Everett Ave. culvert and Hancock St. parking
By Joyce Westner Nov. 28, 2023
After the Select Board received letters from both the Capital Planning Committee (CPC) and the town engineer about the need to investigate the problems with the Everett Ave. culvert, they voted to approved an engineering study, despite Fall Town Meeting members voting against one. See https://www.winchesternews.org/2023-nov-11-edition/everett-ave-culvert-study-nixed-at-town-meeting. The study would be funded from ARPA funds (the post-Covid federal funds to help communities recover). Town Manager Beth Rudolph clarified that if the study shows repairs are needed, she’d put out a repair, but if it shows there's been a catastrophic failure since they first investigated, the culvert would need to be replaced. Michelle Prior was the only dissenting vote. She told the News, “If the CPC was prepared to use $100,000 from the Capital Stabilization Fund to pay for this study at Fall Town Meeting, I was fine to wait until the spring for them to come back and ask to use those funds vs. spending ARPA funds. And with no mechanism by which Capital would reimburse ARPA for the $100K that they were prepared to spend, I dissented.”
Also in a nod to homeowners’ asking for relief from cars parked in front of their houses, and from cars blocking their driveways and the fire hydrant. The Board agreed to have the town post a “No Parking from Here to Driveway” sign at the bottom of Hancock St. near the corner of Washington St. According to one homeowner, the Washington St. condos are sometimes advertised as having “ample street parking,” despite a town ban on overnight parking, especially during the winter when the parked cars interfere with snow plows. The homeowner also said that the 32 condos only have 30 parking spaces. The Board also agreed to look into the lack of overnight parking enforcement.
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