News

NG Traffic Committee to present recommendations
By Elizabeth Prata

New Gloucester--The New Gloucester Ad hoc committee on Traffic Safety has meet 3 times and is ready to make their recommendations to the Selectmen on February 7 at their regular meeting. All six members made all the meetings, with one member excused only one time, said Pat O'Brien, Committee Chair.

In September, a neighborhood committee had presented the Selectmen with a report that they had created in attempting to deal with what they felt was excessive speeding on Cobbs Bridge Road. They had surveyed the neighborhood, met informally several times and then presented the Selectmen with ideas as to how to solve a local public safety issue.
Selectmen received the report, reviewed it, and allowed a Town Ad Hoc committee to be formed.

The Ad Hoc Committee has been meeting since November and in January has produced recommendations which chair O'Brien said are consensus driven and cost effective.

The Committee will propose to combine efforts with the Town of Gray, given that citizens in that town have also complained about neighborhoods where excessive speeding poses safety issues.

"The regional approach will improve our chances of securing some minor grant funds to launch the safe driving program and we have identified at least two sources of grant funding," O'Brien said. "Gray's Public Safety Committee has approved the collaboration in a joint meeting with us."

One recommendation to be discussed is a "Safe Drivers" Program approach will have two basic components: one is a public campaign that has people pledge to "Go the Limit" and get a bumper sticker for their car that identifies them as part of the effort. They then become part of what O'Brien says is an "outbreak of civil obedience" by becoming part of a team of "mobile speed bumps", vehicles driving the speed limit and legally slowing traffic in the neighborhoods.

"It's really about respect for each other where we live and travel through. Its a promise of sorts, i.e., if you don't speed on my street, I won't speed on yours," O'Brien continued.

The committee will also recommend providing input on road or signage changes, as well as, any pending related legislation. If approved, they will create a marketing approach to target schools, insurance companies, business with car or truck fleets in the area.

The second side of the program, O'Brien explained, will be enforcement. The Town of New Gloucester is part of a four-town pool that shares police coverage with the State Police and Cumberland County Sheriffs Department. State and county taxes pay for the patrols.

"Apparently, there is some concern about why Cumberland County does not share-call like 12 other counties in Maine. This is very ineffective and it appears that power / control politics are at the core of why this is not happening. From my perspective as a taxpayer this is unacceptable, particularly in these times of limited budgets and given the life and death nature of public safety issues. Everyone should have a low tolerance about public servant "professionals" for playing games on these important matters," said O'Brien.

The Committee is also proposing to purchase and share with Gray a Speed Board that records how fast people are going and gives immediate feedback. Research has shown that having this method, backed up by an occasional police enforcement has the best possible effect on speeding, O'Brien stated.
Lastly, the group is proposing to create a first ever standing committee on public safety to address a wide-range of related topics.

O'Brien was pleased with the group's commitment and diligence in producing these wide-ranging recommendations that they hope will go a long way to solving the issues the Committee has raised.

Liaison to the Committee Town manager Rosemary Kulow said she was impressed that the committee has worked so diligently and quickly to come up with these recommendations," Kulow said. She continued, We are looking forward in the long term to possibly working with Gray's Public Safety Committee."

The Selectmen will take up the recommendations at their February 7 meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. in the New Gloucester MeetingHouse. The meeting is open to the public.