Four-way stop approved at Spring and Main

He said the installation of stops signs on Main Street would slow traffic coming in and out of town, noting that the concern among many who are opposed to the idea note that through traffic would be slowed down unnecessarily.

“I’ve heard that some people would like to keep traffic moving. That doesn’t register as much with me personally,” Hartmann said.

Police Chief Mike Hepner told councilors that there have been multiple collisions at the intersection.

“Only one is caused by coming from the west,” Hepner said. “Others have been coming from the east and going north. So I’d agree, it’d be a good spot to do a four way.”

Fire Chief Bill Hunsaker agreed that a four-way stop would slow traffic down, noting that the volume of traffic has increased on Spring Street.

After members of the public questioned if slowing through traffic was necessary as opposed to removing vehicles that are blocking sight lines, Hepner responded to the concerns, saying that the city’s ordinance that mandates cars to be moved every 72 hours, combined with the city’s inability to mark tires due to a recent federal court ruling and that police officers would need to watch the car over the 72-hour time period to enforce makes it a challenging proposition.

“If a person keeps a bit registration current, it is not considered abandoned — unless it starts to get flat tires, windows knocked out, things like that,” Hepner added.

Hartmann noted that residents opposed a previous proposal to make the stretch of road on Main Street, which was brought up as a problem area, a no parking zone, which led councilors to let the proposal die.

“I think even if those cars are gone, I would still be okay with a four way stop sign,” Hartmann said. “It slows people down, and in that neighborhood, my kids cross that street all the time. I know a lot of other kids who cross main street all the time. I just feel I would feel safer if there was a way to get that traffic to stop coming north and south on Main Street.”

On the Voyent App, which is being used by the city to alert residents to city businesses, emergencies, among other notifications, the city held a survey on the proposal which garnered 58 community responses in support of the measure and 24 against.

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