2014-0417 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting April 17.2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach.Florida is concerned about having this illegal activity in her condominium, and the other neighbors have complained as well. Mayor Edelcup thanked Ms. Torres for bringing that to our attention. City Manager Russo said those were great ideas for the crosswalks and the signage may be available to us. The first step, as soon as Chief Maas is back, and Captain Snyder who is here right now, we should get together and have a meeting and discuss the ideas you have. It is an excellent idea, and a challenge as you know with all the pedestrians in the City. In regard to your personal issue in the Intracoastal Yacht Club, he asked her to get with Captain Snyder right now to get some information from you. Vice Mayor Aelion said on the issue of the crosswalks, he has already approached former Commissioner Danny Iglesias who is an Engineer for FDOT because Collins Avenue is a State Road and the approval has to come from the State. He has initiated the proper procedure at least for the busy intersection at 174th Street and Collins Avenue. That intersection will be addressed for the same purpose as was discussed tonight. 13. CITIZENS' FORUM: REQUESTS, PETITIONS & OTHER COMMUNICATIONS 13A. Discussion by Nilda Montoya regarding Safety on the Streets. Action: Nilda Montoya said a couple of months ago she was struck by a bicycle and by a scooter at 174 Street and Collins Avenue. Many people her age are having the same problem. She wants to continue her walking and asked the Commission to do something about this. Perhaps you can put a lane for bikes on the street. Mayor Edelcup said she is not the first one to comment on the problem of having pedestrians walking on sidewalks and bikes and skateboards using the sidewalks as well. One of the reasons we built the Skate Park was to get the skateboarders off the sidewalks and use the Park. The problem with the bikes is that they are either on the street or on the sidewalk either place becomes either unsafe for the bicyclist when he is on the street because of the vehicles going by or it becomes unsafe for the pedestrian if they are on the sidewalk. There is not an easy solution to this. You were right to bring it to our attention,and maybe there is some study we can do to see if we can at least minimize that affect and one of the things we are planning to do in this City is a bike path. It will go from the north end of the City to the south end of the City but it would be transferring the bikes off Collins Avenue and onto North Bay Road. The other one is the Skate Park and we need to look at skateboarding on the sidewalk,particularly on the main intersection as something we need to monitor more. City Manager Russo asked for a clarification on her injury, was it from the bike or scooter? Ms. Montoya said the kids were racing each other. First the bike hit her and when she turned, she was also hit by the scooter and it took her over a month to recover and walk again. City Manager Russo said we just had a discussion on this and a couple of things came up,and we certainly do have to study this as the Mayor indicated. People have more control over bikes because you have brakes and you have steering. You don't have that with some of these razor scooters, skateboards, etc. We are working to get the bikes off of Collins Avenue, and the Emergency Pedestrian Bridge will go along with that. The other consideration and direction that we were talking about is to ban anything that you can't control. Maybe even the bikes but we can get any of these rolling items that you can't 18