By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
10/1/09
After more than four years, the town is ready to begin spending a portion of the $1 million in federal money earmarked for parking and traffic improvements in East Milton Square.
Last week the town was preparing to send a Request for Proposals document to potential consultants
to assume the reign of phase one of the study – a
comprehensive, 12-month analysis of East Milton
traffic patterns.
The town plans to contract out the one-year job for $150,000.
According to Town Planner Bill Clark, the RFP had to first be approved by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the state entity that oversees how federal money gets spent.
“This was a comprehensive RFP,” Clark told the Business and Citizen Advisory Committee – also known as the East Milton Parking Study – at a meeting Sept. 22.
Clark explained that the RFP – outlining the detailed scope of work for phase one of the study – was submitted to the state in March, and the town “waited all summer” for approval, which was only recently granted.
The town can begin spending the initial $150,000 for phase one with the start of the federal fiscal year Oct. 1, Clark told the committee.
“That money for this study has always been there. It hasn’t been touched,” Clark said when asked if economic factors would impact how much the town can ultimately spend.
After narrowing-down potential consultants for the RFP, the town will bring three candidates to the parking committee to interview, likely by November, Clark said.
He promised the town would carefully review the prior work and reputation of each potential consultant.
Ultimately, the Selectmen have the final say on who does the work.
“They have to cut the check,” he said.
As Clark told the committee, after phase one concludes, phase two would include “a recommendation on how to take and spend the rest of that money.”
“A lot of it depends on what you’re proposing,” he said, responding to questions on how design and construction costs could play out. “If you’re proposing building a multi-level parking structure, it can be spent on that. If it’s just a lot of land you’re using, it’s obviously going to be less. It depends on how we structure phase two.”
Clark was also asked why phase one would takea year.
“It’s going to take someone who doesn’t know that area a couple of months to review [layouts and previous studies of the area] and grow familiar with that,” he said, also explaining that careful public scrutiny will also go into the work. “You’ve got to make sure you have a good plan before [moving on to phase two].”
He added, “My comment to the state was that it has to be done in a year.”
The $1 million grant for East Milton traffic improvements was earmarked for Milton in 2005 as part of a federal transportation bill. This year, Selectmen formed the Business and Citizen Advisory Committee, which consists of residents and business owners familiar with traffic problems around the square.
Clark said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch remains committed to the study.
“The congressman’s office is really ‘get it going’ about this. He says, ‘Whatever you need, you’ve got it,’” he said.
East Milton Square, the town’s busiest business district, has been plagued by traffic and parking woes since the construction of Interstate 93 in the 1950s. The highway, which runs directly through the square, has limited how much parking the area shops can provide. As a result, the limited street parking along Adams Street and Granite Avenue has become commonplace for shoppers in the square.

– Scott MacKeen