EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Town Council met for a regularly scheduled remote meeting on May 12 to hear comments about a barrier on Rural Lane and hosted a continued public hearing in regard to a zone change at Rear Pease Road.

The meeting began with a lengthy public comment with 10 residents to discuss a barricade on Rural Lane. One resident, Alicia Skurko, expressed her concerns over the closure and said, “The stories used to depict a very unsafe Rural Lane caused by unsafe speeding traffic is over exaggerated and unjustified. Not one resident of Rural Lane has documented being put directly in harms way by a speeding car, instead it’s Pilgrim Road and Mayflower Lane.”

Another resident, Michael Grieshaber, agreed with the barricade. “It wasn’t really the volume of traffic during peak travel hours that bothered us, but the rate of speed that cars traveled to save time on their 0.2 mile shortcut,” he said, “Knowing that when our daughter is old enough to play with her friends and our fellow neighbors, they will be safe from distracted drivers make this inconvenience worth it.”

During the meeting the council also dedicated several minutes to a discussion about the closure on Rural Lane. After Councilor Ralph Page cited traffic data saying that 70 percent of drivers on the street are speeding, Police Chief Jeff Dalessio jumped into the call to explain what causes residents to speed down that road. He said, “Part of the problem is it’s a straight street for the most part and the houses are a little off the road so that gives the perception that it is wide open for traveling and that means people tend to travel faster than normal.”

DPW Superintendent Bruce Fenney said the best decision would be to put Rural Lane on the town’s sidewalk plan. He said, “My opinion is that is the best option for this area. I’m not sure the length of the street to give you an idea of the cost, roughly 1,300 feet costs about $115,000 and I’m just using that as a barometer because that is how much the Elm Street project cost. I’ll have to look into that before I can get a cost estimate for that.”

Ultimately the council unanimously approved two motions, one to remove the temporary barrier on Rural Lane and a second for a DPW study about costs for implementing speed bumps on the road.

During council comments, Councilor Marilyn Richards gave an update on the state’s current budgeting process after listening in on a meeting. “We learned that the legislature had announced the FY2021 budget process was to be delayed into perhaps late July or early August. The whole issue of the revenue stream and instability of numbers are what’s holding everything up,” she said.

She added that the state is currently looking at a $4 to $6 billion shortfall.

The council also finally continued the public hearing for the zone change at Rear Pease Road after many delays dating back to 2018 after the Planning Board denied the petition. Attorney James Martin with Robinson Donovan, who represented the petitioner for the hearing, quickly reviewed the long process since the petition was originally brought before the council in September 2018.

He said that the petitioner believes the solar panels are in the best interests of the town. “My client firmly believes in the benefits of solar, he firmly believes the East Longmeadow Zoning Bylaw was illegal as found by the court, he firmly believes the town will benefit by this solar project and wants the town to have one last opportunity to rule on the zoning change,” Martin said.

Councilor Page said that he was against the zone change not because solar panels would be put in the parcel. “I’m not for it, it’s not because of the solar, it’s because of the zone change. Solar is what’s being proposed at the moment, but that does not mean that is what is going to go in,” he said.

The rest of the council agreed with Page’s sentiments and unanimously voted down the petition.

The East Longmeadow Town Council next meets on May 25.