Three incorrectly-sized speed bumps are being removed from Brook Road (two) and Main Street (one) in Warren as this week’s issue of The Valley Reporter goes to press.
The bumps were installed last week by Pike Industries and the hue and cry from local drivers was immediate, intense, and culminated in a full house at the Warren Select Board meeting this week where board chair Devin Klein Corrigan said the offending bumps were being removed and explained the process by which the bumps were installed.
Klein Corrigan said that offending bumps, which were the wrong size, were being removed and because temperatures no longer work for asphalt, the issue would come back before the board in the spring.
The speed bumps/humps and tables that the town wanted were to be 12 feet wide and 3 inches high and designed to be driven at 15-25 mph. What Pike Industries built were structures that were 6 feet wide and 5 inches high that cannot be safely driven over at the speed limit.
Klein Corrigan told those present that the board, after years of complaints about speeding, sought and received grant funding to work with engineers on traffic calming in and around the village. A final component of that work was to install speed tables and speed humps on Brook Road and north Main Street. The board took that action at a public meeting on August 12.
The select board was under the impression that its grant funding had to be used by the end of this year so when Pike offered to install the bumps/humps and tables last week, the board said yes. After this issue arose the town was able to secure an extension on using the grant funding.
“On the day of the install, we received word from our road foreman that what was being installed didn't seem like what we wanted. I responded almost immediately, and was told by the contractor that what we ordered was not allowed on public roads, and that humps could only be up to 7-feet-wide, instead of the 12 that we had marked out and asked for. In light of this, I asked the contractor to shave down the already built portions of the bumps as much as possible, hoping to improve the situation until we could get to the bottom of the issue. Following the completion of the installation, it became pretty clear that what was installed was not what we ordered,” Klein Corrigan said.
She and the board were in conversations with Pike throughout the weekend and reviewed the work, the contract, and their specs. They met with Pike on October 28 and decided to remove the structures that were incorrect.
Members of the public present had plenty to say about the speed bumps and how they experienced them. There were a lot of complaints and questions but the board was also credited by trying to address the issue of speeding in the village.
One town resident asked about appropriate speeds for traversing the bumps, questioning whether it was against the law to travel over the existing bumps at the 25 mile an hour posted speed limit. Town constable Jeff Campbell said that folks driving over the bumps at the suggested speed limits would not be breaking any laws, but said “you might break your car.”
Others present suggested different ways to slow traffic down, including more law enforcement, rumble trips, flashing lights, etc. Town resident Carl Lobel asked that the board bring this issue, and others, up at Town Meeting in March, putting the item on the warning so that voters could weigh in and decide.
Village resident Lisa Miserendino told the board that she came to the town offices to inquire about the process of how the bump locations were determined. She said that Behn explained it to her and the public hearings that were held.
“I miss the public hearings and I think it’s clear that wasn’t sufficient. You’ve learned your lesson. And just having a meeting is not public input because people can’t come or see something on the agenda. They don’t know decisions are going to be made. I would have appreciated something on Front Porch Forum or in the paper. Does anyone read the paper anymore? I don’t know, but people don’t know what decisions are going to be made,” Miserendino said.
Select board vice chair Camilla Behn explained that the board is tasked by myriad decisions all year long, some larger and some smaller and not all of which can be practically brought before the public for a full vote. She noted that the Warren Select Board needs to rely on the standard practice of warning the agenda for public hearings (so the public can know what the board will be discussing) and allowing the public to weigh in at those meetings and publishing the minutes. Warren’s public hearings, like those of Waitsfield, Fayston and Moretown are also aired on Mad River Valley Television.
“And I think with every question that this board, or any select board, answers, or votes on, I always sit here and think, ‘the taxpayers are the ones who really get to make the decision.’ So which questions do we take to the public and which questions/decisions do we make through public meetings? I mean literally anything you can come up with, is important to some people in this room, and you would want to have a vote. You'd want to have a town vote on it. We can't do that for every decision we make. So, we find ourselves in the position sometimes of having to decide without that, with only public meetings,” Behn said.
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