The placement of sixteen stop signs was approved at the Broken Bow City Council meeting on Tuesday night, March 25. All councilmen were present.
Several city council meetings ago, the three readings of ordinances 1295, 1296, and 1297 were not waived, allowing council and the public to discuss and give input during subsequent meetings. Tuesday night’s meeting was the date circled on the calendar for a decision.
Ordinance 1295 originally provided for placement of a stop sign on the north side of the South 8th Avenue and South D Street intersection near Bruning Bank. Public hearing discussions through the last few meetings settled in on the idea that a 3-way stop would be more confusing than going ahead and making the intersection a 4-way stop.
After another short discussion regarding the intersection, council unanimously approved ordinance 1295 with an amendment that would also add a stop sign on the south side of the intersection near Prairie Eyecare.
Discussions on ordinance 1296 were a little longer than that of 1295, specifically the placement of signs at the South 7th and C Street and South 6th and C Street intersections.
Captain Chris Anderson with the Broken Broken Bow Police Department spoke during the hearing, suggesting a North/South stop at the 7th Avenue intersection and an East/West stop at the 6th Avenue intersection of C Street. He cited the angle of visibility issues differing between the two intersections as his reasoning.
Council agreed with Anderson’s assessment and approved the placement of twelve stop signs with the amendment, waiving the three readings of the change. The less-discussed half of ordinance 1296 on Tuesday places a four-way stop at the intersection of South 7th and South 6th Avenues at South D Street.
Consistently the ordinance that has received the most discussion at each meeting through its life, ordinance 1297 took that crown again. Discussion topics from the March 11 council meeting regarding the intersection of North 9th Avenue and North H Street continued, including pedestrian safety, the quick drop in speed when traveling from the north, and visibility issues.
Statements were heard from both sides of the issue, which everybody agreed is a difficult solution to find. Councilman Travis Kleeb suggested postponing a decision to May 13 in hopes of working with the county on a speed tapering to possibly eliminate the need for stop signs.
City Administrator Dave Schmidt did clarify for council and the public that the county had indicated they wouldn’t have an issue with ‘reduce speed’ signs or similar signage being placed, but that a speed reduction or tapering would be a process requiring a traffic study.
A few members of the public came to the microphone to voice their support of stop signs being placed, including Rachel Schmidt.
“This isn’t just a speed issue, the reason for the stop sign is because you have a lot of kids right there crossing after school, there’s also a church right there with after school programs and the cars can’t see the kids. It’s not just a speed issue, I don’t think just reducing your speed is going to solve your problem. That’s why they were looking to stop signs,” said Schmidt.
Captain Anderson stated that from his point of view, the intersection is as much a visual issue as anything else. Police Chief Steve Scott added his opinion after Anderson.
“I think we want to be proactive on this. Why wait until something happens? There’s no sidewalks, a lot of kids do walk in the street and they always cross there quite a bit. It’s not so much the speed, it’s more the safety for kids and pedestrians that walk,” added Scott.
Before the closing of the public hearing, Mayor Rod Sonnichsen got a lot of heads nodding when he stated that regardless of the decision on the stop signs, there is work to be done.
After a motion from Kleeb and a second, council unanimously approved ordinance 1297, making the intersection at North 9th and North H street a four-way stop.
New stop sign locations will be as follows (amendments made in Tuesday’s meeting are bolded)
- North side and South side of the South 8th Avenue and South D Street intersection
North and south sideEast and West side of the South 6th Avenue and South C Street intersection- North and south side of the South 7th Avenue and South C Street intersection
- Four way stop signs at the South 6th Avenue and South D Street intersection
- Four way stop signs at the South 7th Avenue and South D Street intersection
- North and south side of the North 9th Avenue and North H Street intersection
Comparatively, the final items on the council agenda moved quickly to round out the night.
Ordinance 1298 was approved, bringing the speed limit on South B Street between the former Gary’s Super Foods location and Tomahawk park up to 25 MPH from 15 MPH.
Also approved was ordinance 1299, an amendment to ATV and UTV usage within city limits. City Administrator Schmidt stated that the ordinance was to align the city’s verbiage with recent state legislature changes to ATV/UTV size, width, and weight definitions. No other changes were made.
During the public comments period at the end of the meeting, a citizen raised concern toward the 12th and H intersection near North Park Elementary and his desire for it to be considered as a four-way stop candidate.
During mayor and council comments, Councilman Kleeb thanked those in attendance and those who submitted their thoughts on the stop sign ordinances for speaking up and being a part of the discussion. Administrator Schmidt talked briefly about the Highway 2 construction project beginning in Broken Bow, stating it will “be an adventure, buckle up”.
Tuesday night’s meeting adjourned around 6:45 PM.
