SAUGUS — The Board of Selectmen, Town Manager Scott Crabtree, Sen. Brendan Crighton, State Rep. Donald Wong and State Rep. Jessica Giannino met Tuesday morning to discuss Route 1 and other issues raised by the board.
One of the major topics highlighted was the jug handle lights on Route 1, which the board has discussed over the years, and member Corinne Riley recently brought forward again.
“My pet peeve right now is the jug handle light, so I would just like to address that. I don’t know how much that actually impacts the traffic on Route 1, but I’m assuming it does because why would you have a stoplight in the middle of a major highway?” Riley said.
She said she’d understand if there was pushback from certain communities due to businesses that are on the other side of the highway. She also noted that she believes they should get together with the other communities “to come up with a plan.”
“I really do believe that it affects Route 1 considerably during rush hour,” she said.
Vice Chair Jeff Cicolini said there had been a meeting with state delegates when he first started on the board with Riley, and it had seemed like a study was being done at the time. He also noted that maybe the jug handle could remain open for emergency vehicles.
“We have some of the worst traffic in the country in Greater Boston, and that extends up here as well,” Crighton said. He continued, he reached out to MassDEP, but has not heard back yet. He also said that he agrees that they should get the municipalities together.
Crighton asked the board if there was any opposition to the change, and Cicolini said he wasn’t aware of anyone who would oppose it.
Wong said he has talked to municipalities north of Saugus who have said the jug handle has caused problems for people going into Boston.
“What we need is to talk not just with Saugus, but also with other surrounding cities,” he said.
Cicolini and the board offered to host said meeting.
Gianinno mentioned that her father was a traffic police officer and that oftentimes traffic studies are done by people from different areas who don’t know the situation well, and that they should look into talking to the law enforcement who experience the traffic every day.
“But also, whenever you talk about changing traffic patterns, it doesn’t alleviate the cars on the road. The cars are going to go somewhere. If they’re not lining up at the jug handle, you’re just pushing them somewhere else,” she said.
It was also decided that the delegation would try to invite the representatives from the other areas to try and get this meeting set up.
Member Michael Serino agreed with everything that was discussed, saying that no matter what time of day it was, traffic remained bad. He also brought up how bad the medians look on Route 1.
“I know we’ve done a lot of work on Route 1… If we can do something with the median strips, that would be great,” Serino said.
Crighton asked if there was a particular stretch to look at for the median, and Serino and Cicolini both said it should be all of it.
“You drive up our section of Route 1, and the median is not maintained,” Cicolini said. “It really looks shabby. It’s kind of the first impression when you’re driving in… You come up, and what do you see? Weeds and trash.”
Serino also mentioned the Walnut Street bridge, where people often stand to hold signs, and he’s worried someone is going to fall over or material is going to fall on top of cars. He asked if security fences could possibly be put up.
Another key discussion was an air quality tester.
“We’ve contacted Congressman Ed Markey and Congressman Seth Moulton, and we’re asking them to put up the air control,” Wong said.
Member Anthony Cogliano brought up Karla’s Shoes, asking if there was anything they could do to get rid of the building. He then brought up the contract with Wheelabrator (WIN Waste).
“My point is it’s always been the burning of the trash, and the emissions are far greater of a problem than the height of the landfill,” he said.
Giannino mentioned that bills had been filed regarding the facility.
“There’s the matter of dealing with the expansion and the emissions at the facility, and there’s the matter of capping and closing the landfill,” she said.
One of the bills filed deals with setting a closure date and setting parameters around making sure they cannot have a third burner. She said there was also a new bill filed to look at air quality.
Cicolini agreed with Cogliano, saying that the state needs to take a stance on NOx levels and that the only leverage Saugus had with the Host Community Agreement was to try to lower the pollution and emissions.
“I think everybody up here and everybody in the Town of Saugus wants better air quality… I think that the issue is the smoke and mirrors… When you are buying NOx credits, you aren’t improving the air quality. When you’re talking about adding a chemical so that you get a better reading, that’s not better air quality,” Crabtree said.
Giannino said that she hopes they get some momentum on this subject when it comes to facilities around the state.
“It’s important to know that they can buy emissions credits and they can buy different things in the community, but they’re not going to make the million-dollar investments that are needed to bring the facility up to code,” she said.
Cicolini said the state continues to give the plant extensions.
“The fact of the matter is the DEP time and time and time again has let us down… The bottom line is it’s burning ash. It’s burning trash… It pits the board to make it look like: ‘Oh, they’re pro ash.’ There’s no such thing as pro ash… This board doesn’t want expansion… We want protection for our residents. That’s the bottom line,” he said. “It needs to be regulated, but I do appreciate having the three of you supporting our community.”
The board thanked the delegates for coming and hopes to continue to work together to find solutions for everything mentioned during the meeting.
