Saugus votes to direct portion of state funding to address sidewalk concerns

SAUGUS-Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian essentially asked his colleagues Monday to adopt a motto; “If we improve a public facility for some, we should improve it for all.”As chairman of a committee aimed at evaluating sidewalks throughout the town, Manoogian said sidewalks must be part of all roadway improvement projects. Most notably, he added, bringing them in compliance with the American Disabilities Act.Manoogian presented and meeting members approved a recommendation to direct 18 percent of all Chapter 90 funding toward addressing sidewalks.Chapter 90 funding is money reimbursed by the state specifically earmarked for repairing, improving and constructing roadways, bridges and sidewalks. It can also be used to purchase some equipment.Manoogian’s recommendation also calls for a three-year plan for installing and improving sidewalks.To prove his point on the need for sidewalk attention, Manoogian said if residents looked closely at some they could find WPA plaques. The Work Progress Administration was a depression-era project started under Herbert Hoover aimed at putting the unemployed to work.Manoogian showed a string of photos featuring sidewalks from all over town that needed work. Specifically, most needed the addition of curb to street wheelchair ramps. He also said sidewalks are buckling in many places, making it hard for both handicap users but average citizens to navigate.With $948,000 in Chapter 90 funding, Manoogian said he didn’t see why some of the sidewalk issues couldn’t be addressed this year.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said roughly $480,000 of this year’s Chapter 90 funds had been spoken for in terms of roadwork and equipment replacement, but it leaves plenty to get a start on the sidewalk issues.Department of Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato said following the meeting that the sidewalk neglect was never intentional. With no money in the budget for capital improvements, Attubato said he’s been using the Chapter 90 money solely to repave streets. Since meeting with Manoogian, however, he has already jumped on the sidewalk issue.He said he is putting together a survey of sidewalks around each of the schools and public buildings and will fan out from there to survey all the main streets in town. Manoogian said the main areas such as around Town Hall and Cliftondale Square are fairly accessible – it’s once you get away from the downtown areas or Saugus Center that handicap ramps are far and few between.”Curb ramps are ignored and the result is a dangerous situation,” Manoogian said. “People in wheelchairs stay in. The solution is if the roads are built or altered it must include ramps.”While Town Meeting members voted to support the recommendations, Manoogian said they still had to vote to release the funds under Article 2, which should come up when Town Meeting reconvenes at the call of the Moderator Robert Long within the next two weeks.