Break over, City Council to face plethora of orders from traffic to trash Tuesday

WORCESTER — It has been over a month since the Worcester City Council met in full session and councilors have brought an especially full plate of requests for Tuesday.

A scan through Tuesday's agenda — especially the City Council orders — makes one theme abundantly clear: traffic safety and proposals to mitigate serious crashes in a city that has been rocked by several in recent months.

Another frequent topic of City Council orders is concern over Worcester Polytechnic Institute's planned purchase of two hotels , which has triggered significant backlash from the city's political and business leaders.

There are plenty more orders to go around, including trash, an order about bodywork spas, an invitation to Worcester's Olympic hero and rodents.

Traffic safety

One of the biggest issues on the mind of Worcester officials and residents this summer has been traffic crashes and pedestrian safety.

At the start of August, City Manager Eric D. Batista and Mayor Joseph M. Petty declared what they call a “Road Safety and Traffic Violence Crisis” in Worcester on the heels of several crashes. Recent crashes include the following:

• June 25, a 1-year-old girl was struck by a vehicle on Lincoln Street . She suffered a head injury.
• June 27, 13-year-old Gianna Rose Simoncini was fatally struck by a motor vehicle while crossing the street in the area of 370 Belmont St. between Plantation Street and Lake Avenue.
• July 19, a vehicle struck a man riding a stand-up electric scooter, which was traveling east on June Street, between Edgewood and Carlisle streets. A 26-year-old man identified as Jacob Tetreault was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. He is expected to survive, according to police.
• July 26, a 13-year-old girl suffered serious injuries after being struck by a car in the area of 164 Shrewsbury St. The victim, Ayuen Leet, is in a coma , according to her family. Van Nguyen, 18, has been cited for operating to endanger, speeding and failure to yield to a pedestrian in the roadway.
• April 11, a 40-year-old woman was hit by a car while walking on Greenwood Street. She is now conscious and has been released from the hospital, according to police.

According to state data, the city saw more crashes for the first half of the year than in years prior and a new Worcester Regional Research Bureau report put a spotlight on the factors that lead to crashes involving vulnerable road users and their various costs.

The city administration has been asked to take up some quick solutions for roads with a high rate of serious crashes, such as Belmont Street, Shrewsbury Street and Lincoln Street.

The city is also working toward developing longer-term traffic-calming measures as part of its Vision Zero program intended to eliminate crash deaths and serious injuries.

This year also saw the months-long City Council debate over the reconfiguration of Mill Street to reduce the street to one driving lane on both sides and a parking-protected bicycle lane intended to reduce speeds and create a safer road for bicyclists. While the council ultimately voted to keep Mill Street as is for now, several councilors questioned whether the design was dangerous for drivers and causing crashes with parked cars.

The city has begun installing flexible posts to further divide the driving lane and the parking lane on Mill Street.

On Tuesday, the City Council is sure to spend plenty of time deliberating street safety with many items in some way relating to traffic and pedestrian safety.

The following is a list of orders, petitions and a resolution that are related to traffic safety:

• District 3 City Councilor George Russell is requesting Batista review Greenwood Street in order to install additional crosswalks and speed limit signage.
• Councilor-at-Large and City Council Vice Chair Khrystian King requests Batista revive a September 2023 order for a safety audit of the areas where children get dropped off and picked up during school hour; the safety of municipal streets where schools are located and where children must use when heading to school; which schools have crosswalks and blinking light crosswalk signs and which schools have 20 mph signs posted.
• King is also asking the manager to consider establishing a “midblock pedestrian crossing pilot program” for locations with high pedestrian traffic with the state Department of Transportation as well a report on common pedestrian jaywalking areas.
• Another King order is requesting the manager consider “pedestrian focused overlay zones” by changing traffic pattern regulations to focus on pedestrians and vulnerable road users. King also wants a report detailing an ordinance that would establish "street connectivity minimums” to create multiple alternative routes for cars and pedestrians.
• King is also looking to revive a November 2023 order to establish a pilot program to install a high-intensity activated crosswalk beacon (HAWK) system. HAWKs are beacon signals that bear a resemblance to traffic lights. Pedestrians can press a button and a light atop a crosswalk will begin flashing to notify drivers when to slow down and stop. The beacons have been adopted in Phoenix. District 1 City Councilor Jennifer Pacillo also has a petition requesting a HAWK beacon be installed at the median in the vicinity of 570 Lincoln St. and 591 Boylston St.
• District 2 City Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson is ordering a vote to rescind the posted 35 mph speed limit for Belmont Street and restore it to the 30 mph statutory speed limit.
• She is also requesting Batista consider purchasing additional speed awareness monitors to install in high pedestrian-volume areas and areas where there have been increases in accidents and fatalities. She is also asking Batista to consider purchasing additional solar-powered flashing LED school speed limit signage for all city schools.
• Mero-Carlson also wants a report on the feasibility of installing additional speed humps in areas with an increased risk of speeding.
• Petty is asking interim Police Chief Paul B. Saucier to provide a report for a strategic traffic enforcement and education plan.
• Councilor-at-Large Morris Bergman wants a report from the Commissioner of Public Works and Parks on the timing of installing speed humps during the past year and any explanations for any delays.
• District 5 City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj has submitted a nonbinding resolution putting the council on record as supporting a quicker adoption of a 25 mph citywide statutory speed limit and 20 mph safety zones. In addition, the resolution calls for the City Council to support the inclusion of traffic calming and other Complete Streets measures as part of all the city’s roadway projects. In the August crisis declaration announcement, Petty and Batista listed the statutory speed limit reduction and safety zones as policies in the works to promote safety. The policies remain in the Standing Committee on Traffic and Parking after a series of public input sessions was concluded.

WPI and two hotels

Several leaders in city politics and business have expressed displeasure last week at WPI's plans to purchase two hotels in the city — the Hampton Inn & Suites at 65 Prescott St. and the Courtyard by Marriott at 72 Grove St. — so they can be turned into student housing.

Leaders have stated the move could substantially hurt the city’s tax base, would clash with the intended goals of the multimillion-dollar Gateway Park Project, eliminate 100 hotel jobs and hurt the city's tourism and events industries.

By Thursday, a majority of city councilors had either signed onto a letter calling for WPI to halt the purchase or have issued other statements taking issue with the purchase.

The following orders are related to the planned purchases or reviewing the city's payments in lieu of taxes agreements with WPI and other colleges and universities:

• Petty is requesting Batista provide a report on how the WPI purchase will impact the city and a history of the Gateway Park project and any agreements the city made with the hotels in the project.
• Bergman is requesting a report on any Gateway Park agreements which include WPI, any PILOT agreements with WPI and any legal recourse to minimize colleges and universities from removing real property from the tax rolls.
• Mero-Carlson wants a report on the ramifications the purchase would have on the city’s travel and tourism efforts and on what conditions would allow the city to tax a college property.
• Haxhiaj wants an update on a January 2023 order for a list of properties purchased by colleges and universities going back to 2019, whether the property was kept on the tax roll, any signed community benefit agreements associated with new projects and what changes were made to PILOT contributions.

Other orders

More orders are on deck for Tuesday. Here are a few:

• Russell has several trash-related orders. Russell previously announced orders to request Batista consider discontinuing the procedure of rejecting trash bags that are believed to be overweight — more than 15 pounds for a small bag or more than 30 pounds for a large bag — or to have similar violations. In addition, Russell is requesting a report explaining why the city does not allow merchants to recoup the credit card fees incurred when residents use cards to buy trash bags.
• Mero-Carlson wants a report on the number of bodywork spas in the city, their hours of operation and how the city regulates them. In addition, she wants to learn the feasibility and appropriateness of regulating the spas with an ordinance. One such former spa, Angies Bodyworks Spa on Pleasant Street, was investigated for advertising massage services while not being properly licensed after a fatal Thanksgiving 2022 shooting at the spa.
• Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Toomey is requesting Petty invite Stephen Nedoroscik , a Worcester native who surged to national fame after competing as a gymnast in the Paris Olympics and winning two bronze medals to an upcoming council meeting. Nedoroscik, who is known for his specialization in the pommel horse, would be "recognized and appropriately feted" at the meeting.
• Pacillo is requesting the Department of Inspectional Services create a rodent action plan to mitigate the city's rodent population.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Break over, City Council to face plethora of orders from traffic to trash Tuesday