Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Speeders beware

Stop signs, speeders, and speed humps dominated the March 3 regular scheduled monthly meeting of the Apalachicola board of city commissioners.

Local resident Erin Rodriquez appeared before the commission to express his concerns about speeders in the residential area of Avenue G and Dr. Humphries Street. Rodriquez requested that the commission install stop signs at G and Humphries to help slow vehicle traffic in the otherwise quiet residential neighborhood.

Bob Dieter with the Traffic Safety Team explained to the commission that stop signs already exist at 6th Street and at 8th Street along Avenue G and the placement of additional signs at Dr. Humphries Street (formerly 7th Street) could cause gridlock in the city.

Nancy Horton accompanied by fellow employees from the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve brought forth concerns with the recent replacement of speed humps (also know as traffic calming devices) from Avenue M down the North end of Dr Humphries Street near the entrance to the estuarine where Horton and her fellow employees work. Horton complained that the humps could cause potential damage to their vehicles as they cross over the humps en route to work and back each day.

The humps where initially installed in 2002, after residents in the area complained about speeders. Since then as part of upkeep and maintenance, the city replaced the old run down humps with new ones, which in turn led to a renewed concern from some of the estuarine employees.

As a result, city commissioners instructed Dieter, Chief of Police Bobby Varnes, and James Waddell with the engineering firm Inovia Consulting Group to work together to come up with a recommendation based upon the standards outlined in the uniform traffic code that the city could adopt addressing each issue. In addition, the commission also instructed the trio to explore the possibility of lowering the overall speed limit in the residential area of Apalachicola.

In the interim, the board instructed Chief Varnes to monitor the situation and issue speeding citations as necessary to promote traffic safety and reduce speeding throughout the city.

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