TSO Contemplates Action on Heatherstone Road Roundabouts and Public Urination Bylaw

Report on the Meeting of the Town Services and Outreach Committee, June 26, 2025

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Present
Andy Steinberg (Chair, at large), Hala Lord (District 3), George Ryan (District 3), Robert Hegner (District 5).  Jennifer Taub (District 4) attended for only a portion of the meeting, joining at 10:21 a.m. and leaving at 10:47 a.m.

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager), Guilford Mooring (Superintendent of Public Works)

Other: Town Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large) joined the meeting at 10:47 for the discussion of the Public Urination Bylaw.

Public Comment
No public comment was offered at this meeting.

Recap
The bulk of the meeting was devoted to deliberation on whether the Town Services and Outreach Committee (TSO) of the Town Council should take action on two issues:

1) to determine whether the committee should recommend remediation or removal of the mini-roundabouts on Heatherstone Road 
2) to determine whether the committee wants to move forward with crafting a public urination bylaw.

In both cases the committee decided to continue the discussions at their next meeting on July 17, and indicated that they were inclined to recommend no action concerning the roundabouts and to further explore development of the bylaw. 

Heatherstone Road Mini-Roundabouts
The committee discussed problems associated with the mini-roundabouts installed on Heatherstone Road in Echo Hill last summer as a traffic-calming measure, with consideration for whether they should be remediated or removed. Town Manager Paul Bockelman had reached out to users of the roads with larger vehicles; PVTA, Amherst Public Schools, the Amherst Fire Department  (AFD),and UMass Transit. He also received feedback from the Amherst Police Department (APD) on safety concerns. Committee Chair Andy Steinberg contacted USA Waste and Recycling for feedback.

None of those contacted found the roundabouts to be especially problematic although they do throw the right side of vehicles close to the curb line and mailboxes. AFD and USA noted that their vehicles are too large to navigate around the roundabouts and must drive over them, which is what the design intends. APD noted that they see distracted driving on Heatherstone as automobile drivers are focused on the confusion that these non-standard irregular structures present.

APD indicated that the roundabouts seem to have produced the desired traffic-calming, which is unusual after a road has been repaved and motorists are more likely to speed. Superintendent of Public Works Guilford Mooring indicated that the DPW is not hearing many complaints about the roundabouts.

Councilor George Ryan summarized the committee discussion saying he saw no compelling evidence that the current situation on Heatherstone needs to be changed. “There is no good argument for removing them. They do seem to be having a traffic calming effect,” he said.

Councilor Robert Hegner concurred and said, “Even for another year, we should leave them in place and continue to see what happens. People do need to be educated. These are not regular left turns, and a vehicle in the roundabout has the right of way. It may not be obvious to everyone that this is a roundabout.” He suggested that more education is needed.

Councilor Hala Lord noted that people seem to be generally confused by roundabouts and not just on Heatherstone. She noted that the roundabout at the Coolidge Bridge is confusing to many. But she concluded that we haven’t heard many complaints from residents, which suggests that this is working.

Steinberg said that TSO will inform the Town Council that the committee will come up with a recommendation concerning the mini roundabouts for their meeting in July.

Public Urination Bylaw
Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke, following up on a recommendation from Police Chief Gabe Ting, introduced a draft bylaw to town council to penalize public urination and defecation. They subsequently referred the draft to TSO. Hanneke noted that there is still much to be decided concerning the scope and enforcement of the bylaw. 

Ting noted that during the school year, APD receives numerous complaints of people urinating on their property, particularly during off-campus house parties and that this is especially prevalent in the center of town. He added that there is also a persistent problem with people urinating and defecating in the Boltwood parking garage, and multiple agencies, including the Department of Health, APD, AFD, CRESS, and DPW, got together to figure out a solution. It got to a point where a cleaning crew had to be dispatched to the garage daily to clean things up. Last August, the town rented a portable toilet and placed it outside the garage to try to alleviate the situation but the toilet was soon vandalized and destroyed, and the rental company will no longer work with the town. Ting shared that Sweetser park is also being used as a public restroom.

The proposed bylaw would impose a $300 fine for the following violations:

1.No person shall urinate or defecate in or on a public street, alley, sidewalk, yard, park, building, structure, plaza, public or utility right-of-way, or other public place, or in any place open to the public or exposed to public view.
2. It shall be unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate within 50 feet of any perennial waters.

Ting said that the APD is very sensitive to the unhoused community in Amherst and that’s not really the focus of this initiative. He noted the lack of sanitary facilities in Amherst Center and acknowledged that it can be difficult to find relief. He said that hopefully, the Portland Loo project at Kendrick Park will help

Lord wanted to know what happens if someone can’t afford to pay their fine and whether there is a community service option. Ting said that the courts can assign community service in lieu of a fine, and Bockelman said that the courts already work with the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) to assign community service in the form of tidying up downtown – such as removing accumulated posters and flyers.

There was considerable discussion concerning the scope of the proposed bylaw – should it be limited to public areas as currently written or should it cover private property, from where, councilors noted, many complaints about drunken behavior originate? Should it be a stand alone bylaw or incorporated into the Nuisance House Bylaw or General Public Nuisance Bylaw? Ting said that there is a wide range of situations and locations where APD receives complaints, suggesting that the areas where the bylaw would be applicable should be expansive rather than limited. Bockelman cautioned that the bylaw should not be overly broad and should not, for example, be applicable to a child urinating on their lawn.

Ryan and Bockelman concluded by saying that the chief has identified a problem that APD encounters on a regular basis and they are asking the council for help in addressing it and the council has responded by asking, what tools do you need, and the chief is saying that they would like to have a bylaw that allows us to do something other than a criminal disposition for this problem. Ting noted that we already have a Nuisance House Bylaw and a Keg Bylaw and was looking for some kind of analogous regulation.

Hegner said that in addition to the bylaw, perhaps the town could do more to try to alleviate the problem. – perhaps by placing more portable restrooms strategically in Amherst Center and finding a way to avoid the vandalism.

Hanneke concluded, “There’s a lot of choices to be made. And I proposed one set of choices, and I was hoping TSO would discuss those choices and make a decision on where to go with this.” TSO will continue its discussion of the proposed bylaw at its next meeting.

Waste Hauler RFP Process
Jennifer Taub requested an update on the status of developing an RFP for waste hauler services (see also here) for the town under a new proposed bylaw.

Bockleman indicated that it has been hard to find a consultant to do the work we need to have done. He had reached out to the Edward J,Collins Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston, the consultant currently working with the town’s charter review committee, but they declined the work. He noted that the procurement process is faster working with an inter-governmental agency and that if the town turns to a private consultant, that will require its own RFP process. Bockelman indicated that he had received a list of potential consultants from Susan Waite, Municipal Assistance Coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the town’s former recycling coordinator, and a previous consultant to the hauler reform project.

Taub requested a timeline for moving the project forward, asking if three months from now we could expect to have an RFP. Bockelman responded, “I hope so.”

Next Meeting
TSO will meet next on July 17.