The Perry City Council, divided in its opinions about the propriety of stop signs on 16th and 18th streets, will again take up the issue at its Monday meeting, but this time their discussion will be informed by data collected by the Perry Police Department.
The council first took up the stop sign issue at its June 19 meeting and returned to it July 17, with opinions largely unchanged.
Council member Dr. Randy McCaulley said he conferred with Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn and Perry Community School District Transportation Director Troy Griffith, “and both of those individuals indicated that if we didn’t have the stop sign on 18th Street, they would be totally fine with that.”
McCaulley opposed stop signs on both north-south streets in June but said at the July meeting he “could probably live with the ones on 16th.” He remains opposed to the signs on 18th Street.
“I feel strongly that 18th Street should not be a three-way stop,” he said. “It’s a three-way stop right now, and I just really think that that is a hindrance. I don’t see it as being a safety issue, frankly, because we have all kinds of T intersections in our city.”
Council member Chuck Schott seconded McCaulley’s opinion, saying his fellow council member “almost took the words right out of my mouth because I’ve been thinking the same thing.” Like McCaulley, Schott also opposed the stop signs at the June council meeting.
“I feel the exact opposite,” Council member Dean Berkland said. “It’s a safety factor. We’ve got kids going down through there. It’s going to be triple, quadruple what we’ve got now. It’s a safety thing. Our engineer said, ‘Hey, we’ve got the count that we should have a stop sign there,’ so I’m kind of at odds on this.”
Schott agreed safety is a concern at the four-way intersection of 16th and North streets but said 18th Street does not pose the same risk.
“I certainly agree it’s a safety issue on 16th,” Schott said, “and when it turns into a safety issue on 18th Street with just a straight shot through there, with traffic coming from one direction — if it turns into that, I would certainly revisit it, but I just don’t see it being that big a deal on 18th Street.”
McCaulley noted the situation on 18th Street is exactly what the situation on 16th Street was until the recent North Street extension.
“That’s a T intersection,” McCaulley said. “We have a gazillion T intersections in our city. We don’t stop traffic just because there’s a T intersection. We don’t.”
“I think it’s the location of the T intersection,” Berkland said. “With student traffic coming through, I think it’s going to be a safety hazard. But we can discuss this. Everybody has an opinion.”
Council member Barb Wolling said she owns property nearby and has observed many vehicles run the stop signs.
The following data, collected by the Perry Police Department since the July council meeting, suggest virtually all motorists are making full stops at the stop signs at 18th and North streets.
August 2, 2017, 18th/North, 6:45-7:15 p.m., no vehicles
July 31, 18th/North, 9:30-10 a.m., 16 vehicles, no speeders, 16 good stops
July 30, 18th/North, 8:15-8:30 p.m., no vehicles
July 30, 18th/North, 8-8:30 a.m., no vehicles
July 29, 18th/North, 5:15-5:45 p.m., 14 vehicles, no speeders, 14 good stops
July 29, 18th/North, 3:45-4:15 p.m., 19 vehicles, no speeders, 19 good stops
July 28, 18th/North, 7-73:30 p.m., 11 vehicles, no speeders, 11 good stops
July 28, 18th/North, 3:30-4 p.m., 20 vehicles, no speeders, 20 good stops
July 27, 18th/North, 9:15-9:45 p.m., 10 vehicles, no speeders, 10 good stops
July 27, 18th/North, 4:30-5 p.m., 31 vehicles, no speeders, 31 good stops
July 27, 18th/North, 5:30-6 a.m., 8 vehicles, no speeders, 8 good stops
July 26, 18th/North, 8:45-9:15 p.m., 9 vehicles, no speeders, 9 good stops
July 26, 18th/North, 4:30-4:45 p.m., no vehicles
July 25, 18th/North, 6:45-7:15 p.m., 16 vehicles, no speeders, 16 good stops
July 24, 18th/North, 9:30-10 p.m., 15 vehicles, no speeders, 15 good stops
July 23, 18th/North, 8:30-9:15 p.m., 10-15 vehicles, no speeders, 10-15 good stops
July 23, 18th/North, 8-8:30 a.m., 10 vehicles, no speeders, 10 good stops
July 22, 18th/North, 2-2:30 p.m., 12 vehicles, no speeders, 12 good stops
July 22, 18th/North, 6-6:30 a.m., 3 vehicles, no speeders, 3 good stops
July 21, 18th/North, 10-10:30 p.m., 8 vehicles, no speeders, 8 good stops
July 21, 18th/North, 6-6:30 a.m., 14 vehicles, no speeders, 14 good stops
July 20, 18th/North, 4:30-5 p.m., 23 vehicles, no speeders, 23 good stops
July 19, 18th/North, 5-5:30 p.m., 27 vehicles, no speeders, 27 good stops
July 19, 18th/North, 3:30-4 p.m., 23 vehicles, no speeders, 23 good stops
July 19, 18th/North, 6-6:30 a.m., 16 vehicles, no speeders, 16 good stops
July 18, 18th/North, 9-9:30 p.m., 11 vehicles, no speeders, 11 good stops
July 18, 18th/North, 7:30-8 p.m., 12 vehicles, 11 good stops, 1 out-of-state almost good
McCaulley said his position is likely to remain firm in spite of data.
“To me — this sounds bad — I don’t care what the data says,” he said. “It was designed to be a through street. Eighteenth Street was designed that way.”
McCaulley said he would “like to see this on the agenda. If we wait until school starts, people’s patterns have already been established. I’d like to see us more on the fast track and see if we can get that taken care of before school starts so people are used to 18th Street being a throughway as it was intended to be originally.”
Schott also asked for more formal consideration by the council of the proposed amendment to the city’s stop-sign ordinance.
“I think it’s an encumbrance for our citizens and makes it hard to get around out there,” he said, “and I would like the situation revisited. I really, really would.”
Perry Mayor Jay Pattee said the item would be on the agenda of the Aug. 7 council meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Clarion Room of the Security Bank building at 1102 Willis Ave.
