 foot trial rows, 5 foot shoulders. It will have a 5 foot sidewalk on one side, and a 10 foot shared use path on the other, again separated by 6 foot on us.
[30:14] This will be a new leg to the existing signal at Franklin Drive, and there will also be a new intersection at the other end of middle road, as it connects to landing road.
[30:29] Franklin Drive will be a mill and overlay, I'll let them put travelways, three foot shoulders,
[30:38] but we're still going to have the five foot sidewalk and ten foot shared use pass separated by a six foot
[30:44] that's been on, on you've said.
[30:51] Now, looking at a tambourine trail, this is on the west side, this is Manchester Road on the west side of your screen,
[30:58] 302 on the right side.
[31:01] This section of Tamberg will be 11 foot travel waste 8 foot shoulders.
[31:06] We're going to be constructing a new 5 foot sidewalk on the south side and you'll see
[31:14] the new raised median at the intersection of 302 extending back.
[31:26] So I'll open over to the other side of Tamberg on the east side.
[31:33] This will be a mill and overlay as well.
[31:35] This is the intersection of 302. This is the new east connector on on this end.
[31:41] This will be your on foot travelways six foot shoulders.
[31:45] Again, we're going to be adding a new five foot sidewalk on the on the south side of the roadway.
[31:52] And adding a new raised median at the intersection of 302.
[32:03] Looking at white spridge. This is the end of the west connector slash the Manchester Road extension.
[32:10] This is the 302 on the right side of your screen.
[32:14] Manchester Road will see you've been milling over a little bit of foot travel waste
[32:19] five foot shoulders and we're going to be adding a 10 foot shared use path on the
[32:22] south side of the roadway but no sidewalk on the north side.
[32:27] We'll also be widening the road in the area of the west connector to provide for a
[32:32] left turn line turning on to the west connector.
[32:42] Stepping through the intersections now you'll see the intersection of River Road and
[32:46] 302, as I stated before, all these existing signalized
[32:51] intersections will be upgraded to adaptive signals
[32:53] with a emergency vehicle preemption.
[32:58] There's beyond that for this intersection,
[33:01] there's going to be no significant changes
[33:03] to the pattern out there today.
[33:09] Here's the intersection of 302 in Hamburg.
[33:12] This signal again will be updated to be an adaptive signal.
[33:16] You'll see the dark yellow on the screen, in this area, we're going to take the pavement down to gravel.
[33:25] And the reason for that is that the DOT has seen distress pavement with the large volume of traffic,
[33:35] just deformations in the pavement wheel-riding with the starting stop traffic.
[33:42] And you'll also see that there will be adding race, race medians on all four legs of this intersection.
[33:54] Here's the intersection of 302 and landing road.
[34:01] Where again you'll see that the new race medians on 302 running left or right.
[34:08] We're going to be removing the right turn, slip lane.
[34:11] So this lane, here will be a through right lane.
[34:15] So, that lane now will be the lane used to make the right turn into the window mall.
[34:29] Here's the intersection of 302, Franklin Drive and middle connector.
[34:34] The middle connector will be a new fourth leg.
[34:37] Of the intersection here, you'll see EGLE's sushi and steakhouse that will be demolished to make way for this new roadway.
[34:47] You'll also see the new shared use path coming down Franklin Drive and Canadian,
[34:51] and connecting to the shared use path on the middle connector. Those will also connect to the east and west connectors.
[35:00] Further off the screen. And again, you'll see the new raise median on 302 and the middle connector itself will have a raise median.
[35:16] Here's the intersection of white spredge.
[35:23] This signal will be updated to be in a depth of signal as well.
[35:29] And again, you can see here that the new shared use path on the south side of White's Bridge,
[35:35] that will let'll run between 302 and connect into the shared use path on the West Connector.
[35:46] Here's the intersection of the Tamber Trail and the West Connector. This will be a new signal location.
[35:52] It's currently not signalized today.
[35:56] This is the West Connector here. This is Tamber Trail here.
[36:00] You can see the new shared use path on the West Connector sidewalk on the opposite side.
[36:04] And we'll be constructing cyborg on the south side of Tanberg, and reconstructing the cyborg here.
[36:15] And we're doing that because we're widening out Tanberg to make way for a right turn lane into Manjester slash bus connector.
[36:30] And finally, here's the last signalized intersection. This is, again, a new signalized intersection. This is the east character here.
[36:38] This is tambouric trail. This is donewards circle, which would be the fourth line for the intersection.
[36:46] The eastern connector will have a raised median for the first couple hundred feet.
[36:53] And you can see the new shared use path on the east connector and side block on the opposite side.
[37:00] So just, you know, summarize all these new intersections, again, will be interconnected with adaptive control, so we'll see some boost to efficiencies there.
[37:13] There, there will be new pedestrian push buttons, all these intersections, two facilities,
[37:22] head crossing the intersection, and all the crossings will be upgraded to be ADA compliant.
[37:29] And
[37:34] with that I'll turn it back over to, or I need to talk about project schedule.
[37:43] Okay, thanks Ethan.
[37:45] So within that packet up back there with all the information on it, we also have a detailed
[37:49] schedule for you.
[37:51] So tonight, here we are, for my public meeting, we're also at draft preliminary design of
[37:56] the project, that 25% that we've been talking about.
[38:00] So what's next, we're going to, we've taken a lot of comments already, a lot of good comments,
[38:05] we'll hear some more here in a minute. We'll go back to the ground board, we'll go back
[38:09] together and turn on the DOT, VHB in the town, talk about some of these comments, see if
[38:16] we can implement some or change things to modify the current design you see, to make things
[38:21] a little bit better. So what do we go out to that? After that we have what the color draft
[38:27] design report, where we start implementing a little more design aspects in the project, the
[38:31] your tech information, right away information, the utility information. Along with the utility
[38:36] information is there's a separate project going on right now to report on water with
[38:40] that wastewater treatment facility. We have to dive in with them, get one more details
[38:44] on what their intentions are with the project work with the town to make sure whatever we do
[38:50] kind of coincides with what their needs are out there in the in the road or external of the road,
[38:56] just to make sure we're not doing too much
[38:59] to prop a new one is independently.
[39:01] I want to work together to make sure we do it once
[39:03] and once only.
[39:04] So we're going to be diving into that a little bit further
[39:06] moving forward as well.
[39:09] So we're going to get to that draft final PDR.
[39:11] So then you're going to see us again.
[39:12] Right now on the schedule, we're looking at trying
[39:15] to get back here February of 25.
[39:20] I think it's doable.
[39:21] As you can see, there's a whole lot of work
[39:22] associated with this project.
[39:24] And again, part of that, there's a list of stuff that's associated with what we're doing.
[39:29] There's a lot of elements that we haven't touched upon tonight that we're going to dive into
[39:33] to come a little clearer and a little more precise in the information that we give you moving forward.
[39:39] So from there, we're the race grant where we have obligation dates.
[39:45] If a race grant, if you're not familiar with those, it came from Senator Collins and Senator King,
[39:50] You know, they basically push forward with this application to get it funded for us, so we appreciate that.
[39:58] The other side of that coin, they, other coin.
[40:00] Point, they come with delivery expectations. So we have three years to deliver it. So which means I'm going to try to advertise this saying by October of 27. It seems like a long ways away it is, but there's a lot of work that we still have to do in those three year period. And the right away aspects is a big key there, as well as the environmental peace. There is a section in that hand out that talks about the environmental process that we have to go through. It's pretty, it's pretty laborous and intense just to get answers, you know, on some of the impact.
[40:29] that we are instituting out there. So with that, the constructability, that's a whole
[40:37] another dynamic. We'll have that final public meeting in February, March of next year.
[40:45] And then we'll probably come back, at least one more time to talk about that constructability.
[40:48] How are we going to roll this out to the public and how are these segments going to get built?
[40:53] What are we thinking? Again, that's another challenge on how do we build it without disrupting
[40:59] number one, the people that live there and the traffic that travels through and visits.
[41:03] So that's another element that we have to worry about.
[41:06] So looking at a completion of June of 2030, I think that's achievable.
[41:11] Looking at it in theory, I see the connector roads being built first.
[41:17] That way they'll want to see a complete traffic, which the traffic can be diverted to the side
[41:22] roads while we might need one or two lanes of that 302 segment to not allow or not to
[41:27] have nighttime work.
[41:28] I think daytime is probably the better way to go out there.
[41:33] That's Bob kind of alluded to on the funding.
[41:35] That raise grants 25 million, a federal dollars,
[41:39] and then there's state and local of 3.11, 3.125 million share.
[41:47] So a pretty good deal all the way around for both the town and the state
[41:51] to get that free money to improve all of our infrastructure that's involved here, which is a lot.
[41:56] All right, so with that, what I'll do is I'll turn it over to Q&A. I'm going to step away from the podium.
[42:02] If you want to win one person at a time, probably be best to start a line in the middle and come out one or two after the other ask you a question.
[42:10] If we can answer it, we'll certainly do so. So thank you.
[42:16] to be first.
[42:28] Hi there.
[42:28] I'm Kenshin Katama Residoon, the town, and I own a business on 302.
[42:32] I'll spell you name for me please.
[42:33] Oh God.
[42:34] Sure.
[42:35] C-I-I-N.
[42:37] C-H-E-T-T-E.
[42:40] Thank you.
[42:42] I just want to, I have two reasons to be up here.
[42:44] The first is, personally, obviously, I'm one of the property owners that the project
[42:49] is looking at acquiring with the middle connector road.
[42:53] and Eric Scherke, which is a restaurant right there on 302 right across from Franklin.
[42:59] I appreciate, I'm very特別 to some Bob and Ernie and everybody, and you guys
[43:03] have had a lot of conversations, and other probably the middle connector road has the most
[43:08] disruption, obviously, to already developed parcels, and I appreciate you guys I've sounds
[43:13] pretty promising that you guys are trying to rework it to have the best use of the land.
[43:18] So, you know, on behalf of myself, I appreciate it, when I once we have basically anglers
[43:22] that WEDC did a few years ago and they did a great job kind of working with the
[43:26] property owners to make sure that they improve the safety and traffic and work with
[43:31] the property owners to improve their lands too so that way it was better use and fit.
[43:35] So definitely out here in support of the project from my perspective obviously so
[43:44] ones were moving in good faith and I believe we are which is great.
[43:47] So thank you guys for that. I appreciate that the second hat I'm wearing tonight is
[43:50] and I don't look as good as Robin Mullins, but unfortunately she had to take off, so Robin is the president of our chamber of commerce locally.
[44:00] She had to take off unfortunately, but she just wanted me to speak on behalf of the chamber and the concerns of the chamber to make sure that everybody is aware of it.
[44:09] Effectively, the biggest concern that the chamber has for the small businesses is the median, obviously going right down 302.
[44:16] I think the concern by the businesses is it would look like North Boston Route 1 where you can only go on the way and you can't get across the road.
[44:26] Obviously in our district and in our town here we are beholden to the seasonality of it.
[44:32] And so we need to make sure that we preserve those businesses by ensuring that they don't lose sales unfortunately.
[44:37] If people can't get easily to one of these businesses then there's a potential discourage motorists and they'll just go to the next one or they'll just say
[44:45] forget it and they'll just, you know, not get that ice cream at the very clean or they, you know, won't get their coffee at Dunkin or whatever the case may be.
[44:53] So that's definitely a big concern. It sounds like with the workshop earlier that there's definitely a lot of plans going in place.
[45:00] So I definitely would say on behalf of the small businesses, we recognize that definitely 302 needs improvements to the traffic, totally on board of that.
[45:13] It's matter of making sure that we're doing it not at the cost of the small businesses in this town that really kind of make it the special place that it is.
[45:20] With that, I thank you guys and I just want to put that out there and I appreciate your time.
[45:24] Thank you.
[45:36] Hi there.
[45:37] My name is Mark Chigier, and my brother and I own three commercial buildings, 765
[45:43] Roosevelt Trail.
[45:45] So, I plan to find this building, post office building, and U.S.
[45:49] Solio building.
[45:51] Have a couple of comments, and some questions for you, but thank you for tackling the
[45:58] problem.
[45:59] It's got to be, it's got to be solved.
[46:00] There are a few things that I might share with you.
[46:07] When you guys look at the sidewalk width is what 5 feet on each side on 302.
[46:16] Why are we encouraging pedestrian traffic on that safety corridor problem?
[46:24] I don't know who can take that question, but it seems like instead of putting these barriers
[46:29] in for the small businesses, it would be better to have a turning lane and eat those that
[46:35] sidewalk with for a turning lane down the middle, assess how that turning lane works when
[46:42] it comes to crashes. And then if it's still a problem, while the barriers can go in after.
[46:49] But once you put these barriers in, trying to take them out to put in a turning lane, it's a problem.
[46:54] And from our perspective, we have one of the lights on 302 that dumps into our parking lot.
[47:02] And so what happens right now from Abbey Road is you get major cut-through from 115 through Abbey,
[47:10] racing down that strip in front of the post office and then up a long lighthouse to get to that light.
[47:16] What you're going to do by putting these barriers in is you are going to push a ton of traffic into our parking lot.
[47:23] Because if you want to get to O'Bashan or busybie or the restaurant, so the furniture store,
[47:29] you're going to have to take a left on that line, which is going to back up traffic in our parking lot.
[47:36] And you're going to force people like Eric and I to take actions within our parking lot that will disrupt.
[47:43] We could potentially disrupt how traffic works on 302.
[47:48] Because we have obligations to the people that are paying our tenants that are paying us rent
[47:52] For small businesses to make it work for them, they want an efficient parking lot, they want efficient parking.
[47:59] They want their customers to be able to come in and enjoy the space that's there.
[48:04] And so when you push that additional traffic into our lot, I could say, if I were dairy queen or I were KFC, it's a death meal for those businesses, they're in trouble.
[48:15] I know they had reached out to us and they said hey to Eric and said can you take up those
[48:21] jersey barriers between planet fitness and our businesses so weak our traffic can come through
[48:27] there but the problem for us is we do that and then we're incurring the problem, you're just
[48:34] taking the problems that are on 302 and you're putting it into our parking lot and so the safety
[48:40] concerns that are out on the road now come into a heavily congested shopping center.
[48:47] So I'd ask you to think about that and, you know, some roads, they shouldn't be pedestrian
[48:54] friendly.
[48:55] I don't think that safety corridor should be pedestrian friendly, you want to get pedestrian
[48:58] friendly.
[48:59] Definitely do it with the connectors because there's going to be less traffic running along
[49:03] there.
[49:04] But making that pedestrian friendly and adding cross locks in there, I think you're making
[49:09] worse and you're probably gonna compound the problems for pedestrians for pedestrian car impact.
[49:21] So when we think about these bypasses, so for locals the the the connector that goes from
[49:29] tanburg trail up Franklin is a no-brainer that makes a whole bunch of sense. But if the goal for this
[49:37] project is also to ease traffic in through that corridor. For locals, punching the connector,
[49:46] instead of paying for the road that goes from, I think it's landing road all the way out to
[49:52] white's bridge, the money would seem to me to be spent better taking the connector all the time.
[50:00] We'll pay up from Canberra, trail to River Road to let the locals get off on River Road by pass all that traffic on 302, especially Lake's region traffic, right?
[50:09] I mean, you guys know what it's like on Friday, Friday evening, right? Thursday, Friday, Saturday, evening, trying to get up through 302 as a nightmare.
[50:17] And that would alleviate a lot. If you're looking for quality of life for the residents of Windham and for the residents of Raymond and beyond, I mean, that kind of seems like a no-brainer to me.
[50:27] Um, bus stop was a bus stop that I heard, does that a, um, oh, do we have, is that for a school buses or is that for bus service?
[50:40] Anyone?
[50:42] That was a location, um, it's called out in the study.
[50:47] Oh, I don't know.
[50:50] Do we have bus service for, like Portland does, though, or is that for school buses?
[50:58] So we,
[51:03] okay,
[51:16] okay.
[51:21] So I'd say the last thing is, you know, I know it's hard to sit in here because we're all,
[51:27] we're all impacted by this in some way shape or form and it's hard.
[51:31] I know you guys worked hard on trying to solve the problem.
[51:33] And again, I'd like to say that thank you.
[51:35] It does need to be solved and it does need to be tackled.
[51:39] You know, I feel like a solution to this would be
[51:45] to eliminate sidewalks, put a turning lane down the middle, that's where you get the extra
[51:51] footage for that by eliminating sidewalks, not making a pedestrian friendly, and assessing
[51:56] down the road, are we still having these problems? Are we still getting these rare and
[52:00] accidents and is the safety still a concern? Because once we put in these barriers, there's
[52:07] no going back. We're stuck with them. And right now, the small businesses and the gentleman
[52:13] that spoke before me, you're really going to impact these businesses in a way that is not
[52:19] user-friendly for them. And we already, we are. Windom is the lakes region place to shop,
[52:26] right? So we're at, this is where people come. And this isn't business-friendly in any way
[52:31] shape or form. It's business prevention is what's going to happen. So I fear for that.
[52:38] And that's all I have to say.
[52:41] Thank you.
[52:54] Good evening, Ingrid Lavasser.
[52:58] So my thought was,
[53:01] 302 is too congested.
[53:03] And now you have these two connectors
[53:06] or every column, these east and west.
[53:10] And that should be taking away a certain percentage
[53:14] of the traffic on 302.
[53:19] So if it's taking away, let's say each one reduces the traffic on 302 by 15% or 20%.
[53:30] So if each one reduces it by 15% then that's a total reduction of 30% or potentially 40%.
[53:38] percent. So if you're reducing the traffic on 302 by 30 or maybe 40 percent, have you
[53:48] done the math on that, what does like with that now make it safer by having less cars
[53:56] traveling on 302 so that you might not need the barriers that prevent the left-hand turn.
[54:04] Thank you.
[54:16] Hello everybody.
[54:17] I'm Steve Napolitano.
[54:18] I'm a resident of Wendom.
[54:19] I also own a business in Wendom, which is Dairy Queen.
[54:23] I appreciate all the effort.
[54:24] I'm taking place.
[54:26] I appreciate the DOT to be here tonight.
[54:28] I do believe that the goal is to try to make North Wendom better.
[54:36] Fair enough.
[54:37] I'm going to try to be as diplomatic as the previous people talking and I'll do my best.
[54:46] I'm going to explain to me the definition between or the difference between the definitions of a bypass and an access road.
[55:04] Generally an access road is providing access, you know, to whatever it's intended to provide access to and a bypass is a route around a more congested area.
[55:15] Okay, so there's restriction on an access road or a bypass.
[55:22] Which has more restrictions?
[55:23] I don't know if the roads are classified in that manner, they don't, they don't, they don't.
[55:31] Yeah, when it, I don't know if this is working or not, but when it comes down to the access
[55:36] roads, the other thing here, the east side, west side, connector roads, they're now going
[55:41] to become local roads, the state's not responsible for access management, that's something
[55:46] that we've been in discussions with the town, they have to stand that when they put these
[55:50] access roads in, the uses are going to change, could change, I don't know what there, what
[55:55] there ordinances today, but you got probably residential multi-use commercial and beyond
[56:01] different types of applications out there that could be adopted. So that's something that
[56:10] the town's going to have to manage once he's get implemented. I don't think there's any
[56:14] answer to that question right now that there will be as we make our way down through design
[56:19] into the end of design.
[56:21] I'm sure the town will have a plan
[56:22] in place to come up with probably a better answer to your question.
[56:26] Okay, so like the meaning I attended January 2022,
[56:30] I was thrown around the word bypass was thrown around a lot,
[56:33] and the goal was to alleviate traffic.
[56:37] So the bypass in North Cornway,
[56:39] it's a bypass. Do you see anything built up there?
[56:41] No, the one in gray, that's a bypass.
[56:44] There's other than solar panels, right?
[56:47] what's the push traffic on. That is not happening in this project. What's whoever is spending millions
[56:52] of dollars here. And then the town is going to take on the burden of maintaining all that.
[56:58] Okay. I get really scared when I start seeing a minute domain where businesses are taken away
[57:05] because it can happen to any of us at any time. I heard demolished waste, egosushi.
[57:14] I don't know
[57:17] Is that fair enough to say and take that?
[57:22] No, we haven't.
[57:22] We haven't gone down that path yet.
[57:24] That's something that we haven't dove into yet.
[57:27] So in that meeting, January 2022, a councilor said there's nothing going on in that business that should be no problem.
[57:32] Okay, people can go back and watch that meeting.
[57:35] So yeah, that has a concern because that's power that I feel is abused.
[57:41] The main department, or the study that was done,
[57:45] Buddhist corner, we mentioned nine accidents. I believe that was, it's at a three-year period,
[57:53] but it was really the numbers were coming from the lockdown. I saw the traffic. It wasn't
[57:58] sane. I've never seen anything like it. It's easy to take the statistics and then go after what
[58:03] you want to accomplish and create what, when I went to a meeting several years ago, when this whole
[58:10] started in the little meeting house from. And the theme was to build the main street to be proud of.
[58:17] The goal was to slow down traffic. And I got free pizza that night. And that's really what's happening
[58:26] is we're creating a couple of boxes. Excuse me, access roads. We're going to build up businesses,
[58:31] apartments, bike lanes, and we're going to slow down traffic. In that meeting back in January 2022,
[58:37] we're talking about traffic coming down from gray, it's going to take that bypass and it's
[58:42] going to slow it, is going to take away traffic from 302. I don't think that's really
[58:48] the case here, I think we're building a little city. And if that's what you guys want, I believe
[58:54] in transparency, just put it out that way. I don't see how emergency vehicles are going to be
[58:59] better coming through booties corner. I mean, it's tough right now for them to get through
[59:07] I do have a question on the telephone poles on the sidewalks, they do need to be repaired.
[59:12] Right now there are a lot of them in the middle, so it does make it hard for people to go through, is that going to be fixed?
[59:21] Yeah, until the coordination will be a part of this project, I don't have an answer for you at this point, but it's still pretty early on,
[59:28] but yeah, the department policy is to provide at least a forefoot clear with at a pinch point.
[59:35] Okay, is it going to go back on to people's property?
[59:37] or that that's something that we'll have to coordinate. Okay.
[59:46] When I mentioned the
[59:46] racetracks delivery trucks come in through not every business is open at the
[59:50] same time businesses don't go one at a time at a time at a time they go when
[59:54] people are in there and there's going to be racetracks going in they're going to
[59:57] go all the way down to lows come around.
[1:00:00] Home Depot, you know, go around. And you're just going to just create way more commercial traffic in the area. And I just don't think it was well thought out.
[1:00:09] In the morning, traffic usually just goes to Portland. So it's easier for the commercial vehicles to go in. So a raised median strip is going to cause that problem. If you had a lower where trucks could go over it, 18 willers can, you know, they can make the turns. I think if you're going to do that, I think that would be a better option.
[1:00:28] Okay, just trying to offer a solution.
[1:00:31] Also, back in January 2022, we mentioned why not do a test,
[1:00:36] import it, signs up, so no left turn from, I don't know,
[1:00:40] 4 to 6 PM on certain businesses that you have concerns.
[1:00:43] I offered to do it, okay?
[1:00:46] I didn't hear anything for the last two plus years about that,
[1:00:50] because it started to look like this through something a little bit more here.
[1:00:55] I remember talking to a counselor about this project and I was told that this project is happening.
[1:01:03] We need the money, the DOT said we have to fix the problem at booties corner.
[1:01:09] If we don't do that we don't get the money.
[1:01:11] Now, what I'm going to ask the DOT is that true.
[1:01:15] Is it contingent on fixing booties corner?
[1:01:20] I think from DOT in general was fixed in 302 in general.
[1:01:24] I don't think there was any threats or say, well, if you don't do this when I do it.
[1:01:28] It was a collective effort on this grant application.
[1:01:30] We did it together with the town.
[1:01:33] In the best interest of everybody, I know everybody's not happy.
[1:01:36] I know it's not going to make everybody happy.
[1:01:39] But the global project is going to be a huge improvement to this town.
[1:01:44] Yeah, so I was given an incorrect information.
[1:01:46] Thank you, by the way.
[1:01:47] appreciate that. So, we're going to have Metro that was also talked about in that meeting,
[1:01:52] which was touched upon. So, we're going to have buses again, so this is going to slow
[1:01:55] things down a little bit more. Remember, Barry, even before that meeting, we met that summer,
[1:02:02] and welcomed you. Oh, I'm welcomed you to the town. I've had some really good conversations
[1:02:07] really by the way, and I do have respect for you. We had a conversation, you said you were going to
[1:02:15] We're going to have one entrance and then have some sort of road based on a project you
[1:02:20] didn't.
[1:02:21] I still haven't heard from you.
[1:02:22] I know you're busy guy.
[1:02:24] I'd like to see if that is what you're offering.
[1:02:29] Is that still on the table?
[1:02:34] Two things.
[1:02:36] Steve, one, we did that their conversation and it's still on the table.
[1:02:41] The reason I haven't gotten to you because we needed to really take a look at the bigger
[1:02:45] picture of what this project might do, and then to evaluate wherever we could make interconnections
[1:02:51] between those businesses for better access and how that would work, so it's definitely
[1:02:57] on the table.
[1:02:58] Now I'm always open-time and conversation with you, so thank you.
[1:03:03] This project is going to devastate my business with the median strips.
[1:03:07] I'm not a big corporation, we have one store, we're family owned, we are employee, several
[1:03:13] people over the years, we've been there, our families had it since December of
[1:03:18] 77 and we want to stay. And this, if, when it needs to be a little bit more
[1:03:22] business-friendly, Dave, I know you said, when we have that conversation, you
[1:03:28] say, you don't shop at Windham in North Windham, you don't like the traffic. I hope
[1:03:33] this is going to help you so you can come and shop at our business because I know
[1:03:37] you haven't been really very business-friendly, but thank you guys.
[1:03:41] I
[1:03:47] just like to add one point about the bus pull out because I've heard the Metro mentioned
[1:03:54] that there's no plan at this time to bring the Metro to the town of Windham.
[1:04:01] The bus service that exists in the town is called the RTP and that takes folks.
[1:04:06] It's a very small bus and it takes folks all the way to Bridgeton and Back.
[1:04:09] It's been in service for a number of years and that's the bus location that was described
[1:04:15] I don't want folks to think that there's a big plan to advance Metro into the town, not that that's a bad option in the future perhaps, but right now it's we're talking about the RTP location.
[1:04:27] Thank you.
[1:04:29] Good evening, my name is Jennifer Harmon, and I spoke with many people tonight about my issue with this project and received many different answers and also heard many other residents had the same concerns.
[1:04:45] so I'm going to ask you as a group. Is it too late to extend this project to do something about Enterprise
[1:04:52] Drive? We have created a business district down inside there, many different businesses, many different
[1:04:58] types of traffic coming.
[1:05:00] And including big trucks. There is a turning lane so traffic can get in the middle of the road to turn, but there is very little breaks and traffic so people can get out.
[1:05:15] And I have seen such scary situations where somebody's coming out from the little strip across the street where Paul's boutique, the eye doctor, all those places are.
[1:05:26] So you've got people that are trying to watch both directions, and now they're also trying to watch across from each other, and it is very scary.
[1:05:37] And I know that there are limits to what we can spend on this project, but I think that adding this, I don't even know the distance, but adding on to our project to take into that safety issue would be so helpful to the residents of Windom that
[1:05:55] that work down there and also all the families that love to go to the ice cream dug out and
[1:06:02] need to get out of there safely.
[1:06:05] Go DQ though.
[1:06:07] Thank you.
[1:06:07] Good evening.
[1:06:22] My name is Roger Cody.
[1:06:23] I live at 105 Sandbar Road in Windom and I'm the president of the Sandbar Road Association.
[1:06:29] So I'm here on behalf of the 132 residents that live on Sandbar and it's very
[1:06:37] tripeteries that extends from 115 down to a little subagulate.
[1:06:46] It's pointless for me to sit here and say, we don't want this to happen.
[1:06:52] It has this pluses and minuses, but I don't want to get involved in necessarily detailing
[1:06:59] how it's going to be more hurtful than it will be helpful to the majority of the population that
[1:07:05] uses the wind em-roads.
[1:07:08] My concern is with the intersection and the upper part of Sandbar between the intersection
[1:07:15] and 115.
[1:07:16] So my comments are tied to that.
[1:07:19] The preliminary report showed that there was some 6,000 cars that would be shunted off
[1:07:25] of 115 and go down the east connector.
[1:07:29] It was kind of, you know, a thumb read, an estimate, 14% reduction in traffic.
[1:07:36] And so with that, I'm faced with the situation in trying to ensure the safety of the folks
[1:07:43] that live particularly in that section of the road, from the intersection where across
[1:07:49] a sandbar to the upper end up to 115.
[1:07:55] And so at this point, there are two stop signs that are going to be at that intersection,
[1:08:00] both of them are going to stop, stand bar traffic, and the through traffic is not going to be stopped.
[1:08:08] I understand the benefit of doing that, but to cut through a residential area, and there has to be some consideration for the folks who live there.
[1:08:16] In particular, the folks who live at Abbey, that is a, I think it's a 50 plus housing facility, right, condos.
[1:08:25] And then there's the, there's a vesta housing and so mixed group of folks there, but I do know that out of a vesta there are folks who are permanently in wheelchairs that wield the road on a daily basis and with their dog and they are going there through with walkers or crutches or they're just doing the best they can to walk on their own and sometimes that's more steady than some others.
[1:08:54] So it's a particularly sensitive area, and the reason it's problematic is because the way
[1:09:04] the connectors being constructed,
[1:09:08] gentlemen who spoke a couple of folks ago, said that
[1:09:12] the parking lot, where the post offices and the pet court, etc., swells with traffic.
[1:09:24] I mean, that area breeds depending on the time of day.
[1:09:29] Today, it's already an area of concern for us
[1:09:35] that drains that traffic onto Abbey Road
[1:09:39] and through Sandbar to get to 115
[1:09:41] because nobody wants to deal with the intersection at 115 and 302.
[1:09:46] Right? Can't blame them. Can't blame them.
[1:09:48] But it's problematic that even more traffic is going to be pulled through there now
[1:09:53] directly off a sandbar and from Abby so even more traffic on and down both of those areas.
[1:10:00] To get to the intersection, not to go home, just to get to the intersection.
[1:10:05] And vice versa, traffic that's been established around depot and in that area that's now going home.
[1:10:16] Forks to don't live on sand by any of the connectors.
[1:10:19] I'm going to use that intersection to get back to Ukraine, to get back to Abbey Road, to get back to 115 and go home and go to a great.
[1:10:27] Right? So, they're not going to follow the established path that you've got set up. It's just not going to happen.
[1:10:34] And it's a problem today. You said at the intersection of Abby and Sandbar today, you just be there 10 minutes.
[1:10:42] I promise you, you're going to kind of at least 25 cars that are going through there.
[1:10:45] And you're going to see various folks, right?
[1:10:47] In the morning, midday, in the evening, folks are walking.
[1:10:52] My life and I stopped walking that road. We stopped because we got too close to getting clipped.
[1:10:57] traffic is too fast and it's not going to be slowed down by the connector.
[1:11:03] Sandbar traffic is too fast. It's not going to be slowed down by the connector.
[1:11:08] So what we would propose is a four-way stop at the intersection of Sandbar and the bypass connector.
[1:11:16] The other problem that I'm seeing is that with the additional traffic,
[1:11:21] It's going to be pulled from 115 and from the shopping plaza that's going to funnel back into Sandbar.
[1:11:29] It's a real private road.
[1:11:31] We pay for the cost of repair.
[1:11:34] And that extra traffic is going to cost our members more money hands down.
[1:11:40] It wasn't built as a turnpike.
[1:11:43] It was built as a camp road and it got tired over.
[1:11:47] So it hasn't got the kind of base and the kind of thickness of pavement that's going to hold up to this kind of traffic.
[1:11:53] All that means for us, we're already dumping $12 to $15,000 a year into that road.
[1:11:59] Just to maintain it the way it is.
[1:12:02] Nothing to do with the problem of soft shoulders and just the additional wear and tear that's going to do that.
[1:12:10] We gave up the right to limit the traffic on that road when we signed the agreement with the town of Windom, the plow.
[1:12:17] Was it how do I trade off?
[1:12:19] I think, especially in light of what's going on right now.
[1:12:22] The other issue is that we've got future plans for moving the fire station.
[1:12:27] I heard earlier today.
[1:12:28] That was a good piece of information.
[1:12:31] Unfortunately, the fastest route to get out from where the new fire station is going to be is going to be to come through the connected that's going to cross Sandbar.
[1:12:40] got to do something to stop people from getting hurt.
[1:12:46] One of the things that I've paralleled our members around,
[1:12:49] I did it last, last June, we're going to have another meeting this coming June.
[1:12:55] Do we want to relinquish control of the upper part of Sandbar
[1:12:58] and turn over to the town?
[1:13:02] Fail, a agreement, whatever.
[1:13:04] There's a right of way through there that is tied to us
[1:13:07] and then the two sections on each side of it, we own.
[1:13:12] I don't think it's right for the project to push the additional costs that are going to be
[1:13:18] incurred with the extra traffic onto 132 households, some percentage of which are only seasonal
[1:13:25] folks.
[1:13:27] But they pay the same rate and they only use it for three months out of the year, it's going
[1:13:32] to cost more.
[1:13:33] So now I'll be faced with having to jack the rates up, which is never popular thing to do.
[1:13:38] That's why we had the town plow the road.
[1:13:40] That's why we've become up in that agreement to avoid a $30,000 or a year cost.
[1:13:45] So I'd really like to give the group that is going to be going through some of this
[1:13:50] detail and I thank you for the connection to get that information off to you and I'm
[1:13:55] just going to boil down my notes and send them to you in addition to my contact information.
[1:14:02] But these are things, these are serious considerations for us as an association.
[1:14:06] getting up a portion of the road, trying to come up with some traffic controls in light of the advantages that are going to come with the bypass.
[1:14:14] Okay, we give up.
[1:14:16] Let's make it safe for the folks who live there.
[1:14:19] They shouldn't have to change how they live.
[1:14:21] They're in the latter part of their lives.
[1:14:24] Leave them the hell alone.
[1:14:26] And let get put some controls in place so that traffic doesn't become dangerous in those areas.
[1:14:34] So those are the two things, that's a couple of other bits and pieces, but I think those are the two biggest considerations that I'd like for the group to look at.
[1:14:43] I'd also like to know how to keep in touch. I don't want to wait until 2025 for the next meeting.
[1:14:50] I'd like to know, and so that I can communicate it back to our group, what's being done with these safety issues on a ship of the road.
[1:15:00] That ends. You know, how are we going to deal with the influx of traffic and the associated costs? I for one don't want to pay the cost and I don't want folks to pass it on. I don't want to pass it on to them. I don't think it's fair. We're a private road and we pay the price for that. There are some things that are available to us from the town as a private road. And so I would really like this not to be another issue that say, well, you're a private road, you're just going to have to suck it up. That's not right.
[1:15:30] So let's give that some consideration and I'd like some but maybe when I send to you you can get back to me
[1:15:36] Let me know how do I keep tabs on these these issues so that I can feed it back to our membership?
[1:15:43] Yeah, and also on the agenda my email is on the bottom of that
[1:15:47] Yeah, so you can just send me an email if you want instead of send me a
[1:15:51] Perfect. I'll do that. Thanks very much for all the consideration. Thank you
[1:16:00] And one of the other things that we should probably mention is that we will all of the plans that we viewed that are down stairs.
[1:16:10] We will be making available on the website for the time.
[1:16:15] So we'll put them on as individual plans so that people can look at those, download them, do whatever you would like to do as PDF files.
[1:16:24] Yeah, I also related to that. I wasn't able to get our website up and running because we have a specific page for the North Wind and Project in general.
[1:16:33] So the other thing that you can do and I'll let everybody know that the town know and they can post on their website with a link.
[1:16:40] So when you go on to our website, you'll be able to sign up for 20 details.
[1:16:45] Excuse me. So if you go on there and sign up for updates, you're going to put your email in there.
[1:16:51] So anytime we update that website, you'll get a notification in your inbox that we're updating it.
[1:16:57] We're not quite there yet, and I apologize for not having it ready, but surely we'll have our website up and run
[1:17:02] where you can just add comments directly into that website, which will come to me.
[1:17:09] Hi, I'm Greta Pauling, and I work for the town of Windham.
[1:17:16] When I started here, my whole thing was pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure.
[1:17:22] This is what I'm here for. This is what I love and seeing things like this is really really exciting
[1:17:28] However, a lot of people have made really good points. I
[1:17:32] Got to say sidewall. No sidewall 1032 has merit
[1:17:39] Overcomplicating
[1:17:40] Streets that are supposed to be
[1:17:43] You know get you for point A to point B
[1:17:45] We don't want to create situations where people feel safe and they're not
[1:17:51] actually safe. And I think the connectors are amazing. I love the connectors.
[1:18:02] I'm curious
[1:18:02] as to when we're expecting businesses to start coming into those connectors because
[1:18:10] that's that like small town mainstream. I think it's kind of what we're pushing for
[1:18:16] on those connectors and that's fantastic. But for at least a little while, there's not going
[1:18:25] to be much on them. I'm just curious what the timeline is. Are we talking to people as far
[1:18:35] as breaking out? I mean, that land is privately owned currently, right? So are we breaking that
[1:18:41] are we selling that to different businesses? What's the process there?
[1:18:55] It is all privately owned, right? So it's a free market.
[1:18:59] Right. And what I can say, the only thing that we have talked about is access restrictions
[1:19:04] on the collector roads. So the current existing piece of Manchester drive.
[1:19:10] Right now, you can only have an entrance every 300 feet or 100 yards, right?
[1:19:15] limits the number of curb cuts, if you will, or driveway entrances, and should help to limit
[1:19:22] left-hand turn movements and delays in traffic. So the current standpoint would be to keep
[1:19:30] that same 300 foot curb cut restriction on all of the collector roads, perhaps with the exception
[1:19:39] of the middle connector as it already has some existing businesses on it.
[1:19:44] So that's the thought process right now.
[1:19:47] Those businesses, just from a walkability standpoint, are we going to have like a buffer zone,
[1:19:58] like a buffer yard?
[1:20:00] As far as the setback that the business is, how close can any be to the road? Are we talking, like,
[1:20:05] freeport? Are we talking, like Walmart? So, so the town has a active planning department, right?
[1:20:13] And, Steve Julio may be still in the audience. He's our director of planning, but any
[1:20:19] development that goes on will go through the planning process, right? And, uh, we'll have to, uh,
[1:20:29] is in the C1 commercial zone, so that's a special zoning district that has its own separate
[1:20:35] requirements for setbacks and buffers, and so it would have to do any development have to
[1:20:41] adhere to those criteria.
[1:20:45] Um, let me see, sorry.
[1:20:46] I have notes, but I'm having trouble finding them now.
[1:20:51] Shared use pads in sidewalks, both fantastic in the summer, what's the plan for them in the
[1:20:59] how are we applying them? What's the maintenance like in general? Do we have the
[1:21:04] plows for that? Are we getting them?
[1:21:11] They would be maintained in the winter. They
[1:21:13] would be plowed. Do we have the equipment for that? We have two trackless
[1:21:16] machines right now. It might warrant the addition of a third. It has to be looked
[1:21:21] at and as we get further along we'll make that determination. But yeah, there's
[1:21:26] going to definitely be with the additional miles of infrastructure that the
[1:21:29] takes on there definitely will be more duties that come from it.
[1:21:37] The other thing, most of our residents do not live in North Windham.
[1:21:43] I know we have apartments going in.
[1:21:45] We have other things.
[1:21:46] Other housing developments that are happening.
[1:21:50] But my concern is that a lot of this pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure is really great
[1:21:59] in a space that's kind of an island with the sea of difficult to navigate roads. And as someone who
[1:22:05] bikes a lot in Windom, our other roads are frightening, just like on. And I know that's a process,
[1:22:15] but is there an idea of next phases, you know, enterprises brought up that as far as going south or
[1:22:27] are any sort of things like that to just make it more available for residents to actually
[1:22:33] be able to enjoy all of the amenities I were creating. Is there a process for that?
[1:22:45] I think the question is, are we going to connect to all of these from existing infrastructure?
[1:22:51] So this is in a lot of ways, an island with pedestrian and bike, right? You know, we don't
[1:22:56] have sidewalks that extend long distances outside this area.
[1:23:01] It would be for folks in that area to access that area.
[1:23:06] So are there future plans to link up to bring,
[1:23:09] say the sidewalks and south wind them all the way up to north wind them?
[1:23:14] No, they're not plans for that.
[1:23:16] Honestly, that's a extremely expensive endeavor.
[1:23:18] So this is more to enhance the mobility for pedestrians
[1:23:21] and bicyclists in the north wind them area.
[1:23:26] I believe that was all that I had. Oh, Esplanauds. I got here in six foot Esplanaud do we have plans for putting things in the Esplanaud?
[1:23:41] Is that just a median? Are we doing planters are we doing trees? I don't know. I'm just curious.
[1:23:58] Yeah, I mean, we haven't really dove into those areas that with the town, you know, obviously,
[1:24:03] six foot, you could do, you know, five foot requirements for tree, tree plannings.
[1:24:08] We haven't dove into the idea of sidewalk lighting along these connector rows, but there's
[1:24:13] something that we get to get with the town in our own out.
[1:24:17] I just wanted to just double tail on your question about the properties on the connector
[1:24:20] roads. You know a lot of the questions that's related to that question can't be
[1:24:27] answered right now because a lot in some ways we're trying to nail down where
[1:24:31] exactly those property lines are and we put those connectorodes in kind of it's
[1:24:36] based off the study so a lot of people in the audience had a lot of great
[1:24:40] comments and questions that are where dissecting on those connectorodes. Hey can you
[1:24:46] push it this way a little bit. Hey can you push the roadway that way. So some of
[1:24:50] stuff's going to happen because, you know, in a lot of cases, we don't work, we're impacting
[1:24:54] them already enough, you know, so if there's a way to shift the roadway, which I think
[1:24:59] there are.
[1:25:00] A few cases, that means we don't leave them with an un-economic remnant, which we have to take the whole thing. I don't see any of that happening out there. I think it's just a matter of massage and things to make it work for all of us.
[1:25:13] Thank you.
[1:25:25] Good evening. I am Gary Plummer. I'd like to start by thanking the town officials and DOT for being here for including us in this conversation.
[1:25:36] Ernie and I go back at least a dozen years, maybe more, and on the River Old Project, I will
[1:25:42] say any in DOT were very, very responsive to the concerns of citizens.
[1:25:48] I've also been heavily involved with the covered bridge, and during that whole construction
[1:25:53] process, and I see Bob Bird tracking his head.
[1:25:56] He was very supportive, even before he was in Wendom, of the covered bridge.
[1:26:00] But I have had very, very good response from DOT with a covered bridge, just quick story.
[1:26:10] I checked the covered bridge at least once a week for any graffiti or anything.
[1:26:15] Last summer there was boards nailed on the outside of the bridge to facilitate access to the roof to jump off.
[1:26:25] 20 years ago, I might have climbed out there and taken the woods off, but instead I called
[1:26:31] the OT and within two days they were removed.
[1:26:35] So I've had a great relationship.
[1:26:38] The rotary gardens, we've done gardens at the rotary since 1987 and the OT has been
[1:26:46] very cooperative in terms of the things that we have needed.
[1:26:50] I say these things, because I'm optimistic that DOT is hearing what's being said tonight.
[1:26:59] I certainly agree with a lot that's being said, and just as a side note, when I served
[1:27:04] on the Windham Town Council in the 1970s, one of the major issues at that time was a three-out
[1:27:11] or two bypass to bypass North Windham. It's been a while in coming, but I think it's good that it gets here.
[1:27:19] it's just a matter of what compromises can be made, I share the concerns of the business
[1:27:24] people. I don't own a business on 302, but I am sometimes forced to drive 302 at times that I'd
[1:27:32] rather not. And it is a concern. And I guess one of the concerns is, is the process to move people
[1:27:42] from Westbrook to the Lakes region and just get them through a window, or are we really considering
[1:27:48] those businesses that are vital to our community. So I share those concerns. I share
[1:27:53] the concern expressed about the packing lot in the North Windham shopping center.
[1:28:00] I have a relative who lives in New Malibu, headmanor. And frankly, if it's between four
[1:28:06] and six in the afternoon, it's probably easier to cut through Abby Road and the packing lot to get
[1:28:14] back out under three or two. And a lot of other people are doing that. But this
[1:28:20] problems are ready. Because if you're the fourth guy back, you're blocking
[1:28:24] traffic at the light from the shopping center onto three or two. I hope that will
[1:28:31] be addressed. The median is a concern that I've heard expressed and I agree with
[1:28:38] it. But one concern that hasn't been expressed is what happens when there is
[1:28:43] crash. I mean, we're hoping to cut him back. Well, I'm not going to eliminate him. If there
[1:28:48] is a crash along that section, what happens with getting traffic through that area? Right
[1:28:56] now, they can close down lanes in the oncoming lane and direct traffic around it. But I don't
[1:29:03] think you're going to be able to push people over the median if we, if you have to go back
[1:29:08] Buddhist corner to start diverting people. I just can't imagine what a nightmare that will be.
[1:29:17] So I am concerned about that and I hope you know you guys have had a lot of experience dealing
[1:29:24] with medians and how you deal with that but that certainly needs to be considered and we need
[1:29:29] to be convinced that you've got it under control. Another concern I have which is in that area
[1:29:38] is 3L2 and River Road headed east. You've got that little short lane that goes in front of the old
[1:29:45] puff and stop, and the oil change place, which becomes a racetrack for people who want to get
[1:29:52] there faster than the people in the straight through lane. And that is a nightmare. I hope that is being
[1:29:59] addressed in all of the...
[1:30:00] This, and actually I'd rather see it addressed before 2030. If there's any possibility of addressing that. I do have a couple of concerns on the 302 card and that are not in this section. One of them is, do you have a timeline for the light going in it, Albeon Road and 302? Because coming out of Albeon Road, you take chances. And chances, I don't like to take, but got to get out, got to get there. And then the other one is, I know,
[1:30:30] there has been discussion of major changes at the rotary at Foster Scana. I have a personal
[1:30:36] interest because of the flowers there, but also I have an interest in terms of spending millions
[1:30:41] of dollars to solve a problem that may not be the problem that some think it is. So I don't know if
[1:30:48] there's any answers on the timeline for 302 and Albion Road and also where we stand on Foster Scana.
[1:30:55] Thank you.
[1:30:58] Yeah, I'll look into those two projects for you, Malbeon Road.
[1:31:04] The rotary, if we've talked about this, when you're going to Google Maps, you know what
[1:31:09] that rotary is called, don't you?
[1:31:12] When you're going to Google Maps and look at that rotary is called Ernie's rotary.
[1:31:17] Ironically, yeah.
[1:31:19] So that was my project as you know, Gary, I'll try to get a timeline for you as to what's
[1:31:24] going on with those projects.
[1:31:25] And I know you have my email.
[1:31:27] I do have your email.
[1:31:29] And will those other projects also be done like this where the public will have input?
[1:31:34] Yes, those those will be the they might be more of the virtual type public errands.
[1:31:41] I'm more of an in person type guy because it's it's more productive for me like the open house.
[1:31:47] And this right here we get more feedback from you who live here.
[1:31:52] which is more valuable to me than watching or answering questions on a on a computer.
[1:31:58] But I think these type projects warn it, those will probably be a virtual, but I can find out that as well.
[1:32:08] Thank you for having me, Ken Clark, Windom.
[1:32:10] I appreciate the opportunity to speak here, and I know all this stuff is difficult.
[1:32:13] Everything's a balance, and I appreciate the opportunity to view inputs.
[1:32:16] So we can just weigh pros and cons at different aspects of this project, which is big.
[1:32:21] When this whole started, I always pictured 302 is, you know, the gateway to the lakes, and I think we're trying to bring in a lot of the development, we put a lot of apartment buildings down there, which honestly, in my opinion, is certainly contributing to a lot of the congestion we're just adding to a problem that was already there.
[1:32:39] And the other thing is when we do have apartment buildings, and I know we're trying to find people to live, we know that, but they also do contribute to higher taxes, less business opportunities,
[1:32:50] for business people in the community and we just kind of fell out of the business as I
[1:32:56] think I feel being priced right out of the market. I have some commercial businesses and if
[1:32:59] I had 15 garages with a thousand square feet that had a bathroom and an office for local
[1:33:03] contractors to move into, I'd rent the heck out of them. But there's no place to put them. Down north
[1:33:09] wind him is just the if you have a thousand square feet of commercial space you can rent it out
[1:33:13] for about 1100 bucks. If you got residential, you get prices much money for it. So that's what's
[1:33:19] happening is people are just buying up the residential because the money in the
[1:33:22] investment is so much greater return and people honestly from out of state are doing it
[1:33:26] and these other big developers are coming in and it's crushing the businesses.
[1:33:30] I also feel that you know to put sidewalks and who's some other sentiments and guys
[1:33:35] had here is dangerous down there I mean I think people are going to be heard it was not
[1:33:39] designed to be a city I think we're trying to put a square peg in a round hole trying
[1:33:43] to make this a nice walk around area it's not it I know years ago they had the next
[1:33:47] picture of wind him down town and there was a picture of a dog and a one lady on there
[1:33:51] happy underneath the pine tree. I wouldn't want to walk my dog down there. Also, the buildings
[1:33:58] we've gotten were close to the road. I don't think they're attractive. I'm just being honest.
[1:34:02] I do think they're dangerous. You got pitch roof with sidewalks right there. That doesn't
[1:34:08] happen. I mean, at downtown Portland, you can walk to many businesses in a short distance.
[1:34:12] The way wind them's laid out. I mean, you want to go to Home Depot, get some wood, go to
[1:34:17] We even better get ice cream. You can't walk that. You know, it's not designed for that. The layout's not there
[1:34:23] So I think trying to turn into a city is just becoming a challenge and again, it's it's hurting the local businesses big time
[1:34:31] Okay, I'm gonna ramble on folks there with me
[1:34:38] I noticed in one of the examples here when we had the new apartment buildings next to Tamburgs there
[1:34:45] I don't what's going on, but there was a fire truck right in 302 and I don't know if that's because they couldn't access in the apartment building
[1:34:50] to take care of their person, whatever going on there, but it literally held up traffic on
[1:34:54] 302.
[1:34:55] So again, these buildings close to the road, aesthetically, I don't think we're all pretty
[1:34:58] dangerous.
[1:35:02] It's a lot of time. It's hot in the summertime and it's cold in the winter. I just don't
[1:35:06] homage to this downtown walk around feel we're going to get. We also put the ball field, it was a good idea
[1:35:13] where I was thinking about it because we didn't need a lot of fields in town. But we're like, gosh, I don't
[1:35:18] know how many ball fields are going to have a north window. If anyone's been to gamble fields when
[1:35:22] turn teams around. You've got 11 kids on one team. So they got two teams playing each other. That's
[1:35:27] 22 people. Then you got the two other teams coming in. They're going to play on that field. That's
[1:35:32] 44 people, 44 cars coming in for one ball field. I don't know how many ball fields we're going to have,
[1:35:38] but you could talk about a congested thing. I'll use that word. I mean, usually you go like
[1:35:45] And they got these ball fields off out out of town with a nice barn looking thing with snack bar in it and it's a great atmosphere
[1:35:53] I just I'm a little nervous I guess to see what these ball fields are going to bring for congestion downtown in the upper run
[1:35:59] I mean we got six or seven there right at least by Manchester it's right downtown
[1:36:04] I mean it it's not going to help the congestion
[1:36:07] That's been a decent course development so I guess I'm saying some of these things so everyone can really dissect and think about what we're doing
[1:36:14] before we just go ahead and do it.
[1:36:16] I do live on transit trails and probably maybe if you want,
[1:36:20] but I get all right to stand up and think what I will help
[1:36:23] my personal property more importantly,
[1:36:25] make sure we think we're spending money in a wise way.
[1:36:29] I do see the benefit of coming straight through and straight
[1:36:31] in and out that intersection where Franklin comes across.
[1:36:35] I empathize with the people on the sushi.
[1:36:37] I'm hoping that building can be pushed off and saved.
[1:36:40] And maybe a nice little business corridor
[1:36:42] could go through there which might potentially
[1:36:43] more business to that area. I think it makes a lot of sense to bring that up and connect it
[1:36:48] up in front of lows. And maybe a little business community can develop out of that and we can
[1:36:53] have some in this already in a pervious service. So it's incredibly inexpensive to develop. And
[1:36:58] along that same lines, if you take like from Pat's Pizza and put a little access road behind Pat's
[1:37:05] behind VIP behind Applebee's and pull that traffic out onto this intersection of this new revised
[1:37:12] It's written down in a section, you would get so many left turns taken away trying to
[1:37:17] head north on 302, you know what I'm saying?
[1:37:21] That area from Pat's Pizza.
[1:37:23] To me, also, Pat's Pizza is one of the most dangerous corners in town.
[1:37:26] You've got families leaving there and that sign blocks a lot of the vision and taking a left
[1:37:30] out of Pat's Pizza, especially at night in the winter time, the snow bank is there.
[1:37:34] Very scary.
[1:37:35] So, do something like this could eliminate that altogether.
[1:37:37] other. When I look at traffic patterns, I live on trails and there's not a congestion problem
[1:37:43] on, for perhaps pizza down to white's bridge. It's just not there. You can drive down there
[1:37:47] without a problem. It's not congested. It's up to say, well, they're going to come from
[1:37:51] white's bridge, and they want to get to 35. Yeah, they'll do that. It's going to be a straightaway
[1:37:55] flying down that back road. I used to have 28 deer in my yard. I'm down a six. See if you
[1:38:01] turkeys here are there, which is great. The development, but that little section behind
[1:38:04] low is not power line is a great place to walk, and the deal will be gone.
[1:38:10] You know what I'm saying?
[1:38:10] This is a balance to keep some nature.
[1:38:12] I did talk to a environmentalist, and he did quote general speaking this area's highly
[1:38:17] developed and I am supportive of any land conservation efforts for the benefit of our natural resources
[1:38:22] in fish, life, and habitats.
[1:38:25] And again, with that road going parallel with 302 in Sebegel Lake, we're messing with
[1:38:29] Sebegel Lake at this point.
[1:38:31] We all heard the phosphorus problems on highly lake.
[1:38:34] It's going to happen. You know, and don't we put up these things and we think it's all good and we address that
[1:38:39] Why gamble without and again? It's not a high traffic area. It truly is not and how long is that trails in road?
[1:38:47] I asked to wallet with the square footage. I never got an answer to be honest with you. You know how long it's going to be?
[1:38:54] The trails it will have a man chest at a wage bridge.
[1:38:58] What is it about half-mile-eaten at least?
[1:39:01] 0.56, 0.79,
[1:39:07] yeah, 1, it'll be approximately half of the mile.
[1:39:12] I think the existing one was 4.44 miles, and then the new was 0.56 miles.
[1:39:20] So half a mile.
[1:39:21] And again, it's running parallel with an area that's not congested right now.
[1:39:25] And I talked to you think, Ernie, earlier, and you said, well, a lot of people want to get from white sprues to 115.
[1:39:31] They can do that, just go and stand as neck road.
[1:39:34] Going around the back.
[1:39:35] Anyone coming off white spridge and going right is going to know if it's winter for something.
[1:39:39] And no one that lives on white spridge road, beyond white spridge, is going to go to the north wind and be a 35.
[1:39:45] So I don't believe in that philosophy, I don't think you're off.
[1:39:49] I take 35 sometimes even I'm going to river roads to go back on the other side.
[1:39:54] So again, I think there's some points that we can all consider here and again some other people
[1:40:00] You mentioned the monetary aspect of this road. I asked what it cost, Bob. You said 2 million. I can't be right.
[1:40:08] Okay.
[1:40:14] You think that's going to be $2 million, honestly, to build a half a mile road through three, three vernal pools.
[1:40:26] I'll have that guy paid my driveway, fool.
[1:40:32] So I'd like to get that square footage price.
[1:40:35] I'd ask for you guys for it.
[1:40:36] I didn't get an answer.
[1:40:37] So what I want to have them know it's a square footage on the road.
[1:40:40] And I'll try to be a jerk.
[1:40:41] This is all taxpayer money.
[1:40:43] Even though you say it's funded, we in this room have funded plans in Michigan.
[1:40:47] Other super fun funds that have been planned somewhere else.
[1:40:49] This is taxpayer money.
[1:40:50] And I know by a time I pay my income tax, then I come to the town.
[1:40:53] I'll write all my property tax.
[1:40:54] And then you've got your quarterlys to pay, this United States gets over 50% of our income.
[1:41:00] So we get a right to say, how much is being spent here?
[1:41:03] And just because it's someone else's, it's our money.
[1:41:05] It's not, it's our money.
[1:41:07] So someone mentioned these projects could use elsewhere.
[1:41:09] I think enterprise drive and mentioned that.
[1:41:10] That is a dangerous section.
[1:41:12] So let's just sit back and look.
[1:41:15] And again, what I'm talking about here,
[1:41:16] I think is going to alleviate a lot of the dangers from patch pizza down.
[1:41:20] It's going to create a little circle,
[1:41:22] to maybe keep more people in that little business court, a Shaw CVS, in their area, and maybe
[1:41:29] develop a few little garage minions.
[1:41:32] I like to do something like that, but you know, the cost of going through the stuff is a
[1:41:35] little bit crazy these days.
[1:41:37] So, anyway, that's all I have to say.
[1:41:39] Thank you.
[1:41:51] Hi, I'm Ken Fortnam.
[1:41:52] I've been on a residence on Whitebridge Road for over 43 years, and I like the project.
[1:41:57] Everything's looking good.
[1:41:59] It's going to help the locals get around a lot better.
[1:42:01] There's not going to help the through traffic much at all.
[1:42:04] The big problem we have here is when Raymond put in the lights on 302, about 20 years ago.
[1:42:11] The bottleneck is from widespread road up, and it backs up right through time.
[1:42:16] So I just curious to what kind of studies and PDRs are being done to address that.
[1:42:21] My opinion, that needs to be a 5 lane section with the center turning lane.
[1:42:26] all the way up to the sheriff's office, past Raymond Beach.
[1:42:31] That's where the congestion is, and it backs right up through town.
[1:42:36] Just curious if there's anything in the works for looking at that.
[1:42:42] There might be now.
[1:42:47] That's where a big part of the problem is.
[1:42:50] About 20 years ago, we didn't have this problem.
[1:42:53] Yeah, I can't speak on that because I don't think that was part of the study that
[1:42:58] analyze this you know a lot of times when these projects come to light and they get developed
[1:43:05] you know it's kind of like that the bait pad and the connectivity question you know a lot of times when
[1:43:12] these projects get developed like when that signal got put in and Raymond you know maybe they didn't look at
[1:43:18] the whole quarter at that point said well that's going to improve that intersection anytime we make improvements on these major
[1:43:24] quarters does like you know three or two against a lot of traffic it's very highly
[1:43:28] traveled from poor all the way to beyond right you know so anytime you make
[1:43:33] improvements like whatever we do here it's going to create problems in Raymond
[1:43:38] it's going to create problems south east and west you know because I know there's
[1:43:43] been a lot of comments about the mobility it's not going to help it is going to help
[1:43:48] it's going to help mobility all the way around it's going to push the mobility from
[1:43:52] it to these outskirts and cause all the problems that are going to create other projects.
[1:43:57] I know we've talked about what about that project, what about this project, all we can do
[1:44:00] is focus on one area and then we'll focus on this area, fix it the best we can and we're going
[1:44:06] to create problems around it. So that's just the way we do business these days. I've done a lot of
[1:44:11] these type projects and we fix that one and say well we've got a problem here, yeah I understand
[1:44:17] Because we improved this we just pushed push the problem. So it's a constant battle, but I appreciate they come and I haven't heard that tonight
[1:44:24] I'll take a look at what that signal was about and see if we can change the timing. What I see here is coming in from Portland coming in from standards and coming in from gray
[1:44:34] That's going to be benefits for all of that
[1:44:37] But anybody going toward Raymond and Cascill had bottlenecks right there and it just stalls everything
[1:44:43] So it's all I got
[1:44:55] I'm Heather Weaver, I'm representing KVP foods, you're kidding.
[1:45:01] Thank you very much, Steve, pretty much stole a lot of our funder and my boss couldn't be here today.
[1:45:09] So I, because concern would be the median strip and seeing all the maps and the presentation downstairs was wonderful.
[1:45:17] So thank you guys for that. Seeing all of the maps and how we're already diverting traffic from 302, which, yes, is clearly a mess, clearly something has to be done.
[1:45:26] limiting any access to our particular location.
[1:45:31] I could get into franchise agreements in what have you.
[1:45:35] We are a KFC with a Taco Bell connected on.
[1:45:38] Any loss of revenue with Taco Bell sales will automatically
[1:45:43] cause our brand to decouple, which would give you folks
[1:45:46] and random just to KFC.
[1:45:48] And everybody can say, oh well, you know, we'll still take KFC.
[1:45:50] It's great.
[1:45:51] Personally, I've decoupled restaurants before.
[1:45:54] And unfortunately, I had to shut them down within our state.
[1:45:59] The community wasn't happy, and more importantly, the staff that works,
[1:46:02] and lives in our communities, it was just got wretched.
[1:46:07] So basically limiting any access to our location.
[1:46:12] I'd more want to reconsider seeing how traffic is effective with the bypasses,
[1:46:19] compared to putting in media and strips first.
[1:46:21] That's all I have to say.
[1:46:22] Thank you.
[1:46:39] Hi, everybody.
[1:46:40] Beth Hall.
[1:46:42] We're talking about the commercial zone in North Windham and I very confused with what's commercial
[1:46:50] zone and what's residential zone.
[1:46:53] So I think with 150 units or whatever being proposed by Shaws, we don't really know what
[1:47:04] residential units are supposed to be coming in the future besides that.
[1:47:11] I guess I'm referring to the going back to the RTP bus situation.
[1:47:18] And I do disagree with sidewalks and a bus transportation pickup or drop off right there at booties corner.
[1:47:28] So I would assume that we were going to need more than that.
[1:47:34] Transportation, probably the metro and coming down the road and probably parking lots situations and
[1:47:46] Shopping areas would be where people should be safely getting picked up or dropped off.
[1:48:04] Hi. I'm Tina Richardson. I own 35 trail trails and and 55. No
[1:48:11] 55 trails in the 32 keys. I sorry
[1:48:16] which is going to be the bypass for white spridge okay I don't have all the
[1:48:24] questions of all the local things or not but I do have a concern because I
[1:48:29] have a grandchild that's five years old she's autistic and that road's gonna be
[1:48:35] planned to go right directly by our house which scares me half to death and it's
[1:48:41] just my grandchild. There's people that live up on White's Bridge that that road's going directly by,
[1:48:47] that have children. You know, so this to me might not be you guys to me. This is a huge danger
[1:48:56] because she's the type she has to have quietness. She can't handle chaos. So, and I've got hard for years,
[1:49:06] years to keep that place calm. I've even had cops come and down there because people would come down to a 32 keeps way and
[1:49:14] then to lies the house that we was trying to build breaking windows and you know, it's just
[1:49:21] just respect all the way around
[1:49:24] It's finally not like that anymore and you guys bring that road down through plus side walks for people to come
[1:49:30] I have these people come and back this respect in the property again. I have
[1:49:34] We have three fox dins. We're very big animal lovers. I have three fox dins down there that we love to watch.
[1:49:43] We have deer that come walking through the yard. Just as calm as they can be.
[1:49:48] We have the bald eagle coming through. We have falcons coming through.
[1:49:53] We have tons of wild turkeys, tons of, we have the turtles that come in.
[1:50:00] On lay their eggs there and we are always trying to protect them to keep them from getting merged and stuff. Not important to a lot of people that are very important to us. I don't want the road myself because I don't think that it needs to be a road down that way. It's not. It's really not going to help with the congestion. That's not where the congestion is coming from. I don't know what else to say and I don't mean to sell me. I'm just a very concerned grandparent and my granddaughter.
[1:50:30] is the most in main reason. I'm saying this. I don't want her in danger in any way, and to me,
[1:50:37] this is causing danger to her. I have to say thank you.
[1:50:47] Hello, I'm Wesley Richardson. I'm Tina's eldest son. Her grandchild as she speaks of
[1:50:54] My daughter, she's autistic, five years old, she stims a great deal from loud sounds and
[1:51:03] such.
[1:51:04] Any traffic noise sets her off all the time.
[1:51:07] She has to deal with that if she goes to school, out on any therapy that she needs, and
[1:51:12] this only saves place to really get away from out.
[1:51:15] Every day troubles, it's home, this is the only, her only refuge is to be at home.
[1:51:24] And Paul, I apologize if my voice breaks, this is a very important matter for me, of course.
[1:51:31] But I don't see how this West connector specifically, I don't see how that is going to help with it.
[1:51:37] Any of the traffic, when we go through there, as my mother stated,
[1:51:42] we have American ball decals coming through, much a lot of wildlife, especially turtles that come lay eggs in the soft sand,
[1:51:51] especially on the west side of the poll line, which is closest to the 32 keeps way property.
[1:52:03] And as we've already, as she's already spoken for, there is three properties that come through,
[1:52:11] and that it goes through three of our properties, especially.
[1:52:17] And
[1:52:20] sorry folks, this is, but we just, this you have been a wildlife boat.
[1:52:28] Just wrapping up, and to expand on what Ken was saying as well, it is already, over
[1:52:34] the years disrupted, the wildlife that comes through less, less deer.
[1:52:39] It's just such a serene place that we've had fourth-generate currently, fourth-generation
[1:52:44] tax payer in this town. Great grandparents, grandparents and parents, and it just seems
[1:52:54] like theft. I apologize if that's too much too big, too big, strong of a word, but it feels
[1:53:01] like theft from my family who's doodifully paid taxes in this town. And that's about all
[1:53:08] I have to say on that and thank you.
[1:53:11] Thank you for your time.
[1:53:12] And also, I apologize, folks.
[1:53:15] I would like to thank everybody here, because this open mic.
[1:53:19] This means a lot to us.
[1:53:20] To me and my mother and the rest of my family who wasn't able to be here.
[1:53:25] We'd like to be able to have this open conversation.
[1:53:28] Thank you.
[1:53:29] Thank you.
[1:53:45] I have a couple of comments and questions.
[1:53:49] The safety data that was brought up there, I heard a lot of references to that, and specifically
[1:53:54] rear ends, and for me, the concern for us, obviously, are the medians that are going to go in.
[1:54:01] And I'm curious, how does putting a median in there prevent rear-round accidents?
[1:54:09] T-bones, kind of cross-tooling, it's traffic, I see that, but I don't know how medians actually help that particular issue.
[1:54:18] So I'm curious about that second question is were there any alternatives to the raised islands that are being proposed there and if so what are they?
[1:54:27] I know for some suggestions out here, but is there anything else out there or is this it?
[1:54:32] Third question is so construction is out three years with a completion six years
[1:54:39] The budgets 31 and a half million. We know what's going on with inflation these days. What are the contingencies?
[1:54:45] built into this thing, because it would seem like this is going to be a way more
[1:54:48] whether, I mean if we've built this thing out and it's 31 today, a 31 and a
[1:54:52] half today, it's going to be a lot more than that by the time we finish this. So
[1:54:56] are we prepared for that? Where does that come from? Is it windom?
[1:55:00] This is going to end up putting that additional bill, or is it state, public not the feds, right? So it's going to come back on us.
[1:55:08] And then last comment would be the hand referred slip lane removal was kind of surprising to hear that.
[1:55:15] Only because when we're talking about through traffic, that slip lane helps getting the hand referred net whole plaza and removing that and puts everybody at that light to stop behind people that may be trying to get up.
[1:55:27] you know, more northbound rather than just sliding in the handbrake, leaving some of the
[1:55:32] pressure on 302. So I was confused by that. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
[1:55:44] Hi, my name is Jay Hackett. I'm a property owner on 302 and I also wrote a random
[1:55:48] window. Um, you just, I want to stress the points you brought up. That's slip lane.
[1:55:53] That bus stop should be on a connector road. That's so important to everybody.
[1:55:57] Getting everybody off 302. My other big concern is mediums. You've been here in that a lot.
[1:56:02] I don't have a problem, mediums, you just need to add to this project and add some
[1:56:06] mutants.
[1:56:07] We have to be able to turn people around and come back.
[1:56:10] Just not been addressed here, brought it up last year, brought it up tonight.
[1:56:15] You're going to just dump it.
[1:56:16] You're going to take the problem of three or two traffic and put it in the parking lots.
[1:56:20] Everybody's brought up, everybody lives here, knows that.
[1:56:24] Without a turning lane or a muter or a roundabout or something, there's no way to go back
[1:56:29] and forth on three or two.
[1:56:30] So how far are you going to go?
[1:56:32] You're going to go to Westbrook to turn around.
[1:56:34] You're going to go to Raymond.
[1:56:35] I mean, you have not addressed that.
[1:56:37] It's been brought up over and over.
[1:56:40] I don't have a problem.
[1:56:40] Put the meetings in.
[1:56:41] Stop left hand turns.
[1:56:42] Give us.
[1:56:43] Take some other people's land.
[1:56:45] Put it place to have a roundabout.
[1:56:46] Turn around.
[1:56:47] So we can come back down three or two of the other side.
[1:56:49] You have to do something to address turning around and coming back.
[1:56:52] And it's not fair.
[1:56:54] To the people that are on the private businesses that you keep talking about.
[1:56:56] It's not going to want an extra 4,000 people going in their turn on their parking lot.
[1:57:00] Mark, you get it, it doesn't want it, it's parking lot.
[1:57:03] Shaws doesn't want it in their parking lot.
[1:57:05] You're just taking a problem and dumping it on private land owners on both sides.
[1:57:09] If it's going to be a state and it's good for the town, it's good for the state.
[1:57:13] We need this happen, but you've got to address that one issue.
[1:57:18] Or leave the meetings out, and let the connector roads do their job, relief 30% of the traffic
[1:57:23] can leave no mediums and let people go the way things are going. That should have leave.
[1:57:28] If you take 30% of the traffic off 302, you've already done what you wanted to do.
[1:57:32] Just stop the rare engines and stop some of the accidents.
[1:57:36] So you leave the mediums out or leave them in, but give us a place to turn around.
[1:57:42] So I've got to say.
[1:57:55] Okay. Well, I'm going to say it again. Like I started off tonight.
[1:57:57] You know, we appreciate we meeting everybody around this table right here.
[1:58:01] The town obviously the town's got a little more insight than DOT because we don't live down here
[1:58:07] We don't see everything going on. We come down as much as we can to take a look when we design these things
[1:58:13] But you know the personal personal
[1:58:15] Personal effects of what we do is important to me
[1:58:18] What we do this I can't say we're gonna fix everybody's personal
[1:58:21] Personal thoughts tonight, but I think there are some things that can surely correct the bulk of them
[1:58:26] Like we've talked about these are just pretty much based off that concept that was done during the planning for
[1:58:31] process. A lot of the stuff wasn't dove in at that level because typically they don't
[1:58:36] dive that deep into this type of stuff that we're talking about tonight. So it's my job
[1:58:40] or DOT's job or you know collectively up here with working with the town to collectively
[1:58:46] put these thoughts on paper and come over something that I think will work. I feel confident
[1:58:52] that we can. You know we're not going to fix everybody's concerns as impossible.
[1:59:01] There's
[1:59:01] why trying to do something like this. But again, thank you all for coming. You all have my
[1:59:07] information in Bob's information. We're probably the points of contact for DOT in Bob for the
[1:59:13] town. We're still listening. You know, from tonight we have a lot to digest. We'll get together as a team
[1:59:19] Pull it together, so thanks again for coming.