Madison mayor Sue Bauman made herself available to concerned citizens for questions and comments Tuesday as part of the “Talks with the Mayor” listening session series she has held over the last four years.

Concerns at Bauman’s latest session, held at the Alicia Ashman Branch Library, 733 N. High Point Rd, ranged from the earlier closure of pools because of a lifeguard shortage to dangerous bike paths to an excess of noise in many residential neighborhoods.

Bauman said she uses the feedback from these sessions to identify what problems she needs to work on in coming years.

“Over the last four years the concerns that most residents had were over speeding and traffic problems, ” Bauman said. “There have been less complaints since a traffic test unit was implemented two years ago.”

Bauman also talked about how the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will continue to affect the Madison community.

Bauman recently participated in the United States Mayors Conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24-25, where many national leaders discussed safety and emergency issues.

Bauman had the opportunity to hear from important governmental leaders, such as U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge, Director of the Office of Homeland Security.

“I took from the conference two main issues that I feel are important to Madison,” Bauman said. “The first being that local police, fire and paramedics are Madison’s first responders to emergencies and should be prepared and knowledgeable of crisis procedures, the second issue being communication between different city and county departments.”

Bauman said Madison’s emergency and rescue teams are as prepared as they possibly can be for crisis situations.

“You can only prepare for the imaginable,” Bauman said. “What happened in New York was unimaginable.”

Bauman said the issue of inter-governmental communication concerned her the most.

“I feel that we are not doing everything in our power to fill information gaps between city officials,” she said.

An example the mayor gave was the four-part anthrax scare the city and county faced Oct. 12.

“We learned our lesson,” Bauman said. “The situation was chaotic because we did not know to handle a situation of this magnitude.”

The city will be taking steps to prepare to improve business evacuation plans, triage procedures and communications throughout the city.

Bauman’s example of how the city is communicating with the public was the information post cards sent out by the postal service Tuesday.

The cards will inform residents what precautions should be taken and how to protect themselves from becoming a victim of anthrax in their homes.

Bauman said that many other issues were brought up at the conference and that she learned a lot of things that will help Madison residents stay safe and secure.