The Public Works Committee of Butte Silver Bow held a meeting on October 8, 2025, at 6:30 PM. Chair Josh O'Neill presided, with members present including Dan Callahan, Bill Boyle, Russell Leary, and Trudy Healy. Mark Neary, the Public Works Director, provided updates on several items. The meeting focused on two key communications: a walking tunnel under Harrison Avenue and roadside trash enforcement.
I'm gonna call the public works meeting October 8th, 2025, 630 PM. Can I call it to order? Um absent Eric Mankins, President Josh O'Neill, Dan Callahan, Mr. Bill Boyle, absent Russell Leary, and President Trudy Healy with us tonight. We have Mr. Mark Neary. We're gonna start out with communication number two zero two four five four four, Michelle Shea, district number two. Commissioner requesting a status update in the public works committee review in the conditions of the walking trail tenor tunnel underneath Harrison Avenue south of Dickey's barbecue. Mark, do you have an update? Thank you. Thank you, Chairman uh O'Neill. I do not have any further updates on the walking tunnel. I think we're still waiting for uh traffic study from MDT to see if the crosswalk this that is in presently is warrants a safe passage. But I haven't I don't have any details or updates. Question, Commissioner Callahan. Yes, Mr. Neary. What's a safe passage? It's a crosswalk. Thank you. Mr. Neary. Chairman O'Neill, when I brought it to MD MDT, um th the the question about the walking tunnel it was safer for pedestrians to walk underneath Harrison Avenue in the culvert. Uh when MDT did the project on Harrison Avenue, they put the crosswalk in with the place in the center for you know if you if you didn't make it all the way across. But I think we all agree that the traffic there has increased tremendously. Um there is uh one thing that our electrician handles all of the crosswalk lighting and he informed me, which I didn't know. If you just wait for the light to turn red, it turns green faster than if you push the button. So I think I don't know if that's happening, but I I'm sure the people that are are worried about crossing on Harrison Avenue have probably done both and probably maybe got caught in the middle. So we asked MDT to do a study there to see the increase in traffic to see if that is still uh safe. It it had to have been deemed safe when they put it in. But I don't know if it still is, and that's kind of what we're wondering about. But we're gonna have the the culvert doesn't work anymore. I mean it's you know it's it's full of water. It's a culvert. It's to to take water, but we might have to look into something else. But until we get these numbers back, we don't really know. And it's it's MDT's, it's not ours. And that's where we're at with it. And it's if MDT, you know deems that the crosswalk is still safe enough, it probably won't do anything. But I think you know, until we hear something back from them, I don't I don't have any updates on it. Thank you, Director Neary. Do we have any other questions? Commissioner Shea, do you have any questions regarding that? Um thank you. Director Neary, I think we just um I guess it's the um whatever the board decides they want to do uh regarding leaving it on. Um I don't know if we keep it on there to keep keep it rolling. I don't know, I don't know what our next move is. I just don't want it to die. Just I I guess I do have a question. So the culvert is, I know that was a mysterious thing, whether whose it was, but it is MDT's.