Walk+Bike+Roll Randolph

If you need context about what this post is addressing, please read previous posts about the pedestrian beacon to get up to speed. This is an update.

We met with the Randolph Selectboard on July 10 to try to get them to overturn the town manager’s decision to decline acceptance of our $15K donation of a pedestrian beacon at the School St. crosswalk in front of the library.

Their main objection was that we didn’t follow the town’s grant policy. We argued that we had worked with the acting grant administrator at the time and he never told us to follow the policy nor did he indicate we shouldn’t apply for the grant that we ended up receiving from AARP. 

We presented a history of how we this project developed. Several citizens spoke in favor of the town accepting the donation, citing how difficult that crossing is. 

Other issues brought up by board members were: possible vandalism, compliance of the beacon with the town’s walk/bike master plan (which hadn’t been received as of the July meeting), and the possible impact of the flashing beacon on nearby residents. In the end, the board took no action and said that “someone would be in touch” with us. If you want to watch the video of that meeting, you can access it here – https://www.orcamedia.net/series/randolph-selectboard.

Note that a copy of the draft Walk/bike master plan is now available and it mentions RRFBs (flashing beacons) as a safety measure for several crosswalks including the one at the library. However, as of now, this plan has not been adopted or endorsed by the Town. 

After waiting at least a week with no contact from the Town or Selectboard, Maryann reached out to Trini (board chair). Trini asked for a copy of the grant agreement we have with AARP and we provided that. No further requests for information or contact have come from Trini. 

To address the visual impact question, we talked with Ann Howard, who works with seniors in town. She helped us develop and distribute a survey to the residents of Randolph House asking their opinion. We also held a meeting at Randolph House at which around 20 of their residents came to talk with us. All were in favor of the pedestrian beacon and no concerns about the visual impact were expressed. We did reach out to the resident of the white house between the library and Chandler and she is not in favor of the beacon. We passed on the Randolph House info to Trini. 

One issue raised by the Town manager in a previous meeting was the level of insurance available during construction of the flashing beacon. We reached out to AARP about this. We applied for this grant in partnership with RACDC, who carries appropriate levels of insurance. We plan to make sure that the contractor who will do the actual installation has adequate insurance and RACDC will be the contracting entity, so we feel like we have addressed this issue. 

We still feel like the flashing beacon is an important safety improvement for people crossing the street by the library. We don’t know what to expect at this week’s Selectboard meeting. We are on the agenda for this Thursday’s 8/14/25 Selectboard meeting starting at 5:30 PM. There is no way to know when our item will come up. Please plan to attend if you want to offer support either by your presence or by speaking to the board directly.