A four-way stop has been suggested on a heavily traveled street in Crothersville.
During a meeting Monday night, the town council unanimously voted to have an ordinance drafted to change the intersection of Main and Kovener streets on the town’s west side to a four-way stop. Currently, only traffic traveling on Kovener Street has to stop.
The change was proposed by Councilman Jason Hillenburg, who lives near the intersection.
An increase in traffic coming from the Crothersville Industrial Park and Wischmeier Trucking just outside the western town limits led to his proposal. The speed limit is 30 mph, but Hillenburg said police officers have patrolled the area and wound up writing multiple speeding tickets.
“Frequently, there is nobody that drives 30 mph on that stretch (of Main Street). Most people do their best to go from Bethany Road to the stop sign by the German Cemetery as fast as they can,” he said.
“It’s a residential street that has, I’m guessing, 50 to 100 semis on it daily, kids riding bikes, as well as routine residential traffic,” he said.
Under the current intersection layout, trucks can’t be re-routed because they cannot make the turns of the narrow residential streets.
Hillenburg made the motion to have town attorney Jeff Lorenzo draft an ordinance to change the intersection to a four-way stop.
The first reading will be during the next council meeting at 6 p.m. July 7 at the town hall.
In a separate matter, the council discussed private usage of the town water utility fire hydrants.
Some business and individuals have sought approval to use fire hydrants to obtain water for residential swimming pools and other uses.
The council is not accusing anyone of stealing water but regulating the matter is problematic
“This is not a way for us to do business,” said council president Danieta Foster. She pointed out that the fire department hauls water to pools so the service is available.
“It would require a town worker to monitor taking them away from other work for the town,” she added.
Hillenburg, who serves on the volunteer fire department, said the hydrant takes a special wrench to open. “Use of any other tool can damage the hydrant for when the fire department needs to use it to fight fires in town,” he said.
“Only town utility workers and the fire department should have access to fire hydrants,” said town engineer Brad Bender. “You don’t want anyone else opening and closing the water utility’s hydrants.”
The council voted 5-0 to not allow private usage of fire hydrants.
Prior to the council meeting, a public hearing was held on a proposed grant application for the IDEM mandated Combined Sewer Overflow agreed order. No one voiced objections in the hearing.
