Selectmen reject call to remove Franklin Street bump outs
Published on October 1st, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - The Board of Selectmen refused last week to support any initiative that would remove either the bumpouts or the traffic signal along Franklin Street nearby Stoneham High School.
During their regular meeting on Tuesday night, the Selectmen stripped an article from the October Town Meeting warrant that sought to raise money to fund the removal of the sidewalk extensions.
Franklin Street resident John DeGeorge, who has spearheaded the unsuccessful effort to demolish the bumpouts, is sponsoring his own article to obtain funding for the removal.
Last August, DeGeorge urged the Selectmen to reconfigure the traffic light directly in front of the high school, arguing that the signal constituted a safety hazard for students and was causing gridlock on the roadway.
According to DeGeorge, the steady flow of traffic along Franklin Street is regularly impeded by the signal, especially during periods when only a handful of vehicles need to exit the school property.
In particular, during summer and after school hours, a single motorist can trigger the signal by driving over the pressure sensitive pads at the high school exit.
That in turn changes the signal, forcing the flow of traffic along Franklin Street to back-up to allow just a few vehicles out.
"The intent of the reconstruction of Franklin Street was to keep the traffic flowing, not to accommodate one or two or three cars exiting the high school," DeGeorge insisted.
The Franklin Street resident also outlined a slew of other issues with Franklin Street, including the adjusted alignment of the roadway just past the high school, nearby Weiss Farm.
In addition, DeGeorge claimed that the bumpouts were a hazard to motorists, that the right-hand turning lane and dedicated signal into the high school encouraged drivers to speed onto the property without concern for pedestrians, and that the traffic director nearby Dunkin' Donuts should be facilitating the flow of traffic out of Stevens Street during school arrival and dismissal times.
"It's the safety of the foot traffic that we should be looking at, not how fast we can get school traffic into [the parking lot]," said DeGeorge, arguing that the right-hand turn lane and traffic signal should be removed.
"School motorists will just have to wait and deal with the traffic just like everybody else does when there's an event," the Franklin Street furthered.
According to Selectman Paul Rotondi, while he understood DeGeorge's concerns - which are shared by other residents in the area - the board had received two recommendations in favor of the traffic signals and bumpouts from both Police Chief Richard Bongiorno and Safety Officer Larry Rotondi.
Rotondi implored his counterparts to heed that advise by keeping the current traffic and pedestrian measures in place.
"My position is this board would be irresponsible if we got a recommendation from our police chief and safety officer and then we said, 'We're not going to listen to you,'" the Selectman argued.
Veteran Selectman Robert Sweeney later agreed with Rotondi's assessment, claiming that the traffic signal, bumpouts, and other safety measures were instituted for a good reason.
"We didn't put that that light there because we had an extra pole at public works," said Sweeney, who rejected DeGeorge's argument that state officials advised against the installation of the signal. "The idea of putting a light there didn't come from the Board of Selectmen."
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