FFY26 Municipal Road Safety Program - MPD has been awarded $19,290.00 to enable additional traffic enforcement and equipment. This includes extra officers for motor vehicle and pedestrian crosswalk enforcement. Equipment includes portable hand-held radars or traffic data recorders.

Transcript (~8 min @ 22:18)

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▶ 22:11 Mark Garipay: We have a motion to recommend ID 2025-771 made by Counselor Hamilton, second by Counselor Finucchiaro.

▶ 22:20 Speaker 1: On discussion, all in favor? I.

▶ 22:24 Mark Garipay: Opposed? That motion will, uh, that ID will be, uh, sent to full council with recommendation. ID 2025-772, uh, FFY26 Municipal Road Safety Program. Melrose Police Department has been awarded $19,290 to enable additional traffic enforcement and, equipment. This includes extra officers for motor vehicles and pedestrian crosswalk enforcement. Equipment includes portable handheld radars and traffic data recorders.

▶ 22:59 Speaker 2: Yes, sir. So $19,290, uh, is what we applied for. The grant runs pretty much from, uh, now until September actually, so it's not fiscally done. And, uh, the guidelines are set by, um, what each month is geared towards, whether it's crosswalks or clicking a ticket. So there's, um, there's a plan for each month to put, uh, higher overtimes to get some extra traffic enforcement, all of which will be reimbursed by the state.

▶ 23:29 Speaker 1: Counselor Williams?

▶ 23:30 Ryan Williams: Thank you. Can you, um, explain to us what the monthly themes, where they come from?

▶ 23:38 Speaker 2: I believe it comes from, um, from the state that issues the grant. I think we're, we're dictated and mandated what, uh, what to enforce per month. I see. And they try to spread it out, uh, to give some variations thereof. And depending on the weather of course as well.

▶ 23:51 Ryan Williams: So we, we... I know we... the money goes to fund, uh, patrol time and you're gonna buy some handheld radars. What are the traffic data recorders? Are those speed and volume recorders? Yes. Okay. Are they LIDAR?... devices?

▶ 24:05 Speaker 2: Uh, I don't know.

▶ 24:06 Ryan Williams: That's okay. Yep. Just curious. I know we've got the old, we've got the tubes for a while and, um, we have those big carts, so I was wondering if you knew exactly what they were. Um, can you help me understand, do you have like a target area that you're planning for enforcement and what's the sort of rubric or mentality that you're using to target the area? And also, what do you mean by pedestrian crosswalk enforcement?

▶ 24:26 Speaker 2: So I, the, well, the first, uh, your first question, Sergeant Gock, in charge of the trafficking, as you know, uh, is gonna determine based upon, uh, sort of statistical data analyses. And mostly complaints, uh, where we're getting the most complaints from as well. So he'll be in charge of telling, of telling the officers on where to go and how to enforce, and actually each, each four-hour block, uh, it's a minimum four-hour block that they do. Obviously, they're expected to do enforcement, so there has to be some, um, some citations written, or, or the grant probably wouldn't be issued next year. So he's gonna be the one, and probably in conjunction with Lie- uh, Lieutenant Norton on where to enforce. The crosswalk enforcements, um, again, probably where we get the most compliance about my first gut is downtown, um, you know, by s- um, Starbucks, you know, those, those lights have helped, the blinking lights. But to me, that, that would be one. Franklin Street seems to be complained a lot about, so we'll, it'll be mostly driven by talking to the sergeant and then where our most recent complaints come from.

▶ 25:23 Ryan Williams: You're talking about enforcing, uh, motor vehicle violations, crosswalk violations, like driving through a crosswalk with a person in it- Correct. ... that kind of thing? Yeah. Okay. All right.

▶ 25:31 Speaker 2: And hopefully, when the weather gets better, you know, we can get some more, we can get the bikes back out there, mountain bikes, um- Yeah. ... I think that'd be a little bit more, uh, it'd be interesting to deal with that way as well.

▶ 25:41 Ryan Williams: I would say if the patrol is open to it, you should consider also enforcement of people who are parking too close to the crosswalks, right? And blinding drivers to people that are walking out into them in these daylighting spots that we've created for 10 feet from the crosswalk, because I think that's easier to enforce (laughs) than, you know, catching people going through crosswalk sometimes. Um, that's my two cents. Sure. Thank you.

▶ 26:03 Speaker 2: You're welcome.

▶ 26:06 Speaker 1: Anyone else? Coun- oh, I'm sorry. Uh, were you next? Uh- Council Stewart. You tell me. (laughs) Councilor Romanul and Council Hamilton. Council Stewart.

▶ 26:16 Robb Stewart: (laughs) Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Chief, I've got a couple of great real locations for those handhelds if you're looking for some spots.

▶ 26:20 Speaker 2: (laughs) We are open to suggestions.

▶ 26:23 Robb Stewart: Sure. Well- This is ... just all kidding aside though, um, I think that, um, the, the group that you have in front of you here would be a great point of contact for Sergeant Gock to reach out because we hear it. Uh, and I would encourage you to take advantage of that, um, because we know who's complaining. Uh, I mean, esse- like West Wyoming on, in my ward is, everyone talks about both on the s- the crosswalk as well as the speeding, right? As you well know. Sure. So, um, that, that, that would be my suggestion and, uh, and because I know Sergeant Gock, he's, he does take a lot of information in and he tries to allocate, uh, to the best of his ability. Uh, and, uh, I'm excited to hear that you have the, the, the new data recording. Please use it. Uh, to, I think that would be, uh, an exposition of where the, the, the areas of interest and then you can get out those handhelds and, you know, collect lots of revenue for the city. Absolutely.

▶ 27:26 Speaker 3: Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

▶ 27:28 Speaker 1: You're welcome. Uh, Councilor Romanul.

▶ 27:32 Devin Romanul: Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Chief, for, um, getting this grant and I'm, I, Councilor Williams asked one of the questions I had, but the other I had was, uh, is the data from the, from marginal, um, extra enforcement that we're gonna get, is that gonna be available to us? Because I think that will be really interesting both for our financial planning, how we wanna, you know, budget for street safety and, uh, infrastructure and things like that, as well as messaging to our constituents where, as one of the councilors alluded to, we get a lot of complaints, uh, particularly the ward councilors, um, for, uh, various infrastructure improvements and violations. And I think it would be helpful for us to message to our residents about, um, what actions the city is taking and what is the latest and

▶ 28:13 Speaker 5: greatest. So w- we'll welcome your thoughts there.

▶ 28:15 Speaker 2: Sure. I- i- i- outside of this is, um, grant, obviously, uh, our statistics, there's public records, uh, what, whatever people want and request, uh, you know, under the law, we can give it out and we'd be more than happy to give out our statistics on enforcement. But specifically with this one, absolutely, because we have to report it every month- Mm-hmm. ... uh, when we do the things back to the grant, uh, who gave us the grant, what are we doing? Obviously, we're not gonna send it back, we didn't write any tickets, that wouldn't be good. (laughs) So we, we will have data if, if anyone in the city or yourselves, uh, want to, uh, request it. We, we will provide it.

▶ 28:47 Speaker 5: Perfect. Thank you very much.

▶ 28:49 Ward Hamilton: Councilor Hamilton. Thank you, Chair Karabay. Thank you, Chief Fowler. Um, I'm gonna assume this is gonna be the last chance I have to speak to you. And, uh, first I'll say, um, you know, speeding, traffic concerns, as you well know, those are, I think, I believe, um, the largest challenges we have in Melrose. And it's not an easy task that you have before you, uh, or the folks on the Traffic Commission. And I, um, am grateful that Councilor Williams in his capacity on the, uh, Traffic Commission and whatever role that takes next, I know that's an issue that is, uh, very important to him and obviously to you. And, uh, those that, you know, the issues having to do with speeding and traffic are amongst the most important to our constituents and the folks that live here in the city. So I trust that you will, uh, continue to give those issues the attention they deserve. Um, and in closing, I just want to say thank you for all that you've done. Um, I've known you for some time and, uh, I'm so thankful that you're our police chief. And, um, while I won't continue to serve on this council, I look forward to supporting you in the department in all that you do for our community. I'm very grateful. Thank you.

▶ 30:15 Speaker 2: Thank- thank you, Counselor. And if I may, I- I'd like to reiterate that as well, a- a- and to the, the councils that are, are moving on. Um, but you particularly have been very supportive of what our goals have been, uh, and all of you. So, thank you. Appreciate it.

▶ 30:30 Mark Garipay: Thank you, sir. Yeah. Make a motion to recommend. Second. We have a motion to recommend by Counselor Williams, seconded by Counselor Finocchiaro, uh, motion to recommend ID 2025-772. Uh, on discussion, all in favor? I. Opposed? That will be recommended. Um, do I need to take a mo- we'll take a mo- um, let's take a motion to take ID 2025-775 and 2025-776 out of order.