PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City councilors would like to see a solution for a residential street causing grief after being narrowed.

 

On Tuesday, the panel sent a petition from Ward 2 Councilor Charles Kronick requesting to appropriate free cash for road repairs on California Avenue to Mayor Linda Tyer.

 

After the road was regraded and narrowed, the Department of Public Works attempted to correct drainage issues by raising the driveways by as much as two inches, Kronick said, which created a lip at the road that is a legal liability. 

 

He also cited ice as a hazard after the flooding freezes.

 

"I don't see any real options except to start over and do the whole thing again and go back to its original specifications," he said.

 

Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales said that the road aprons were not installed correctly in many places because it is a challenging job due to the street's character.  It is part of the contract to correct those issues.

 

While the water should drain normally, the city will look into adding curbing in the spring to address it.

 

The City Council was notified of the streets that would be narrowed, but Morales agreed that there could have been more communication.

 

"I completely agree that it was not enough that it was not enough," he said in response to criticism. "We should have notified residents and we need to do better, I accept that, and we need to improve our communication, specifically on those types of things."

 

He said that the city's standard is an inch and a half for lips and that the contractor will reduce anything above that.

 

Kronick explained that he requested the use of free cash because it would not impact other projects and affect the DPW's budgeting, adding that it is "streamlined, fair to the city," and are revenues that have been contributed by taxpayers.

 

Ward 3 Councilor Kevin Sherman agreed with this sentiment, explaining that free cash doesn't pit wards against each other and corrects a job that should have been done right in the first place.

 

Councilor At Large Earl Persip III was originally against the suggestion of free cash but was convinced by this point.

 

"I don't have a problem sending this to the mayor and us figuring out how much it costs to fix it," Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey added.

 

"But my point is that when a contractor messes up when something doesn't go well, they'll come back and fix it so instead of us taking money out of free cash, some of these issues could be fixed just through the contract that we already have."

 

On the agenda was also a petition from Persip requesting that Morales stop narrowing streets and changing any dimensions of streets when repaving. He asked that if a street needs to be changed, that Morales must meet with the ward councilor to find a proper way to communicate the changes to residents. 

 

 It was referred to the commissioner.

 

"I know narrowing streets is helpful and it slows people down and it's a good thing, that's not what this petition is for," Persip said.

 

He cited Kavey's prior testimony about fielding complaints about narrowed streets in his ward and asked for some standard for notifying residents when street dimensions change.

 

"I agree we probably should still narrow streets to make them safer," Persip said.

 

"When we are on California Ave., people were complaining because it was narrow and cars had to slow down and that was actually the point of the narrowing of the street. We actually watched the narrowing work but there were other issues of flooding, aprons, and we know that."

 

At the beginning of the season, he would like the commissioner's office to set up a meeting with the councilor of the ward that has streets to be narrowed so that they can communicate with constituents.