[Amanda Centrella]: So on March 29th, 2023, Governor Healey signed into law a supplemental budget bill which, among other things, extends the temporary provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st, 2025. Specifically, this further extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. The language does not make any substantive changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st, 2023 to March 31st, 2025.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Hey, thank you. So the January 29th, 2025 Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission meeting is being called to order. Secretary, will you please call the roll and send you the full list in the chat? Sorry. Come on. Oh, jeez, I don't know what's wrong with me.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay, here we go. Jareb Powell, not present. Bruce Kulik, present. Emilio O'Brien, not present. Ernie Munier, not present. Doug Packer, not present. Daniel Nuzzo-Miller.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Present.
[Bruce Kulik]: Noam Rivini, not present. Mary Kate Gufteson-Cleat, not present. Leah Grudstein.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Present.
[Bruce Kulik]: Rebecca Wright, not present. With no quorum, we are proceeding with an informational meeting at this time.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Sounds good. In terms of announcements, I have a few updates for infrastructure that I will cover later that pertain to some of the improved bike infrastructure that the city has been able to put in, and some updates about the grant that is connected to the bike racks. I will cover that at a later point. Aside from that, no other announcements on my side. Oh, aside from this will be covered later as well, WAC Medford did send a letter to DCR requesting changes to several of their intersections due to the fact that the crash near the Mystic Lakes, uh has sadly resulted in a fatality um after the fact so that is the only other update i have there so i'm recording there are no announcements as everything will be covered at a later item on the agenda okay that works uh all right so new board members um At this point, we are looking for new board members where we can get them. I am still trying to get access to all of the resumes that have been sent to the city. That is something that I need to follow up on, and I will do so with both Emily and Jared when I have an opportunity. I believe we are looking for I believe four to five new members, but we'll have to go over that at a later point since we can't make any binding decisions at this point. Would anyone like to suggest, oh, we actually have Mary Kate.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hey, Mary Kate. Mary Kate joined the meeting. At 7, 11 PM.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: All right, we were just getting started. And I've got my own list of things here. Bruce very kindly offered to take on the note taking duty just so you're off the hook. We were just on the first agenda item, new board members. I am in the process of trying to get the resumes for any of the interest that's been expressed through the city's website. I do not have any of those resumes at this point, but if anyone has a member of the community that they believe would be a good fit for the By commission, I strongly encourage them to send along. They can either send it along through the city or they can probably, if they need to reach out to get more guidance on where to send things, they could always reach out to the bike commission or me as the chair directly. Recruitment drive. I guess anyone want to say anything on that or we can we can skip over to a.
[Bruce Kulik]: 2nd, point 2nd, point it is.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: All right, so we're also looking for a new secretary. I've been trying to do double duty as the secretary setting up the agenda. In the meantime, it gets a little difficult juggling things and, you know, finding someone to do note taking duty. I would appreciate if anyone is able to, you know, either volunteer their time or perhaps know someone who might want to be a new board member who would be interested in being the secretary. So that's the only thing I wanted to say for the next point of order there. Anyone want to volunteer? I take that as a no. That's okay. I know we've asked everyone before. It's okay.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I don't mind the notes part. It's like...
[Bruce Kulik]: Preparation piece that I would just like bumble every time we might have we might have a good combination then Because I am NOT typically very good at taking notes because they talk too much and Then I listen and then I don't have time to record but I'm fairly good at keeping organized with like the formal Items the announcements the agenda etc. So and that's the secretary who does that correct, correct? Yeah, so, um, as long as you're willing to take the notes portion of it, I would be willing to take on the administration portion of it.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Is there anything special that has to happen? Like, after we take the notes, do they get submitted somewhere or are they already just like.
[Bruce Kulik]: They get filed and they're formally, we just approve them, but I've never known that we have to submit them to any place. Do you recall, Daniel?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: No, there's no submission that I am aware of. Amanda might know otherwise. But we keep the notes in a specific Google Drive that we keep. just for auditing purposes so they are available for anyone who needs them. Aside from that, there is nothing really to be done with notes aside from I rename them from draft to not draft when they get approved by the commission.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll take on the role of Secretary Pro Tem until the next meeting that we have a forum at and officially bless me as being the Secretary.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: That works. Thank you very much, both of you.
[Bruce Kulik]: OK, one second. Let me make a note here.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for volunteering so that I don't have to do it.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, like I said, I'm not good at note taking, but Mary Kate, if you're wishing to do it, good job.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: And remember, it can always be rotated around. It does not have to be the same person every time. Wonderful. Well, we actually got some progress on that point. So that brightens my day. So the speed camera bill, I'm not sure if everyone was aware, but I believe that there is currently a motion to reintroduce speed cameras or legalize speed cameras in the state. The last I heard, it was I forget the actual look that up.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: But I heard something about there being like a school bus pilot. It's not speed cam. It's any type of camera automated enforcement and the pilot would be like people sort of illegally passing stopped school buses.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Interesting. Okay, I will.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there actually a bill that's proposed in either the House or the Senate?
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: There's a streets blog article about it. I can try to find it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: It's a budget proposal for fiscal year 2026. The legislation also includes provisions to legalize the use of automated speed enforcement cameras across the state.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's all in the state proposal?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I believe so.
[Bruce Kulik]: Is there an H number or an S number?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: That's a good question.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, I guess that would be on the proposal itself. We don't need to worry too much about it. I just wanted to get as much information as I could.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Understandable. That's something I will look up and try to file at some point. While we can't make any decisions here, it might be... worthwhile considering how the speed camera bill might be applied to Medford, areas where it could possibly be applied. I believe that it says, I believe some wording I saw, it's one per 5,000 residents. So we would certainly at least be able to introduce a few. I'm not actually sure what our census would be.
[Bruce Kulik]: It would be 65 divided by 5, which is 13-ish.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Yeah, 13. I did not actually know what our census was.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'm guessing from the past that it's about 65,000.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: That's fair. So it might be worthwhile considering where those could be installed if the city ends up moving forwards with that and the bill moves forward.
[Bruce Kulik]: We would also want to know whether the DCR and other police agencies also are able to deploy them independently or if it's only municipalities that can do so. because obviously a lot of our streets are DCR streets and perhaps the ones that most could use speed cameras.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Very true. So I ever grab a pen when I need a pen.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Um, so actually, I have a question on that because I think I found 2 different streets blog articles and not like, politically savvy enough to tell if these are the same bill. So there's 1 that was written on January 2nd. Which. Is saying an act relative to bustling enforcement. So I got confused. It was not school buses. It was public transit agency buses. Enforcing bus stops and bustling blockage. And that was. Approved by voice vote in the house. Previously passed in the Senate. So it would have made it, I don't know, it would have made it to the governor.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't remember hearing that the governor has signed it yet.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Interesting.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: And so as the one we're talking about, I also see an article about a governor proposed one.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hmm. Is that later or earlier?
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, shoot. I deleted it by accident, which, which is not like, it seems to be just about all. Camera automated enforcement. That 1 is from 6 days ago and mentions taking effect on July 1st, 26. Oh, both of them. I am.
[Bruce Kulik]: I could look at the listing from the state that's in melegislature.gov, I think it's called, and it provides the text of the laws. So I could look that up and provide that to everybody just so we have the information directly from that website for at least for the next meeting.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: It might be nice to sort of understand a little bit more about What the applications could be for the next meeting, if they were going to decide to like. Officially supported or something.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, I'll take that upon to look it up and get that out independently. We're done with that.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I think so. Yep. I just wanted to bring that up. I guess I'll cover Walk Medford's DCR letter. Let me see if I've... So Walk Medford ended up putting together... Oops. Um, an official letter to the mayor requesting that. We push for complete streets and that we ask to have. The ability to, I believe, in 4th, let me see if this should. I don't have a great way of sharing this. I'm also not sure if this was supposed to be shared outside of just the mayor. But there is, so I won't share the. literal text, but there have been several requests for improvements along DCR roads that have been raised to the mayor in order to see if the mayor is able to negotiate with DCR to gain at least some limited form of influence, maybe I should say, over some of these DCR controlled roads. Several of these are ones that we have also discussed, so none of these would appear to be anything that we are not currently aware of, but It should be noted that I did as the chair, I did tell Ellery that I would be willing to sign on to this letter. So I signed on with that. There should be, I'm hopeful that it will end up adding on to like some impact to DCR. Sorry, I'm just sort of mincing my words at this point. But yeah, I guess basically I just want to bring this up as There has been a letter that I have signed on to as the chair of the commission.
[Bruce Kulik]: So for the record, I would put down that you are announcing you made an executive decision to sign the letter.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: That's probably the best way.
[Bruce Kulik]: And if anyone objects, we can bring that up at the next meeting. I don't think that anybody will, but that's the protocol.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Sounds good. Yep. Thank you, Bruce.
[Bruce Kulik]: OK. Could you provide a copy of a letter to maybe to the email address?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Yes, I can. Let me reach out to Ellery to confirm that she is okay with me circulating this amongst The, you know, the Medford bike commission, and then I will circulate that letter.
[Bruce Kulik]: So, as a matter of protocol, if you sign the letter. It would make sense that the members could get a copy just so they know what it is that you signed without approval. So, I would say that's kind of tacit approval that you get provided to the committee, but if you want to check with her.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: No, that is fair considering it would also be considered within public domain once sent to the mail, I assume. So that is- Maybe.
[Bruce Kulik]: I don't know.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Interesting. Yeah. I will check with Elry and so I'm taking that upon myself to check with Elry and then I will circulate that letter. Okay. Let's see. Then.
[Bruce Kulik]: And that's a recline, right?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Yes. Okay, and I have a few updates that Todd passed along to me in terms of infrastructure. They finally, so they've improved snow clearing on the South Street bike lane. They finally have a. I guess, a bike lane plow that they're able to use there. So the city will, in the future, make sure to clear out the South Street Contaflo bike lane. So that will be improved going forward. There is a new Salem eastbound bike lane from Dudley Street to Haines Square. Grove Street Northwest was painted up.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hang on. Dudley to Haines Square. Yep. What direction did you say that was in?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Eastbound.
[Bruce Kulik]: Eastbound. Okay. Thank you.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: No worries. Grove Street going Northwest was painted up to the Winchester line. There are an Albion Street and Dexter Street bike lane that have been approved, but they have not been painted at this point. The River Road redesign down in West Medford, across from the community center. I forget, what's the name of that tennis and basketball court? Duggar Park. Right Debra park. Thank you. So that has been approved and is moving forward at least with the contra flow bike lane there. So. That should be that should be coming in eventually.
[Bruce Kulik]: Hang on I want to clarify a couple items for the Albion street 1. what's the scope?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I don't know if I got the complete scope from Todd, or at least I might have been unable to get it down. I believe that they are new bike lanes to be added there, but I am not sure of the directionality and or if they are one-sided in that case.
[Bruce Kulik]: One moment because Albion Street, I'll be in the street in one way, southbound between Medford Street and Broadway, and a small stretch northbound between Medford Street and Main Street. All right, I'll just record that we don't really know, but we have bike lanes in progress.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I do know that old area.
[Bruce Kulik]: And the River Road Contra Flow will be in which direction? I believe that would be northbound.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: The contra flow lane. I believe in front of Duggar Park would be southbound. Southeast ish bound.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, yeah, okay. I had my, I had it. My memory of which direction that road went was incorrect. Okay, got it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Well, it switches.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it becomes two way between Arlington. Well, actually, it turns into Arlington Street, which is two way.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Okay, yeah, no, I was going to say it switches actually a few times in there. Okay, so other interesting development. There's now going to be a contraflow on Clippership Drive in Medford Square with a dedicated light to cross. Gosh, why is my brain off Main Street? Yeah, so actually some decent improvements. That is a temporary or temporary solution while they attempt to complete the barriered bike lane extension along the off-ramp from 93.
[Bruce Kulik]: Do you know, again, the scope of the counterflow? Will that be from Riverside all the way to Main Street, or will it pick up where the trail joins currently?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I believe it's where the trail will join. The idea is to provide a continuation for the clipper ship connector.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Well, I mean, I'm guessing you're just reading what was said, but it says a dedicated light to cross Main Street. Is this like a flashing yellow light? Is there a red light?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I do not know exactly, but I believe it is a dedicated signal. So my understanding is that it might actually be a full stoplight. I did not get the details from Todd.
[Bruce Kulik]: Well, that's interesting. That's a really cramped area between two, one non-functioning signal and the main street at High Street, Forest, Riverside, Salem signal. It'll be interesting to see how that's connected.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: This one in particular, but even some of the other ones that you mentioned, I'm having a moment where I'm like, have I ever heard of these projects before in my life? Maybe, maybe not would love. I, I assume Todd has some like plans or graphics of some kind if, if he knows he's going to build them. So would love for him to send those over if possible.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I'll make it a note for me to, uh, see if I can't get any plans from Todd.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, it's been only casually discussed in the context of.
[Amanda Centrella]: Recording stopped.
[Bruce Kulik]: That's not good.
[Amanda Centrella]: Uh-oh.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Oh, it's because the host left.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I think you're the host, Daniel. Am I?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Was I?
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you got made the host.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: OK.
[Bruce Kulik]: I am a co-host as well. But I don't see.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Recording in progress.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: There we go.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right, I got the recording started so Mary Kate in response to not knowing not knowing that these were in progress. It's only been casually mentioned in the context of a couple of different places. Like, when we talked about Salem street. We've talked about the South street. And Todd said, oh, it'd be good to do something about Clippership because we brought it up a few times, but that's basically the extent that's been. That he's mentioned it, so it'd be great if we could. I agree with you. It'd be great if we could get requested plans just so we can. React to that as well, and I have down down that you're looking into it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Okay, um. Okay, so they're improving the bike detection infrastructure with a newer set of video recognition systems at Forrest and Lawrence and Medford Square. So some of those crossings, I believe, did not, I'm not sure if they are loop based. I believe they are currently loop based, but they're going to try and move to a video detection system so that bikes have an easier time triggering those lights.
[Bruce Kulik]: Interesting. I never had any difficulty going through that intersection. I thought that was simply a timed intersection. Or maybe it's because there's been automobiles at the same time that I've been there.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I was also, I guess, a little interested in that because it does seem like I've never been at that intersection without a car present.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Well, it's wait, it's Forrest and Lawrence. Is that what you said? So did I, I don't think I've ever biked that far. I've never had a problem on Lawrence. Yeah. I was like, dang, I do have some intersections that I know do not work for bikes. Well, actually, actually the, um, mystic Valley parkway where all those accidents happen, you can't.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. Austin street and mystic Valley parkway doesn't work.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, it doesn't work at all. And it's terrible to try to get onto the pathway over there. And there's actually no, anyway, I could go on forever, but there's nothing, there's no like no turn on red signs. So cars are just, you know, can turn right whenever they want. And there's this big hedge right there. And then we can see it's terribly dangerous. I wish that bike or I wish that camera was put at that intersection. So I leave my kids school and go to work. This is why I keep it there. And yeah, it doesn't detect. It has the things that the cars are supposed to drive over, which work on Lawrence. In my experience, at Lawrence and Winthrop, I've never had an issue. I've just never biked all the way over to Forest.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah. Yeah. I think there's, I think when they repave Winthrop, they put new detectors in and certainly the left lane detector works fine. If you're coming from Winchester to turn left onto Lawrence. Um, I don't know about going left from Lawrence on to Winthrop heading towards the circle. Cause I, I do.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I've done that. I have ever gotten that one in all the time.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I get to the universalist church. You gotta take the back roads.
[Bruce Kulik]: You come down and why many, and you turn right there.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Mm-hmm.
[Bruce Kulik]: And does that detect you?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yep.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, that's what I thought. OK, good.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, this is sort of like. Uh, making, making my point again, like, I, I don't want to blame Todd because I know that he's like, literally the only staff member he has. And, and he never got another intern or another traffic engineer, which is a huge bummer. So I'll bet he doesn't have a lot of time, but like, if we're a commission that's supposed to advise, we're not advising, we're reacting. Um, I'm sure that a bunch of us could have told him a lot of intersections around Medford that don't detect bikes.
[Bruce Kulik]: I think we should put that on the agenda for the next meeting. Listen, people will volunteer. And maybe field check their. Their sense if they can, so that we have an accurate list of. Intersections, which are problematic and maybe ought to be prioritized. I'm gonna make a note of this here. Hang on one second. How did you phrase it? Advise versus react?
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. Anything else?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Let me see. One more. Ah, bike racks. Okay, so that will eventually be moving forward. There was a delay due to the grant program. So it wasn't that the city has never gotten the grant because the grant program had a delay across the entire state. So hopefully that will be moving forward at some point in the very near future. So that's the update on the bike racks. And final one is that they are in the process of trying to backfill Amy's position. So doing what they can there. Is it posted? I don't, Todd did not tell me if it was officially posted or not, but it sounds like they were doing a few interviews. So I suspect they are, it is posted somewhere if they're getting interviews. If you know of anyone, I'm sure that we could pass along.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, like I have Todd on LinkedIn and I didn't see it there. Oh.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Well, definitely feel free to reach out to Todd.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, at least professionally, I know a lot of traffic engineers, so I'd have been happy to repost it and see who it gets to. Or the bike commission Facebook page could do so.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: We should figure out. Yep, that was the limit of the infrastructure updates.
[Bruce Kulik]: So just to clarify, you said Amy, is that her name?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Um, Amy was the former traffic engineer who was okay. That's what I ended up going to Brookline.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right. A chance, you know, her last name.
[MCM00001804_SPEAKER_04]: I am G. L. E. S. Thank you.
[Bruce Kulik]: Thank you. Great.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Um, yes, that is the extent of the infrastructure updates that I. Got from Todd.
[Bruce Kulik]: Are there any further agenda items?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: There are not.
[Bruce Kulik]: All right. So in Leah's interest, I move that we adjourn.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Seconded.
[Bruce Kulik]: All in favor?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Aye.
[Bruce Kulik]: I guess that's it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: Meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone, for inviting me.
[Bruce Kulik]: I'll get these notes out. by tomorrow or to tomorrow sometime.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: If you wrote them down, you can send them to me and I can transcribe them into the Google Docs.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, no, you don't want to do that. I scribbled them and I will try to get them written up tonight while they're fresh in my memory, at least tomorrow it's not.
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: I jotted stuff down in the notes doc too, so hopefully between the two of us, it's a complete record.
[Bruce Kulik]: Okay. That's excellent. How about if I send it to you then to turn into information?
[MCM00001790_SPEAKER_07]: You just want to look through the Google Doc and see if there's anything you feel like I missed.
[Bruce Kulik]: Oh, yeah, that would work. Sure. I can update that doc and then I'll be ready to go. Where does that exist?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I just put it in the chat. I put a link to it in the chat.
[Bruce Kulik]: Excellent. Thank you. You did?
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: I was going to say, I see, I see your little Bruce Kulik.
[Bruce Kulik]: Yeah, I'm on it.
[Daniel Nuzzo-Mueller]: You're on it.
[Bruce Kulik]: I've added a bookmark and we're good. All right. Good night everyone.
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