The Barrington Town Council gave the green light to spending nearly $100,000 on a consultant who will help the town create an implementation plan for sidewalk and bike path improvements. 

In a 5-0 vote, members of the Council approved a $98,500 agreement between the town and its on-call engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill. 

The money will pay for an implementation action plan for the town’s Complete Streets Plan, which “serves as a policy framework for identifying pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure needs.” According to officials, the plan lacked the specificity needed to prioritize specific projects, on local and state roads.

Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey spoke in support of the expenditure during the Jan. 8 Council meeting. Hervey said it was a critical need in order for the town to move forward on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure improvements. 

There was not much public comment on the issue — only one person spoke. Tom Rimoshytus asked that future sidewalk improvements include moving utility poles off the sidewalk as they make it difficult for people to clear snow from the sidewalks. Hervey said BPAC (Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee) members have discussed that issue, adding that relocating utility poles can be costly. 

Council member Rob Humm made a motion to approve the contract between the town and its on-call engineering firm. Kate Berard seconded the motion, which was approved by a 5-0 vote. 

The $98,500 will come from the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure fund, which was created from the reallocation of $4 million of unspent bond money from the Barrington Middle School project.

According to a memo from Hervey to the Council, the scope of Fuss & O’Neill’s work will include:

• Providing data and planning and design options to support the town’s infrastructure planning and implementation for bicycle and pedestrian facilities;

• Engaging the public and decision-makers to “educate, facilitate community input, and build consensus for bicycle/pedestrian network identification, gap analysis, and improvement project prioritization”;

• Identifying and preparing conceptual designs and cost estimates for a selected list of high priority Complete Streets projects; and

• Preparing a “Bicycle-Pedestrian Implementation Plan” document that can be used to support funding applications to implement high-priority projects.