From the Medfield Patch, the following is Sharon Tatro’s summary of her exhaustive and detailed investigation of the history of the proposed improvement of the RTE 27 and West Street intersection. Sharon emailed this letter to Select Board members on Monday. –

Letter from Sharon Tatro Regarding the West St/Rt 27 Intersection

Letter sent to Select Board, Town Admin and the DPW Director on 9/9/24. Select Board will address this at tonight’s 9/10 Mtg at 6pm.

Colleen M. Sullivan,Patch Mayor

Posted Tue, Sep 10, 2024 at 3:34 pm ET

Letter from Medfield resident and former member of the Medfield Warrant Committee, Sharon Tatro…

September 9, 2024

“In advance of the Select Board meeting on Tuesday, September 10th , I wanted to reach out
to all of you about the intersection at West Street and Route 27. I want to open by reminding all of you, I was a member of the Warrant Committee from Sept 2014 to May 2023. During my tenure on the Warrant Committee the safety concerns of that intersection became the subject of potential warrant articles that all were pulled prior to Town Meeting due to the desire of the DPW Director and Town Administrator to try to find either state or federal grants to help the town pay for it. Given the fact that I live on West I always volunteered to work on that article. In March of 2024 a horrific crash occurred at that intersection that had a profound impact on myself and others that I care deeply for. Immediately following the crash many of us contacted the state representatives and senators to find out the status of the funding. I have attached for you the response we received from Denise Garlick’s office on March 18th. This was the first time that myself and many others learned about the $1.3M Federal earmark from 2022 (Exhibit A).

I have now spent a tremendous amount of time pouring over the documents on this topic
from 2021 to present. I have also watched every Select Board meeting from 2021 to present that had the topic of any intersection in town not just this one. What strikes me is a combination of two things, personal preference predispositions that have clouded the ability to see what actually is in the best interest and safety of towns people and then those same people creating a deafening silence due to inaction because they didn’t like what they were being told. The consequence in front of us right now is that the funds will expire in September 2026 if it has not been expended….not planned….expended.

This intersection was constantly a topic and an urgent issue leading up to 2020. It was
such an issue that the town negotiated payments from some developments to have to pay
the town funds to go towards it. That was in addition to applying for and receiving a
Housing Choice grant in 2021 for design (Exhibit B) and a Federal Community Project
Funding Grant in 2022 for construction (Exhibits C1, C2, D, E, F & G). And then the silence
begins until March 13, 2024 when the need for a MedFlight helicopter seems to have
brought us here.

I have had people ask me about how many crashes are at that intersection. When the town
was notified in March 2019 that it was a Top 200 Crash Location there had been 22 crashes
between 2014-2016. I asked the Chief to compile the data for the last 10 years. (Exhibit T).
You will see that the number of crashes from when we got the Federal earmark through
when I received this last week there were 11, well now there is 12 as there was one around
1pm today. In 2022 alone there were 13 therefore in the last three years 2022-2024 there
are already 24 counting today and we still have 4 months left in the year.
In my discussions with the Town Administrator and DPW Director, they explained to me that
the crashes were mainly due to left turning crashes. However, when you read the reports
done that is not true. In fact, in the crash statistics used by MPO (Exhibits C2 and J) 28 of
the 46 crashes were due to “angle collisions”. Only 6 of the 28 were from left turns. The
remaining 22 were from red light violations caused by either:
– Speeding
– Intersection Environment
– Signal Visibility
– Signal Operation
– Sun glare

It is and always has been clear that something needs to be done. So how did we get from
working diligently on this to total inaction and jeopardy of losing funding if we don’t act
now?
The timeline is this:

March 13, 2019: Medfield was sent a letter about the intersection being on the list of
the top 200 crash sites. (Exhibit H)
– May 20, 2019: Medfield was notified by MassDOT that a Road Safety Audit would be
conducted. (Exhibit I)
– November 7, 2019: The 27/West Intersection was chosen by the MPO as one of 30
intersections that needed to be studied for safety improvements. A review was
given to study advisors on 9/16/2020 (Exhibit C2) and then a complete report was
issued on 10/22/20 (Exhibit J)
– December 8, 2020: Medfield begins to engage BETA to participate in the Housing
Choice Grant application. (Exhibits K1 and K2)
– March 23, 2021: Medfield receives the Housing Choice Grant for a design study of
the intersection. (Exhibit B)
– April 20 through May 5, 2021 emails: Medfield works with BETA and the MassDOT to
gather information needed to submit for the Federal Community Project Funding
Grant. (Exhibits L1-4)
– May 25, 2021: The Select Board voted to have BETA complete a study for the
engineering and design of intersection improvements at West Street and Route 27
using the Department of Housing and Community Development grant awarded the
Town for $160,500 grant (FY2021 Housing Choice Community Capital Grant).
– Between 5/25/21 and 6/30/22 the DPW Director and BETA work on the study. BETA
informs the town in April 2022 the cost of both a roundabout and a signalized
intersection and informs them that MassDOT will more than likely require the more expensive roundabout.

• March 31, 2022: BETA and the town of Medfield submit the project to MassDOT TIPs program (Exhibit M)

• April 25, 2022: Town of Medfield reaches out to BETA to get additional information for the Federal Grant application and is reminded that MassDOT has told them it will probably need to be a roundabout and gives a project cost for the signalized intersection and the roundabout. (Exhibit N)
• June 1, 2022: MassDOT accepts the project and lets Medfield know they have until June 1, 2024 to do three things (Exhibit O) (note.NONE.of.this.has.been.done.and.the.deadline.has.passed)¿
  • Receive MassDOT Approval of the project’s scope/workhours
  • Secure a signed contract with a design consultant
  • Identify design funding and provide proof of a Town vote/Chapter 90 approval
• June 30, 2022: BETA issues their report (Exhibit P)

– March 1, 2022: Select Board hears a presentation from Nitsch Engineering about
five other intersections in Medfield that they studied in 2020. The 27/West
intersection was not part of this presentation.
– July 7, 2022: BETA submits a contract to Medfield to complete the work as required
in the June 1, 2022 letter. (Exhibit Q) (note.we.NEVER.respond.or.present.this.to.the.
Select.Board)
– December 20, 2022: The town is notified of the successful Federal grant (Exhibit D)
for construction and told it will be administered by the DOT. See below for the
portion of the Federal press release (Exhibit E) for what was approved:

Project: Reconstruction of the West Street / Route 27 Intersection
Amount of Request: $1,300,000
Project Sponsor: Town of Medfield
Address: 459 Main Street, Medfield, MA 02052
Project Description: The funding would be used for the reconstruction of the intersection
at West Street and Route 27 (North Meadows Road) in Medfield. The intersection is
identified as a high crash location by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) (top
5%) for 2014-2016 and 2013-2015. It is also a MassDOT Top 200 Intersection Crash Cluster
Location.
Funding Subcommittee and Account: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development –
Federal-Aid Highways: Highway Infrastructure Programs

-February 8, 2023: The town asks how to access the grant and are reminded that
MassDOT will administer it. The town is also told that all $1.3M must be fully
expended by September 2026. (Exhibit G)
– March 13, 2023: The town gets an email from BETA asking about status because the
MassDOT reached out to them on 3/7/23 for the status of the 25% Design project to
be funded by Chapter 90. (Exhibit R)

Next comes the silence.

The next time there is any activity again talking about this intersection is after the near tragedy on 3/13/24. I have been told by the Town Administrator and the DPW Director that they didn’t move
forward because “the town” preferred a signalized intersection and not the roundabout that
MassDOT was more than likely going to want. The core issue to this is that there was never one Select Board meeting where this was discussed nor was it ever brought to the town. So
“the town” they refer to is the two of them and perhaps a few other town officials asked in side meetings and never was a formal vote or discussion taken. The reports prepared by the MPO and BETA have never been presented. I have checked every agenda since 1/1/21 and watched every meeting the DPW Director was present at. Never once is the Select Board shown the studies, asked to opine on the studies or ask if the town has a preference on what design to select.

In fact, if you look closely at the submission sent to Rep Auchincloss on 4/20/22 (Exhibit
C1) you will see that a web link is provided as backup which is the presentation from
9/16/20 that MPO had for a review meeting (Exhibit C2). However, on 10/22/2020 MPO had
submitted a full report as a result of that meeting (Exhibit J). It can be noted that the key
difference is the additional analysis including the roundabout as a potential long-term
improvement. On page 24, they state when referring to the roundabout that it “would slow
down all the traffic through the roundabout and would reduce the crash severity most
significantly.” They go on to say “All of these should be further investigated at the functional
design stage.” My biggest concern here is that we had the report from 10/22/2020 but
chose to submit with the Federal Grant the less robust power point presentation that does
not include the full picture. This shows the predisposition by those participating in this to
the signalized intersection but without any input from the Select Board or the towns
people.

Individuals who are not traffic safety engineers have talked amongst themselves, disagreed
with experts and never asked the “town”. The “town” gets asked during the Public Hearing
process that comes with a 25% Design Phase process but the “town” has never been given
their due process because for two years our town leaders have failed to move this forward
for the good of the town.

I also have been told by the Town Administrator and the DPW Director that the Federal Grant is for signals and not a roundabout. Actually, that is not true. Look at the grant application (Exhibit C1)…it never once says how we want to fix the intersection it just discusses how dangerous it is and that it needs to be reconstructed. Look at the grant award (Exhibit E)…” the reconstruction of the intersection”. It does not say signals at all. The grant application submitted used the lower number for signals but the grant is not for signals…its for reconstruction. The reconstruction is then managed by MassDOT. MassDOT requires you to have a roundabout considered, the town officials knew that and they ignored it because they didn’t like what they were being told. The only application submitted by the town on this that talks about the signalized intersection is the one to MassDOT when the town needed a project number to be assigned (Exhibit M).

The only meeting between 2021-2024 about completed intersection studies was on 3/1/22.
At this meeting Nitsch Engineering gives a presentation on a study they did in 2020 on five
other intersections in town. I was struck while watching this that once again town officials
questioned the traffic safety experts and made suggestions based on personal preferences
and conveniences ignoring the counter points on traffic safety given to them. This behavior
repeated itself on 5/28/24 when this intersection at 27/West finally appeared as an agenda
again. No one that spoke at that May 28th meeting was a traffic safety expert but those that
did speak had no issues making statements to question the validity of what they were being
told those experts say.

In the meeting on 5/28/24, the DPW Director tells the Select Board that the town “recently”
received a Federal grant for construction. You may disagree with me but I would not define
18 months ago as “recently”. A few slides are shown of the design concepts but the
presentation that was used was from the MPO work and not the BETA study the grant paid for. Its unclear to me why that was done. Leading up to this meeting on 5/28/24, on
3/21/24 the Town Administrator and DPW Director emailed to see how to move the project
forward with signals and not having to consider a roundabout but are reminded that is not the case and that the MassDOT will more than likely require a roundabout in the end. (Exhibits R1-3) All of this was clear in 2022 as you can see from everything above.

In the meeting on 5/28/24, there were good questions raised that no one had the answers
to even though those questions have been known since 2022 when BETA sent the
roundabout versions. Two years have been wasted in the silence. The only way to get the
answers is to do a 25% Design Phase and start moving. We must move quickly because the $1.3M will expire two years from now in September 2026.

I hear your concerns that a roundabout is more expensive and requires some land takings. I also hear the experts saying that a roundabout is safer. The town had the opportunity to ask for $2M to be able to cover either option when the application for the Federal Grant was submitted but the town didn’t. In July the DPW Director and Town Administrator met with MassDOT and the BETA group to discuss all of this. As reported on 8/20/24 it was confirmed the town must consider a roundabout. (Exhibit S) It was also confirmed that MassDOT says they will assist in finding the gap funding. You may argue that none of this is in writing, but you will never get that if you don’t move forward and advance the discussion through the 25% design phase. The 25% design process is laid out in the contract the town received 26 months ago and never acted upon even though the town received the Federal Grant 21 months ago. I invite you to read it as everything is laid out and confirms that a roundabout in addition to a signalized intersection needs to be considered. (Exhibit Q).

In the Federal Grant we committed this project could be completed within 12 months and stated it would happen between October 2022 and 2023. (Exhibit C1) We were told by BETA to meet that commitment we needed to start the 25% design by May 2022. We were also told that if a roundabout is needed the project will take longer. (Exhibit N). That means that the project is a minimum of 16 months away from completion after we start the 25% Design Phase. We have 24 months until we lose the funding. If you do not act on this tomorrow we have a very real chance of losing the funds. As the saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right. There have been too many wrongs over the last two years to count, its now time to make it right before we run out of time or worse yet someone loses their life. I’m going to close with a quote from the traffic safety consultant from Nitsch that presented to the Select Board on March 1, 2022. “We don’t want to wait until a tragedy occurs. One crash may be too many for someone in your family.”

Lets do the right thing.

Sincerely,
Sharon K. Tatro, 12 West Street

**All EXHIBITS are available view on this Google Drive!!

SELECT BOARD MEETING: September 10, 2024 – Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Town Hall, Chenery Hall, Second Fl., 459 Main Street,Medfield, MA 02052