Bird told the committee that he would not support a proposed letter from village officials to the state Department of Transportation (DOT) about Fredonia’s wish list for the road, if the plan asked for medians in the middle of Main Streets. Dunkirk just had similar islands installed in the middle of Lake Shore Drive.

Such amenities go along with the “Complete Streets” ideology, which seeks to control vehicular traffic to benefit pedestrians and cyclists.

The state encourages municipalities to use Complete Streets principles in their planning. Dunkirk’s current Lake Shore Drive project is based around it.

Along those lines, Fredonia’s committee is suggesting the medians, and a speed limit of 30 miles per hour on Main Street throughout the village, in its proposed letter to DOT.

Trustee David Bird

The ultimate arbiter of the project will be DOT, which has scheduled repaving and other projects on Fredonia’s Main Street over the next few years. The roadway is part of U.S. Route 20.

The committee includes Chautauqua County Legislator Susan Parker, who represents Fredonia, and village Trustee Michelle Twichell. They opened Monday’s meandering 40-minute discussion with clarifications about their committee.

“We would like to do a traffic study, first and foremost, because we believe the speed limit coming from the roundabout needs to be lessened to 30 miles per hour,” Twichell said. It’s 40 miles per hour now.

“Wed like to slow down this traffic in downtown Fredonia. We’d like to put up an area where people can cross safely, so they can stand in the middle of the road and wait for traffic to pass by,” she added.

Fredonia Police Chief David Price, another member of the committee, said Parker formed it. “Legislator Parker asked us as a group if we could get together. She formed a committee so we could brainstorm ideas.”

He added, “With the construction that has come through, there’s been a couple of times they restriped, reconfigured this highway, and now our pedestrians are having a hard time getting across the street.”

In addition, “We’re recognizing that if they state is going to invest money in our village, we have to ask them today to start planning for two years from now.” He said that on Lake Shore Drive, “They’re doing what we’re asking for.”

Trustee Nicole Siracuse, a fourth member of the committee, read an email from Department of Public Works Director Scott Marsh supporting the committee’s proposals. Marsh could not attend the meeting.

“I’m going to go on record saying I’m against any center median,” Bird said. “With parking on either side of the road, I’ve witnessed it a thousand times — police and fire trying to run through there and they have to scoot into the middle of the lane because we have no place to move over on the side of the road. If we have medians with concrete, and floors and trees planted in there, it’s going to restrict the ability to get to an accident, to a fire, to whatever.”

Bird added that Fredonia’s zoning and planning boards should be more involved in the process.

“We are not saying that you have to have a median,” Parker said.

Bird also said the village needs to consider the proposed construction of a new Brooks Memorial Hospital.

Siracuse noted there are many other municipalities, including Dunkirk, where center medians are in place. “But we’re talking within an eighth of a mile of our police and fire departments,” Bird replied.

Parker sought to emphasize that the ultimate decision is up to DOT and that her committee just wants to make suggestions. She spoke of “how exacting and how investigative they are” at DOT.

As the discussion drifted on, Fredonia Planning Board chairman Scott Mackay had his say. He noted that Parker helped offer a presentation to his group at last month’s meeting.

Mackay said, “I think one of the things that most of the board members came away with was, we’re devolving to discussion of solutions. We know we have problems, we know we have issues… all of a sudden we get into something, ‘Well, if we did this, then we fix it.’ Maybe, maybe not. We don’t have traffic engineers available to us.”

He added, “It’s happening tonight, in my opinion. Instead of focusing on what are we trying to solve, what safety do we want to bring to the village, we’re talking about the solutions. I think the solutions will be provided by the better engineers and they’re the ones DOT has.”

Parker later said, “Part of what we were told by DOT was, ‘Hey, you really have to show a level of interest and study to get some kind of result.’ So we spent the last seven months looking at things, investigating… They told us, ‘You have to prove to us that we should do any of this for you. Because we have this much money, and you have to show us we should bring some of that to you.'”

Bird said any proposed solutions should be omitted from the letter to the state. He also urged village residents to voice their opinion on the plan to village trustees or to reach out to him.

“I am 100 % in favor of safe streets,” he said. I do not however want or think raised medians in the village is something we should be advocating for. My concerns mostly fall under police, fire and ambulance traffic but the medians will also create a traffic nightmare with all trucking on the street as well as deliveries.”

Eventually, on Siracuse’s urging, the board agreed to consider a resolution at its next meeting authorizing Mayor Douglas Essek to sign and send the letter to DOT — without changes or revisions.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

• Daily Newsletter
• Breaking News
• Obituaries

Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

• Yes
• No