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Residents and business volunteers urge ferry pilot and press for safer sidewalks
Summary
Multiple residents and business volunteers urged the Beacon City Council to pursue a weekend ferry pilot and pressed the city to fix hazardous pedestrian crossings and enforce sidewalk de‑icing. Speakers cited specific locations, a business outreach survey and the pedestrian inventory forthcoming to the council.
Public commenters pressed the Beacon City Council on two related transportation topics: restoring ferry service and improving pedestrian safety. Donna Minkowitz, a Ward 1 resident who said she is a “lifelong pedestrian,” listed multiple hazardous locations and asked the city to enforce sidewalk de‑icing and yield rules at busy crossings. “Despite Beacon's reputation as a walkable city, I regularly encounter dangerous situations for pedestrians when I walk around town,” she said, naming the crosswalk between Wolcott and Sargent as a recurring hazard.
Volunteers and business leaders spoke in favor of ferry restoration as an economic and cultural asset. Amanda Brown, who compiled a preliminary business‑sector report for the Save the Ferry Community Coalition, said she had interviewed dozens of local business owners and found “No 1 I have spoken to is opposed to ferry restoration.” She said businesses see the ferry as a draw that could relieve traffic and parking pressure on weekends and offered to share copies of her report with the council.
City staff and council members later referenced a draft pedestrian facility inventory and GIS maps that will help prioritize sidewalk and crosswalk investments. The inventory, presented later in the workshop, documents sidewalks, curb ramps, signals and crosswalks and is meant to inform capital planning and enforcement priorities.
