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Date: 12/22/2021
HAMPDEN – The Hampden Board of Selectmen met with Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) Superintendent Dr. Albert Ganem on Dec. 20 to discuss a traffic issue at Green Meadows School.
At the board’s Dec. 13 meeting, Resident Lyman Wood expressed concern about cars that regularly spill out onto North Road during student pick-up at the school.
He said vehicles that are trying to get up the street go around the line of traffic, but as visibility is limited on the road, it poses the danger of a head-on collision. It had been an ongoing issue since at least last school year, Wood had told the board.
Ganem stated that the current parking lot configuration does not accommodate all the people coming to pick up their children at the same time. To address this, two “bump-outs” – semi-circular areas that are not paved – will be filled in with asphalt or gravel to allow two lanes of traffic to enter the driveway in front of the school. This will double the cars that can wait on school grounds for student pick-up. “I’m hoping this will help resolve it,” Ganem told the board.
Board of Selectmen members John Flynn and Craig Rivest expressed concern about children crossing one line of cars to get to the next. Ganem assured them children would not be released until the pick-up cue was full and cars would not be allowed to exit the queue until all the children that had been released were safely in the correct cars. Staff would coordinate using radios.
Rivest pressed Ganem and gave an example of a student crossing in front of a car in the first lane and the parent whose foot slips off the brake when they are turned around to buckle in their child.
Ganem acknowledged his concern and assured the board, “This is a start.” He said adjustments would be made to ensure safety.
Police Chief Scott Trombly told the board it only takes five to 10 minutes to load the students into cars. The problem is parents coming early and forming a bottleneck. “They all want to be first in line,” Trombly said of the drivers. Ganem added that Principal Sharon Moberg had sent a letter home to families asking them not to come early.
Ken Willet, a safety consultant for the district and former Wilbraham police chief, told the board the problem is not limited to Green Meadows, but instead is a factor at every school in the district. “None of the campuses were designed to have so many cars,” at the same time.
Board of Selectmen Chair Donald Davenport questioned why it had become a problem recently, despite enrollment declining. Ganem said they have more students than ever being picked up. Rivest commented that there are no sidewalks along that part of North Road. “You can’t have kids walking home without sidewalks and parents are working from home and want to pick their kids up.”
Ganem said the bump outs would be filled in soon to get ahead of winter storms and snow.
COVID-19 Protocol Review
Town Manager Bob Markel reported to the board that the towns within the Eastern Hampden Shared Health Services agreement were alarmed by recent increases in the number of COVID-19 cases in the area. To some extent, the surge was to be expected after the Thanksgiving holiday in late November, he said. Hampden has had two weeks with 28 cases and a positivity rate of over 7 percent.
“It doesn’t seem as though we’re in crisis mode,” Markel said.
Davenport noted that West Springfield had chosen to close its town hall. Flynn quipped that West Springfield had done “such a great job,” with the Big E this summer, where there was “not a mask in sight.”
Markel suggested the Hampden Town House could go back to using a receptionist in the auditorium and thereby limiting the people in the offices. Rivest opined that a receptionist could be helpful all the time, rather than only as a reaction to COVID-19.
The most important action was urging people to get vaccine boosters and wear masks, Davenport said. He also said people should feel free to not attend events if it mitigates risk.
It was decided that instead ofclosing town hall to the public or mandating masks in town buildings again, Markel would continue to monitor the situation.
Proposed Bylaw Change
A change to the general bylaws that Davenport proposed during the summer was discussed by the board. Davenport wants to codify in the bylaws that the Board of Selectmen interview all candidates for positions on which they will need to vote. Currently, an elected board interviews candidates for open seats on that body and brings their finalist to the Board of Selectmen. At that point, each member of the two boards has an equal vote in whether to approve that candidate.
“To play devil’s advocate, do you feel this is an overreach,” Rivest asked. Davenport responded that he did not understand why the Board of Selectmen could not interview candidates that on which they have to vote.
“This has only come up since the Planning Board,” Flynn said, referencing a situation this summer in which two Planning Board members resigned and the vacancies had to be filled quickly to hear a case before the board. “I think we’re micromanaging elected boards,” Flynn added.
“I think we have a tendency to be afraid of other boards,” Davenport pushed back.
In the end, Flynn told Davenport that while he does not support the proposal but “endorses” Davenport’s right to bring it before the town.