WESTBROOK – With no strong objections from the public at a meeting Monday night, Westbrook city officials intend to go ahead with plans to remove the barriers in the CVS Pharmacy parking lot in downtown Westbrook in order to improve traffic flow.
The city’s Facilities and Streets Committee already voted on June 25 to remove the barriers. City Administrator Jerre Bryant said he did not notify all the area businesses prior to the June 25 meeting because he thought the committee would vote to send the issue to the full council, not vote then and there to remove the barriers.
“We didn’t do any kind of direct notification to people,” Bryant said.
So the committee, which consists of the full City Council (with Dorothy Aube absent), met Monday to offer the public a chance to discuss the matter further.
“This is really just to make sure we get public input before we move forward with removing the barriers,” Bryant said.
The barriers are four large planters in the parking lot outside the CVS. They were installed “a number of years ago,” said Bryant, in order to prevent people from using the lot as a convenient cut-through to get to Main and Bridge streets.
At Monday’s meeting, Councilor Mike Foley said he remembered when the barriers weren’t there, and said, “It does seem like it became a thoroughfare.”
On the other hand, critics have told councilors that removing them will aid traffic flow in the area. Judy Boucher, who owns My Lady Tea Room on Main Street, just around the corner from the lot, said improving traffic flow would help her.
“I think it would be good for other businesses,” she said.
Bryant also cited the recent $5.5 million state construction project revamping William Clarke Drive, which included a median that makes it harder for people to turn off the roadway into the parking lot.
“Basically, only the westbound traffic can enter or exit at that location,” he said.
Phil Gray, manager at CVS, said the pharmacy didn’t have an opinion either way on the barriers, but he did express concerns about people driving too fast through the area, and suggested speed bumps, stop signs, or other traffic-control devices be installed to help.
“Our concerns are the traffic flow through there, the speeding,” he said.
City Engineer Eric Dudley cautioned against installing speed bumps right where the barriers are right now. That spot, he said, is where traffic turns, and it’s a bad idea to be turning while going over a speed bump.
“You have a higher likelihood of losing control of your vehicle when you do that,” he said.
With no move to reconsider the vote to remove the barriers, the committee’s June decision stands. Bryant said he expects the barriers to be removed as early as today.
While Bryant said there are no plans to install speed tables or speed bumps, the city will install “caution” and “low speed” signs, he said, “to alert drivers that there are indeed pedestrians in the area.”
These barriers in the CVS parking lot between Main Street and William Clarke Drive in downtown Westbrook will be removed to aid traffic flow, after officials gave the public a chance to weigh in at a meeting this week. Send questions/comments to the editors.
