Tag: Route 6A Sidewalks

Newsletter: July 24 2023

Fourth of July Parade:  It seems like weeks ago, but thanks to every­one who helped out with the Vil­lage Parade.  And thanks to those who par­tic­i­pat­ed and watched.  We were lucky to get our parade in between the rain.  And Thanks to Kate Arm­strong for this photo.

Office Hours:  I am restart­ing office hours at Stur­gis Library, the first Wednes­day of the month, 3:00–5:00.  Come by with you ques­tions and com­ments on any ideas or thoughts you have.

Town Coun­cil Meet­ing:  Thurs­day the 20th the Town Coun­cil meet­ing last­ed from 6:00 to 11:20.  The room was packed as there was a pol­i­cy change pro­posed that would have changed the lev­el of vote need­ed to approve zon­ing changes for hous­ing in a Reg­u­la­to­ry Agree­ment area.  The effort was to bring the town’s vot­ing into align­ment with the State Hous­ing Choice pol­i­cy.  Instead of a 2/3 vote to approve a reg­u­la­to­ry agree­ment, it would have been low­ered to a major­i­ty vote.  Many res­i­dents came to show their dis­like of the change.  In the end, the Coun­cil vot­ed to with­draw the item.  This change was not man­dat­ed by the State and I did not see any rea­son to change our lev­el of vot­ing.  If a project can­not con­vince 2/3 of the Coun­cil, then maybe it needs to be be redesigned.  As in a sim­i­lar case in Fal­mouth, the devel­op­er may come back with a 40B pro­pos­al, which is a State pro­gram where a devel­op­ere­can include 25% afford­able hous­ing and bypass most town review and zon­ing reg­u­la­tions.  Stay tuned.  The next Town Coun­cil Meet­ing is August 17th.
Sur­vey­ing:  You may have also noticed two sur­vey crews work­ing on 6A west of the Vil­lage. They are doing pre­lim­i­nary work for design of new side­walks. The hope is to keep DOT mov­ing for­ward and to sur­vey, design and per­mit this sec­tion of State road so it is shov­el-ready for con­struc­tion when funds are avail­able. Hav­ing had con­ver­sa­tions with the work­ers, they have to mark every tree and obsta­cle 25′ from the cen­ter line and they still have a lot of work to do.  They have also assured me that the pink spray paint they are using is not per­ma­nent.  
Sew­er work:  The work by Robt. B. Our con­tin­ues on the pump sta­tion at the Old Barn­sta­ble House.  There have been a few work delays wait­ing for parts to be deliv­ered, but work is now pro­ceed­ing. The Freez­er Road Pump sta­tion at the har­bor is also begin­ning a com­plete over­haul due to age.  The first step is to dig a hole in the park­ing lot to install bypass pumps. This is nec­es­sary so the sta­tion build­ing can be shut down as there is a lot of elec­tri­cal work that has to be done inside the build­ing. The tim­ing is not great, but con­trac­tor sched­ules are not always flex­i­ble.
Har­ris Mead­ows Pedes­tri­an Cross­ing:  Last newslet­ter, the curbs were rebuilt and the road was wired for new signs. The flash­ing bea­cons are on order, but they are at least a month out.

Wilkens Lane Hous­ing:  The Fire Depart­ment has been doing inspec­tions and walk-throughs dur­ing con­struc­tion and the water has been turned on in build­ing #1.  As for oth­er build­ings on adja­cent land, there have been no offi­cial fil­ings or inquiries that I am aware of.

BARNSTABLE FIRE DISTRICT
WATER DEPARTMENT

1841 Phinney’s Lane
P.O. Box 546
Barn­sta­ble, Mass­a­chu­setts 02630
Phone: 508–362-6498
Fax: 508–362-9616
www.barnstablefiredistrict.com
bfdwatersupt@barnstablefiredistrict.com

The Barn­sta­ble Fire Dis­trict Water Depart­ment is plan­ning to replace
a Fire Hydrant near 3667 Main Street. To safe­ly per­form this work,
we need to shut off the water main from Com­merce Road to Mary
Dunn Way. This will affect res­i­dents off Main Street includ­ing
Coun­ty Farm Road, Cap­tain Murphy’s Way, and Adri­an Way. This
work is sched­uled for August 2 nd or 3 rd . The Dis­trict is call­ing all the
res­i­dents that will be affect­ed by this shut down. The shut­down
should last 6–8 hours from 9 am to 5 pm. Please call the Water
Depart­ment if you have any ques­tions or con­cerns. Thank you.

This is a new Bridge on the Trayser Trail, behind the Coast Guard Muse­um and the Black­smith Shop.  This bridge spans a sen­si­tive wet­land area and it has been a long-time dream for Doug Payson.  With the help of many peo­ple and groups includ­ing, the New Eng­land Moun­tain Bik­ing Asso­ci­a­tion, the town’s Land Acqui­si­tion and Preser­va­tion Com­mit­tee and the Town of Barn­sta­ble.  Thanks to all.

Newsletter: June 5 2023

Wow, Sat­ur­day was some cold.  The wind blow­ing out of the north, no sun, who would have pre­dict­ed that, espe­cial­ly with the ocean tem­per­a­ture in the mid 50’s.  I vis­it­ed the EV Expo at the Trans­porta­tion Cen­ter and it was wicked cold.  I did get to ride an elec­tric assist bike for the first time and enjoyed it.

Side­walks

Just before I was to send this out, the Town got word that a crew will be mak­ing some side­walk repairs along 6A next week.  The work will take place between 6/7 and 6/13. Three small sec­tions will be improved.  The address­es are 2110 Main Street, 2390 Main Street, and 2875–2895 Main Street.  These may seem like minor work, but it is progress and we are now on the  MA Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion: DOT, radar.  DOT is in the process of hir­ing a design­er for the whole side­walk project.

The oth­er news about the side­walks is that the DOT has con­tract­ed for elec­tron­ic cross­ing signs at Har­ris Mead­ows.  At the same time they are rework­ing the curb and then they will paint the road.  This has been a long time com­ing and I had to push to get them to do it before sum­mer as they were wor­ried about work­ing on 6A in June.  I assured them that the improved safe­ty of the cross­ing would out­weigh any incon­ve­nience for vil­lage res­i­dents and visitors.

You may have noticed the repaving on Hyan­nis Road.  This was nec­es­sary as the Town DPW did so much drainage work along this sec­tion that they decid­ed to repave from 6A south to the rail­road tracks. There is no more planned work here for now.. The rest of Hyan­nis Road and Phin­ney’s Lane still keeps us all awake, but it is minor com­pared the sec­tion of Phin­ney’s Lane south of Route 132.  Con­struc­tion fatigue is a real thing in the active sew­er­ing areas.

Stay in Touch.

Newsletter: May 16 2023

6A Sidewalks

I love this time of year as I can work out­side with­out bugs.  But that will change soon as I found mos­qui­to lar­vae swim­ming in some stand­ing water.  So now is the time to emp­ty any buck­ets or any cran­ny where water can accu­mu­late.
I do not try to be a com­pre­hen­sive cal­en­dar of events, but if I am sent news I will try and get it out. 
Thanks to every­one who vot­ed in the Barn­sta­ble Fire Dis­trict Elec­tion and also thanks to those of you were able to attend the Dis­trict Annu­al Meet­ing.  
Stay in Touch.
 Route 6A Side­walks                                                       May 16, 2023 This is a com­pi­la­tion of the progress made along route 6A and the work pro­posed by the Mass Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (DOT). Improve­ments are hap­pen­ing, the long process nec­es­sary for all trans­porta­tion projects, is mov­ing for­ward. First, you may not have noticed, but the cen­ter and edge lines along the road­way have been repaint­ed and some reflec­tors have been added, most­ly along curves in the road.  This should make it eas­i­er for many of us dri­ving at night.  This is an exam­ple of main­te­nance under­tak­en by a gov­ern­ment enti­ty, which most­ly goes unno­ticed and unap­pre­ci­at­ed. Sec­ond, and I quote DOT, “…we are plan­ning to install a cross­walk and RRFB (Rec­tan­gu­lar Rapid Flash­ing Bea­con) across Route 6A at Har­ris Mead­ow Lane.  We have the final design ready and will pri­or­i­tize with our con­trac­tor for instal­la­tion hope­ful­ly before school gets out in June.  One poten­tial issue could be obtain­ing the RRFB itself, as we are expe­ri­enc­ing sup­ply chain issues with equip­ment of that type.  We should have a bet­ter idea on a time­line for instal­la­tion short­ly.     I have talked to the Dis­trict 5 Oper­a­tions Engi­neer and they are still work­ing hard to get this done by June 1, or ear­ly sum­mer. Also antic­i­pat­ed is a crew to scrape and clean the exist­ing side­walks this spring.  I point­ed out that there must be wider side­walks under­neath the present path and they should instruct their con­trac­tor to find the edges of the side­walk that exists under the over­grown sec­tions. I have been in con­tact with Kip Dig­gs, and Mr. San­tos (DPW) who sup­port the con­struc­tion project, and the admin­is­tra­tors at the DOT Dis­trict 5 office in Taunton.  Every­one is work­ing hard to move this for­ward. Here is the lat­est report from Bill Tra­vers at DOT:   “With respect to the side­walks along Route 6A, as I’m sure you are aware we are mov­ing for­ward with the design of the side­walk between Old Jail Lane and Route 132.  We are in the process of secur­ing a con­sul­tant to do the design, and the first step will be for them to obtain the field sur­vey.  This should begin lat­er this sum­mer.  Once a sur­vey is obtained, the design­er will then devel­op con­cepts for the side­walk along the cor­ri­dor.  We will be meet­ing with the town and oth­er key stake­hold­ers in the devel­op­ment of the design, and we will also be doing pub­lic out­reach meet­ings.  The project will like­ly have impacts to trees, walls, shrubs, fences, etc. along the road in order to build a com­pli­ant side­walk.  The sup­port of local offi­cials will be cru­cial to obtain fund­ing and advance the project for adver­tis­ing and con­struc­tion.” Bill said he was around when the sec­tion of the side­walk east of the vil­lage was rebuilt and that sec­tion was much less com­plex in terms of lay­out and obstruc­tions. Once this project is shov­el-ready we will need every­one to add their voic­es to the  urgency of  this rebuild.  If you want to express your con­cern and relay your sto­ries now you can do so.  Email Bill Tra­vers at DOT mailto:bill.travers@state.ma.us