Letter to the Editor: Concerns Regarding Money Spent on Traffic Studies in North Reading

Dear editor:

Enclosed is a copy of a letter I sent to the North Reading Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator. I feel there is no need to spend any more money on this issue just because some people feel we have to spend money to be told what we should already know.  

Gentlemen:

I would like to express my opinion on spending another $25,000 on a traffic study for Chestnut Street and Chestnut and Haverhill Street area. I would ask you to reconsider spending this money for these studies.

This will be a total of approx. $32,000 spent for studies in these areas. This is not needed in my opinion. I know some of you want to hear from a traffic engineer what can be done. Well I do not think it is worth another $25,000 to get a 50 plus page report that will have info in it that you already should have.I know some of you feel we have gone this far so we have to keep going and spend the $25,000. This is not true. There comes a point where it is not reasonable to spend any more money on this issue. 

Most of us have said we want to get the biggest bank for our tax bucks that we can. Well this is not the case in this situation in my opinion. Chestnut Street speeding can be controlled by enforcement. There will always be trucks on Chestnut Street if the speed was controlled there should be no complaints. The intersection of Chestnut and Haverhill Street was changed to an offset intersection many years ago. I realize there are still accidents there but they are all driver error.

You could petition the state to let the town put traffic lights at the intersection but I do not know if the intersection would meet the state warrants for a traffic signal and if it did I would guess (and this is a total guess) it would cost approx. $200,000 to $250,000 to install them and the town would have to pay for them. I dealt with these type situations in Reading for many years so I have some knowledge of what I am talking about. If you would like to speak to me on these issues please call me. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I ask you to please reconsider spending the additional $25,000 on this study. 

Respectfully,

Joe Veno