Providence North Main Street Task Force-Wednesday, January 15, 2025-5:30 PM
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Motion to Reorder Agenda
Chair Anne Boyle called the North Main Street Task Force meeting to order and established a quorum with eight members present. The task force then approved a motion to take agenda items out of order.
North Main Street Lighting Project and Traffic Safety Updates
Kyle presented updates on the phased corridor lighting project, including timelines for new fixtures, decorative lighting at University Marketplace, and GIS mapping of dark stretches. The task force discussed lighting at key intersections, traffic enforcement data, and signage for right-turn-on-red restrictions.
Presentation from Miriam Hospital on Planned Construction
David Brent presented Miriam Hospital's planned building renovation, highlighting the separation of walk-in pedestrian traffic from ambulance bays, private patient rooms, and environmental designs. The discussion addressed employee parking logistics, public transit pass incentives, and pedestrian safety improvements on nearby streets.
Announcement of Upcoming Meeting Dates
The chair announced and confirmed the upcoming task force meeting dates scheduled for February and March. Members acknowledged the future meeting schedule and calendar invites.
Public Comment and Committee Discussion
A member of the public raised inquiries regarding automated speed camera enforcement near schools along North Main Street. Members discussed state road permitting regulations, legislative radius limits, and adding standing monthly agenda items for corridor safety updates.
Motions to Enter Presentations into Record and Adjournment
The task force voted to formally enter the Miriam Hospital presentation and the lighting project documents into the meeting record. A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and unanimously approved.
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Whenever you're ready, Sarah. Ready when you walk. Okay. Let's get started. Okay.
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Awesome. Hi, everyone. I am. I'm the chair of the North Main Street Task Force. Excited to start our Wednesday, January 15 meeting.
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The time is sometime is 05:32. I believe. Chair Anne Boyle. I'm present. Vice chair.
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Present. Lieutenant Brown is absent. Marissa Lopes is absent. Rachel Peterson? I'm present.
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Peter Panera?
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Present.
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Thomas Badway is absent. Sarah Angle? Here. Jessica Lance? Present.
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Nate Ursa? Here. Sean Raymond? Present. Rosie Jackwell is absent.
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We have eight present and four absent. We have a four. Awesome. Thank you so much. Also, a big thanks to the for being here.
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To the legal department. We've got Kyle and Tricia from our team here, council staff, and some invited guests. So I'm excited to get us started on our first meeting. I'm actually gonna take it out of order. Do I need a motion to come back there?
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Yes. Okay. I'm gonna let Kyle get his update first. If I could have a motion to take item two out of order, please. So moved.
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Hold on a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Excellent.
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Thank you so much. So we have some updates since the last meeting. I'm also gonna say that the update from the police will actually be next time. Lieutenant Brown had to be at a conference, and and we gotta be best if they give their update while he's here at But Kyle and Patricia have some updates for us on what we just what happened since our last meeting until they ungo the project. So, Kyle, thank you for being here.
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Kyle, do you have anything brought up on the screen? Everybody has copies, but you No.
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That's fine. Okay. Kyle, director of development management for city council. As everybody is aware, we've previously talked about the lighting project that is going on with Main Street. I am working with public property and their vendor, personally, on installing lights throughout the corridor.
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You know, the first phase was done during the winter. We, you know, had a
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few different spots over the pit.
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And ever since that install in the fall, we've been working closely with the Prism of Mind, DataPlan, kind of where the next phases of our installs will be. In our last meeting, it was brought up that, you know, the Ferryll Ground and beyond, both, like, the Pawtucket Line is an area of interest, and there are some gaps over there as well. So I I actually sat down with the person today, and the I've already contacted. He does, like, the GIS lighting GIS mapping, and they actually did say that there are some gaps over there that we can actually mobilize on. There's a significant amount of infrastructure that's already in place there, and some whatnot that we can just easily install some lighting fixtures right on the poles and plug them into existing, like, infrastructure, like the electrical.
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So we actually are planning to mobilize on that within, like, the next one to two months. Like, that is something that we're gonna need to see, like, we can address pretty quickly. So in the short term, that is where we're kind of focusing our efforts, you know, with the Buffalo North Fairground towards the Kentucky line. In the median of that, we are actually looking at the southbound direction on the North American round stretch. There are significant gaps in that stretch right there that we have some holes that we can do with the technology there, but there are also some areas that we might have to get some installs on there.
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So we, you know, we will let Rydoc know all that and, you know, work closely with them on there. But that is something that we believe we should get done in the later winter, early spring time. So that is something that's gonna be happening kind of.
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It's still short term, but a
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little bit sequence after you'll do North Of North Variable Ground. And then what we actually have here in this little packet, we've been working with the councilman as well to identify some decorative lighting pedestrian, shorter level, not like the overhead style that we plan to install at University Market community area. That was one area that was identified as a significant dark area, and then that intersection over there with the weird geometric crossings and whatnot is a very problematic stretch. So we are on my side, I'm in prison today, what they're going to do is actually look at that medium to build a completely different model, like that whole stretch right there, that block. They're gonna look at basically the best approach to the spacing of how many it's going to take, and then we're gonna put in the order for that.
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The order will probably take about sixteen to twenty weeks, so we're trying to get that mailed and as quick as possible because then it'll probably take a few months for it to actually get here. So we envision that, and it's gonna happen later on spring, latest early summer, if there's anything. Top of that new new imperative, they're also looking at the only intersection there. There's some lighting outages, so we're done with the reactive basement of lighting outages. And, actually, there's, like, that was a median island that's, like, right in the middle of the street there that we're actually gonna look to try to install some lights as well right there underneath.
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So that's really the short short term, medium term, and, like, longer term for, like, this spring slash summer. So it'll be north of the Milburiogram, where it's kind of the easiest for us to tackle right now. The southbound will push on Mill Barrier Ground along that stretch. And then looking at the university marketplace, need for some decorative lower level pedestrian lights. Just because some of the trees there, so we wanna make sure that the light will be unimpeded.
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And then, also, I did flag for them that, you know, we've had talks about the the streets that feed into, like, the the side streets of North Main Street. One of the major issues, I think, from a Vision Zero standpoint in the is, you know, the right turns on onto streets and whatnot. And there's a few different intersections that have inadequate lighting rarely either coming right into North Lee Street or just, like, on the right approach, right, up to a intersection there. So we're strategically trying to adjust the most intersections and some of those side streets. I don't have the exact street yet.
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They're actually still waiting intervals, but those will be where we also focus our efforts feeding into it. So I think next time we're here, I'll have a moderator in person actually there so we can have a more substantial presentation of that stuff. They're still kinda inputting data to be able to have a more robust GIS understanding of what's going on. But early indications are basically that, you know, we'll be approaching the size trends that we want next there. So the lighting, if you so in the first phase, that is of your packet, that is the the the head that we're looking at.
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And then, again, I'll kinda, you know, within the specs and whatnot. But I believe that if you need to look on the. So at least that second one in the middle is the one that we're looking at. The ball, I believe that is what we're going with. And then on page four, the highlighted fold that is in two through four from the left is the poll that we're looking at.
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It's good. And then a decent picture of what it kind of looked like is the last two weeks instead. Throughout the rest of the home. They're cheaper, easier to put up. These ones have, like, the longer lead times, the longer the carriers that we have to get at.
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But we wanted to go with a definitely lighting the night or it and also wanted to kind of bridge the aesthetic. Everything's booked. So that has been, you know, the progress that we've made since last one. Thought was updating here. There's still some of them already in both of them.
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We think we'll start getting action going next couple of weeks.
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Thanks, guys. And just to add, also, part of the pedestrian level lighting is because the bar you did find that there is tree cover that kind of blocks some of the overhead lighting, and it's a nice balance between we don't wanna, like, cut down some really lovely street trees that help keep the street cooler, and, also, people are getting hit at that intersection all the time. So let's, like, light it up. And it creates, like there are is no walking pedestrian. It's a.
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So that's why that's another reason why we're looking at this size of staff.
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Yeah. And I think one thing that comes when you're speaking about calling out as well in our major conservancy act is on on the North Burial Ground south bound approach where you're trying to find a nice little median of eliminating the light for safety, but also not have to disturb the wildlife there in the most likely. So we are, you know, finding that balance as well, and we're trying to use with the present on that as well. So, yeah, so there's a motion. I think nothing we say the overlap with, like, the report that we've got, something from RSA, and then also just from the the that we have so far from spreading the misbalance and where our highly response are.
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So Good.
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Questions for Kyle or comments?
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I have
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a couple. This sounds great. I'm excited to hear. Like, someone just moving ahead so quickly. Just so I understand some of the details, the so the North Of North Bear North Bear area around it sounds like that's like, the position of lighting is mostly guided by, like, where there are existing tolls and infrastructure you can use.
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Right?
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Correct. Yeah. There are holes,
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and then there's significant, like, electrical infrastructure that is easy for them to be able to Mhmm.
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I'll jump on with the passing too. There's also a lot of existing businesses like The Sandwich Hut and others, and it's basically their businesses that are lighting up that four door as opposed to, like, extra street lights. So wanting to make sure that, like, we're lighting up where people are walking and trying to, like, shop at these restaurants and businesses, but it's not only the lights coming out of their own businesses that are affected.
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So one of the big concerns up there that I have is some of the major intersections, not only done with lighting, but what when I looked at them didn't seem to have holes nearby where you could put a light. So I guess I'm wondering, like or or is any of this focused around, like, Smithfield Ave Intersection, for instance? That's one of the, like, highest traffic, darkest spots. And, like, I don't know if you're having to add fold or if there's, a solution for there.
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So you're saying the Smithfield Ave Intersection doesn't have any folds
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and it's dark? The last time I looked at, there were no lights within, you know, a 150 feet of it. Yeah. And I I I think the last time we reviewed this, it was like it it didn't look like there was, like, any kind of low hanging for return, but, oh, we just took a light on that toll. And that's just one example.
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A couple of the other intersections there, at least one or two also kind of, like, didn't have good places to put lights. So I guess I wanna make sure that we're not just lighting the middle of the block, but that we're, like, coming up with I mean, the middle of block is great and also important, but, like, we need plans for the intersections and the crossings.
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Yeah. No. That's great feedback. I think we can after this meeting, maybe we can have a conversation. Just have some feedback.
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You just being out there as well, and we can make sure we prioritize some usage, you know, some more cases like that. But
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And I guess kind of related to that, and I guess this applies to that area and the media stuff, which is also very exciting because we're presumably spending a lot of money on this. Kind of, like, our chance to putting in some lighting. Is there, like, a chance for us to review the plan at some stage of the process of where it lights are being put and, like, offer some input? Like, I don't wanna hold up things that are in the works. I just wanna make sure that we, like, don't have liquid spots, and I don't have an opportunity to do anything about it again for me.
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I think that's where for some of the Novartis right now doing their evaluation on is the best spacing of it. But I would that's why I said
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I would love for them to