Committee on Infrastructure — 12/08/2021 Page 18
away for the season. So when we go out there with the barriers, we've had numerous occasions where it can be an officer
safety issue where you're pulling vehicles on Main Street because there's not a lot of room for traffic to pass by and the
officer to get out his vehicle. So that is definitely one thing that | received in the feedback that was important to them — the
officer safety issue. What they started doing is trying to pull these vehicles over on the side streets but sometimes that
doesn't happen. It's out of their control.
They did note since they removed the barriers, officers have noticed that traffic flow, although busy at peak times it has
significantly lessened on Main Street I've also noticed that the ability to navigate Main Street during emergency calis has
improved. And that is feedback | received from the offices. Again they travel that road every day and you know, work 24/7
entity.
Chairman O’Brien
Thank you, Chief Rourke
Alderman Tencza
So if | may, | just want to follow up on something that the Chief said before - Chief Rhodes. Chief you said that if there's
one call on Main Street, you would tie up the whole street but that's going to be the same whether the barriers are in place
or not, right? | mean if there was a fire on one of the main street buildings between East and West Hollis Street and Water
Street, | mean you're going to reroute traffic out of the out of that area around, correct?
Brian Rhodes, Fire Chief
| guess potentially depending on the severity of the incident but when you limit the roadway for me, our aerial trucks take a
minimum of 16 feet to set up. That’s a lot of room. So | can't have cars coming by our firefighters while they're operating
out there. So we would have shut the whole thing down. If we're back at, you know, four or five lanes on Main Street, the
potential exists that maybe two of those lanes are open on the other side and our friends in the Police Department would
help facilitate the traffic movement over there. It would still mess things up but that it's just a possibility. There's a lot of
what ifs but that's the world I live in. There are no certainties in the Fire Department or Police Department. If you would
have told me last Saturday we would have had a fire at seven in the morning and my Assistant Chief almost would have
gotten hit by a vehicle driving around him at an accident he came upon, I'd say no way. So we just, you know, we plan for
the worst and hope for the best and that's all | try to give you is the best information and the possible scenarios that are out
there.
hairman O'Brien
Allright. | do have one. Chief Rourke did you or members of the previous administration were ever influenced by any
political official on this particular thing? In other words, did anybody ever contaminate you?
Kevin Rourke, Deputy Police Chief
No.
Chairman O'Brien
Okay and if there was severe safety or a life threatening type of situation, you would make it known to city officials to
remedy this?
Kevin Rourke, D Police Chie
Absolutely.
Chairman O'Brien
Thank you. Any other further questions for any members of the board? Gentlemen | thank you for coming before this
committee. Thank you so much. At this time, | would like to bring up Director Cummings
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
And as I'm getting situated, | believe Julie Chizmas is on the line and I think she has a couple slides that she wants to
present to you this evening. So you may want to have her go first and I'll follow on after.
