Delta Acres stop sign spat escalates

Delta Acres stop sign spat escalates

Signs pulled down, thrown in field; city resets them in concrete

news@theeveningtimes.com A new stop sign at the entrance to Delta Aces at Miller Drive was pulled up over the weekend along with three others, but are now back up — only this time the signs are set in concrete.

“We already put them back up,” said Street Department Supervisor Gordon Floyd. “It will be a little harder to pull them down this time.”

The city put a stop sign up at the corner of Miller and James Mill after a resident told the city council that residents are still ignoring the stop signs and speeding down George.

The resident had asked for another speed bump, but was met with reluctance by the city council who are instead looking at other alternatives to slow people down.

The city already has two speed bumps on Miller and did put stop signs at North George and South George.

The new stop sign apparently is no more popular than the others.

Residents took to social media to vent their frustrations on the Marion Police Department’s Facebook page. “Well, I won’t be stopping. I think it’s ridiculous,” one resident posted.

“Might as well put them every 100 feet.”

Absolutely ridiculous,” posted another. “They are in a curve for crying out loud. I thought maybe they were preparing for road work.”

“I came so close to being rear ended at yet another new stop sign at Miller Dr.

and James Mill. The lady behind me was very upset at first because she thought I had just suddenly stopped for no reason,” another wrote.

“It’s not a good place for stop sign,” added one resident.

Others in the area called for a need for arms on the railroad crossing instead of more speed bumps and stop signs.

“We need a crossing gate at the railroad track instead of stop signs people are going to ignore,” the person complained. Just asking for a wreck when you place stop signs in a 90 degree turn with no cross streets.”

Some residents called on the city to fix the streets instead of putting up speed bumps.

“I’m tired of all the random new speed bumps and stop signs around Marion,” they wrote. “As crappy as our roads are we don’t need speed bumps. I wish Marion would take all the asphalt they’re using for speed bumps and do some re-paving before anything else.”

At least one resident agreed though that speeding was a problem.

“There are a couple people on that street that jump the speed bumps and run the stop signs,” they commented. “I had a couple encounters while walking my dogs. They need more police patrol during certain times of the day, not a stop sign in a curve.”

Mayor Frank Fogleman said he is disappointed that the signs were pulled down, but not surprised.

“They’re not going to go away,” Fogleman said.

“Hopefully setting them in concrete will keep them from pulling them up.”

The stop signs and speed bumps are obviously a hot button topic in the neighborhood, he said.

Fogleman has been supportive of resident’s concerns in the past and adding the stop signs and speed bumps, but was not in favor of putting another speed bump in this time.

“It’s obvious there is a difference

of opinion,” Fogleman

said. “But it’s like anything else. Half the people will like them and the other half won’t.”

It’s not the first time unpopular stop signs have been taken down by unhappy residents.

Floyd said speed bump signs on Trigg also keep getting stolen. A stop sign in the Windsong subdivision creating a three way stop also had been taken down at one time.

“They like to steal signs that they don’t like,” Floyd said. “They were stealing them almost as fast as we could get them made.”

Fogleman said the city is looking in to some other options to slow residents down, including traffic cameras and a flashing speed sign to alert motorists that they have exceeded the posted speed limit, which on most residential streets is 25 miles per hour.

“It’s in the mix of the conversation,” Fogleman said.

“They make solar powered ones that you can bolt to the signs that will make people cognizant of their speed and to slow down. So we’re investigating that.”

In the meantime, Fogleman said he has instructed police to continue to step up enforcement in that neighborhood.

“We will continue to do what we can,” Fogleman said. “Maybe we can catch some people. It’s not the first neighborhood we have had to put up signs. And 99 percent of the people obey the laws. It’s sad that we have to do this to catch that one bad apple in the bushel. But we will do what we can.”

By Mark Randall