Residents and officials outline their hopes for $55 million Route 79 forum

http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20151028/NEWS/151025876/0/breaking_ajax



Kevin Palona of Fall River, right, asks Terry Roche of MassDOT for regular grass cutting and maintenance along I-195 and routes 79 and 24 that he says is lacking. Ken Fiola Jr. of Fall River Office of Economic Development, right, listens to conversation along with others waiting in line to speak with Roche.

Residents and officials outline their hopes for $55 million Route 79 forum
By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Follow @@MDHoltzman

Posted Oct. 28, 2015 at 12:56 AM
Updated at 1:06 AM

FALL RIVER — Kevin Palona of North Main Street turned in a “MassDOT Fall River to-do list” recommending the state cut grass on city highway exit ramps five times a summer instead of twice — and step up their trash removal efforts.

Brian Pearson, chairman of Bike Fall River, lobbied for a bicycle path around Mount Hope Bay into Tiverton and for bike access under Route 24 near the Harbour Mall, where a sign prohibits it.

Kenneth Fiola Jr. of the Fall River Office of Economic Development shared his 26-page executive summary for a proposed $55 million Route 79/Davol Street corridor study project of mixed-use office/retail/housing and widening a waterfront boulevard.

Fifty-two people, including a few local legislators, recorded their participation, and between 35 and 40 typed out comments on computers or wrote them, officials of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation reported at a unique forum Tuesday night inside the Morton Middle School library