Alderman-at-Large Bruce Desmond and Ward 3 Alderman
Tom Taylor had originally submitted an order at the meeting calling for
speed bumps to be included among improvements at Kelly and Dickerman
parks.

When told speed bumps could only be installed on
federal projects, Desmond amended the order to call for calming tables
— raised areas that slow traffic and double as crosswalks.

"Nobody
will be there except us when one of our kids gets hit and killed,"
Desmond said. "If [a raised table] is not good enough let's have the
federal government come and tell us they have to take it out, because
it's a bunch of crap as far as I'm concerned."

"This is our
town; we want to protect our kids. This is how we start doing it," he
added. "Let them come here and fight us, because they certainly don't
come here when we want them to."

"He's absolutely right," Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston said. "Who's going to tell us to take this out?"

Ward
4 Alderman Walter Pero pointed out the Board had minutes earlier
approved an $85,000 grant from Spectra Energy to install a calming
table on Fellsway West, which would be the first in the city.

Pero also noted there are speed bumps in Somerville, on the roads built in the federally funded Mystic housing project.

"The ironies here abound," Pero said.

The order passed and will be discussed in the Public Health and Safety Committee.