Belfast council orders traffic flow study

BELFAST – Increased traffic in the business district has prompted the City Council to order a traffic flow study of the downtown.

The council on Tuesday instructed assistant city manager Robert Keating, who is also director of public safety, to focus the study on the downtown grid from the waterfront to Congress Street, bordered by Miller Street on the south and Primrose Hill on the north. Keating was instructed to have the study completed by March 1.

The issue of downtown traffic congestion has been a topic of discussion for the past year. The city has become a tourist destination and halts in the flow of traffic through the downtown have been noticeable, especially in the summer months.

Police Chief Allen Weaver had initially proposed that Church Street be converted to a one-way street between Post Office Square and Market Street as a way to relieve congestion. The council rejected that suggestion two weeks ago, opting instead to retain two-way traffic on Church Street but to adopt a right-turn-only where it enters Post Office Square.

Although the council had instructed the city administration to present the legal language for an ordinance change dealing with a right turn off Church Street at Tuesday’s meeting, Keating encouraged members to hold off on making the change.

“I think you’re making a mistake,” Keating told the council. “I think you ought to take another look at that.”

Keating told the council that the Knox County commissioners had raised concerns about the two-way traffic on Spring Street. He said other areas in the downtown needed to be looked at as well. He reminded them of suggestions made years ago about installing a stop sign on Main Street above Post Office Square to help regulate traffic entering the square.

“I think if we are going to make change we ought to make good change,” said Keating. “It involves much more, it’s a very complicated problem. …We need to look at it all.”

Keating said the city would use a traffic counting device to record the number and type of vehicles traveling through the downtown. The monitor will also record the speed and direction of the cars.

In another matter, the council agreed to begin the process of entering into a contract with the Belfast Boatyard to become a booking agent for moorings within the federal navigation area. The boatyard owns the dozen moorings but under federal law only publicly owned moorings can be located in the area. Under the contract, the city would own the moorings but they would be the responsibility of the boatyard.

Harbor master Kathy Messier said the harbor is scheduled to be dredged this winter and resolving the mooring issue was critical. She noted that Camden and Northeast Harbor also have moorings located in their federal navigation area and have worked out contracts with private operators to manage and maintain them. She said the contract proposed by the city would require the boat- yard to carry a $1 million insurance policy on moorings. She said the Army Corps of Engineers approved the contract proposal.

“They are very important to the business to have a place to put boats,” Messier said of the moorings. “They are very important to the diversity of the harbor.”

The proposed amendment to the harbor ordinance will have two more public readings before the council votes on the issue.