Dear Mr. Hill (new communication director for the City)
I have received a copy of a communication between yourself and Janet Rosetti, of the West Side Business Network. I also have been requesting a copy of the current Tatnuck Sq. traffic plan since December 2012 when I, along with many of the businesses who are members of the Tatnuck Neighborhood Association Inc. went before the City Council on December 04, 2012 asking for information and for a formal public hearing on this plan.
We were told and the T&G reported that the plan was put on hold and that there would be public hearings for our input on any plan that would go forward. I also made a request to see any current plan in December 2013 at a meeting held at Christ the King Church. Of course we all know that promise was never kept, and only 6 months later in June of 2013 the city put a plan out to bid and awarded a contract, and nobody even knew that took place.
It is quite insulting and arrogant that the city would treat the businesses and residents I represent in such a manner. And Ms. Rosetti (West Side Business Network) is quite correct, “There were never any public hearings held on the plan drawn up by Mass DOT” yet the city continues to keep saying public hearings were held.
Our neighborhood association held our own public meeting on 5/21/14 after learning that this project had already gone to bid and a contract awarded in June 2013 only 6 months after the city promised us a public hearing with our input. Acting City Manager Ed Augustus did attend our meeting on 5/21/14, but he had to leave before the 65+ people and 4 City Councilors present gave their public testimony and opposition to the plan that was shown to us on 5/21/14. We feel quite betrayed and insulted to have been treated in this way by the city.
In 1991 the Tatnuck Neighborhood Association (Founded in 1988) completely restored the Whitaker Sq. veterans memorial in the heart of Tatnuck Sq. At the time it was a broken down concrete weed infested triangle, with a memorial that was broken in several places. We restored it to what is now, the most beautiful veteran memorial in the City of Worcester, and have maintained it in pristine condition for the past 23 years now.
The city neither seems to appreciate or even acknowledge our efforts. In the landscaped area behind the memorial itself, we planted a 20 year time capsule on February 20, 2000 in honor of the 6 Worcester firefighters that were lost in the terrible Worcester Cold Storage fire in December 1999. To have the audacity to state that a plan has been bid out and awarded that would intrude into that sacred area is outrageous.
The Whitaker Sq. memorial is listed on the inventory list at the Smithsonian Institute. The present plan will force Peoples United Bank to leave Tatnuck Sq. once their lease is up, and will greatly hurt Gerardi’s Service Center at the corner of Pleasant and Mower streets. The changes would also completely ruin the aesthetic and symmetric configuration of the veterans memorial and the landscaped area behind it, which has been there for 87 years now. This is completely unacceptable to us, and to the veterans it stands for.
Mower Street is in no way a part of the Tatnuck Sq. traffic problems. Everyone who works or lives in the Tatnuck Sq. area knows this. Yet the most intrusive part of the plan puts most of the focus on Mower street. Instead we support putting the focus of improving traffic flow on the upgrading of traffic signal lights at Pleasant St. and Mower St. and at Chandler and Mill St. (Which this plan does have in it). That will greatly improve traffic flow with state of the art traffic signals that are in sync with each other, and incorporate delays in turns so that everyone doesn’t get a green light at the same time.
To try and make Mower St. one lane and one way on the Peoples United Bank side, and to take land from the veterans memorial to make a third lane on the Santander Bank side of Mower St. is a plan that helps absolutely nothing, and at the same time creates a great deal of harm to the Whitaker Sq. veterans memorial garden space.
We have heard from the new DPW Commissioner Paul Moosey, that the reason for this elaborate Mower St. intrusion is to reduce accidents. That the number of accidents back on Mower St. where lanes cross over each other is higher than an equated desirable number. That can be said of almost any place in the city, and those lanes will still be crossing each other with this plan, so it solves nothing!
The problems of the drive-thru at Dunkin Donuts on Chandler St. will still be there, which at times causes traffic going east on Chandler St. to come to a complete halt. If it were not for the meeting the Tatnuck Neighborhood Association held on Wednesday 5/21/14 – there would not even be a meeting now scheduled at Worcester State University on Monday 6/9/14.
We want improved traffic signals, we want improved traffic flow – But we Do Not want any harm done to the Whitaker Sq. veterans memorial, the landscaped land behind it, or to Mower St. or any Tatnuck Sq. businesses. The city has circumvented the public throughout this entire process in a shameful way. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing, and that is what we want now.
Listen to those most impacted by an ill- conceived plan drawn up by Mass DOT now. This meeting at WSU has still not been properly advertised to those most impacted by this plan by the City of Worcester. The meeting is only 5 days from today, proper notice requires a 14 day notice. Your response to my concerns and requests would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Paul Gunnerson – President
Tatnuck Neighborhood Association Inc.
[email protected]
