Finance Committee - 08/19/2020 Page 10
Alderman Klee
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Director Cummings, the question that | have, | love the idea of letting us see different
ones and | love the idea of doing this year after year. | don’t love the idea of this being there during the winter
months. | am assuming that we would still remove them during the winter months if we decided that this
becomes a permanent way of doing business? And if we did decide, and | again | know there’s an “if”, if we
did decide to move forward with this, year after year, would we here in the City have the ability to put these in
place. | know we not only rented them but we had to hire someone to put them in place because of their weight
and so on. Would we be able to do that or would we still have to contract that out.
Director Cummings
Thank you Mr. Mayor if | may? So those are excellent questions, ones we don’t have answers to only
because it really depends on the barriers that we choose. | think ultimately we would always be picking up the
barriers at the end of the “outdoor dining season” which is November 15". These barriers would be our
responsibility so we would need to have storage for them over the winter months. That all needs to be taken
into consideration; those logistical considerations have been raised by DPW. Those are going to be some of
the things that we will be looking to develop plans for when and if we move forward.
Ultimately the barriers that we are piloting meet all the concerns are outlined. We would be able to store these
barriers. One of the barriers we would be more easily able to implement year after year. If we go with one of
the other barriers, | think we would probably need to have a third party deploy them every year. So there are
going to be trade-offs, pros and cons, depending on which ones we actually choose. And so we will make that
clear as time goes on.
Alderman Klee
Thank you, Mr. Mayor if | could just do a follow up?
Mayor Donchess
Yes.
Alderman Klee
Thank you. | like the idea that they are not going to be there during the winter more for snow removal and for
the protection of the barriers themselves too. | think that there would be a lot of damage. | also just my two
cents, | had seen on-line another town that had done something similar and then they had local artists actually
paint them and create them and do different types of things that they had. They actually looked a little similar
to the Jersey Barriers but they had a different texture to them. | kind of liked that idea too so | am interested in
seeing what you will be putting forward so thank you.
Mayor Donchess
Now, of course, if we own them we can authorize that if we wanted to. The concrete barrier alternative is, it is
still a concrete barrier but it’s more of a pastel color and the shape is not quite as austere as the Jersey
Barriers. It's more pleasing shape | am going to say. When we talked with Boston about their approach
towards all this, because of one of the barriers we are suggesting be piloted is a water filled metal barrier that
would allow plantings and the like. We are thinking we would do that on a side street where there’s not the
same kind of traffic resistance and parallel to the traffic. The concrete barriers, in Boston they still use
concrete barriers for any walls that face the traffic, but then the parallel walls they allow greater latitude on
what can be used. But in any event, we would be able to see two alternatives here and begin to consider. With
the concrete barriers we could authorize, you know, if we own them, obviously we could let someone paint
them. But that again would be one of the things we would discuss once we see how these work and what they
look like. Alderwoman Kelly?
