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Traffic calming measures approved for Quinnehtuk Road in Longmeadow

Date: 12/11/2014

LONGMEADOW – The Select Board voted 3 to 2 for the installation of traffic calming measures such as two to three traffic humps for Quinnehtuk Road, which receives roughly four and a half times as many vehicles as it was designed to manage.

A motion to temporarily close the road as was recommended by the Traffic Safety Committee was originally brought forward by Selectman Alex Grant and failed by a 2 to 3 vote, with Select Board Chair Richard Foster and Selectmen Mark Gold and Paul Santaniello voting against the motion.

Gold subsequently proposed a second motion for the traffic calming, which Foster and Selectman Marie Angelides voted against.

Roughly 1,800 vehicles a day travel through Quinnehtuk Road, which is often used as by motorists as a bypass between Frank Smith Road and Wolf Swamp Road. According to town data, the road should see about 400 vehicles per day as a minor road.

“It’s come down to either we vote to close the road or nothing happens apparently,” Gold said prior to the traffic calming measures vote. “But why can’t we do something while we’re developing a broader policy? Take some action to give some relief. It may not be every bit of relief that the residents want but give them some relief in the interim while we’re [working]. And I’m not saying don’t develop a policy.”

Angelides said the Department of Public Works and public safety departments should have met to discuss options short of road closure.

“I think that again, we’re doing a part-way measure and not only that, we’re doing a faulty measure because it should go to the public safety in deciding what’s the best way,” she added. “Now we say three speed bumps because [Grant] put the motion out, some one else says ‘Oh, [make Quinnehtuk Road a] one way [street].’

“For this board to suddenly come out and decide how this road is going to be taken care of I think it’s really out there and this is the problem with this Select Board being given issues to deal with because then all of a sudden we drill down and we’re the experts on it,” Angelides continued.

Town Manager Stephen Crane said it takes the board’s vote to close a road for any period of time.

“We didn’t bring this here to say, ‘Tell us what the best way to deal with Quinnehtuk Road is,’” Crane added. “That is our job and this entire process has played out in a manner that the board just simply hasn’t liked what the administration has had to say about this.”

The board directed Crane on Oct. 21 to hire the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) to compile a detailed analysis of Quinnehtuk Road.

Foster, in a phone interview with Reminder Publications, said the PVPC report recommends that the town establish a Policy Subcommittee, which would create a set of criteria related to all traffic calming issues.

Crane said the authority to close the road could permanently is also held by the Planning Board.

In other business, the board also voted 3 to 2 to approve a split tax rate of $23.62 for residential property owners per $1,000 of assessed value and a commercial rate of $26.14 for commercial property owners.

As well, the vote shifted the tax burden by 10 percent onto industrial and commercial property owners.

Selectmen Paul Santaniello, Grant, and Gold supported the motion, while Foster and Angelides voted against it.

Town Assessor Robert LeClair said last year the town had a single tax rate of $23.76 per $1,000 of assessed value without a tax shift. The town's total tax levy is $45 million and 95 percent of tax values have been in the residential rate.

Leclair noted that the commercial rate would increase 24 cents for every penny that the residential rate is decreased by. The average residential properties are assessed at $326,000. A 10 percent shift decreases the average homeowner’s tax bill by $45 and increases the commercial property owner's bill by $4,200.

Crane said tax forms would be sent to residents beginning at the end of the month.