Scott County Commissioners met July 11 to hold the first public reading of a potential stop sign ordinance at the intersection of Slab and Cutshall Roads. The concern is the safety of drivers speeding on Slab Road with a possible low visibility to turn off of Cutshall.
Residents of Slab Road Dennis McClain spoke against the idea of a stop sign.
“We had a stop sign there years and years ago,” said Dennis, “ I don’t know if any of you remember it, and it was a mess. People on Slab Road were not used to a stop sign. It stayed there for a few weeks and they took it down because they had too many accidents.”
According to commissioners’ meeting minutes, the last time the county board addressed a stop sign at that intersection was in August and September 1987. But even during that time the stop sign was a reinstated stop sign from an earlier time the sign was taken or knocked down, according to county records.
McClain said that the accidents are going to happen again if the stop sign was to be put in place.
McClain’s wife, Carol, spoke to the idea of a flashing red light at the intersection like the one at the end of Slab Road and Highway 56 to attract attention of the drivers on the road.
Commissioner President Mike Jones said that some of the roads had recently been paved, this included Slab Road. He added that drivers want to increase their speed on a nice paved road and it is getting out of control in some locations.
“I don’t think I want to do a final vote on it tonight. I think we need to look at some options of what we could do different,” said Commissioner John Lizenby.
Commissioner Randy Julian said that according to the statistics of county dispatch there are an average of five wrecks a year on Slab Road.
But Lizenby said that there were no wrecks at the time of their meeting at the Cutshall & Slab Road intersection. He pointed out that a lot of the wrecks on the county stats were for the full length of Slab Road.
“ All I am seeing is that there is not a single wreck at Cutshall Road,” said Lizenby. He commented that there was really no stats run on Cutshall road and questioned why the stats for Cutshall Road weren’t looked at as well.
Lizenby said, “It looks like to me Slab Road is a serious place for accidents, the whole road.”
Slab Road resident Pat Forbes said she wasn’t opposed to the stop sign being at the intersection, however like the McClains she felt that the sign wouldn’t do much to help. She brought up another concern being Grain Bin Road and Slab, where a hill blocks the vision of drivers turning on Slab Road.
“As I travel Slab Road,” said Forbes, “I see Grain Bin as probably being the worst spot for me as a driver. Because you never know when you’re going to pull out and you’re already scooted over but somebody coming up that hill, they scoot.”
Carol McClain added, “It’s hard to see if you’re on Grain Bin, trying to pull out on Slab, especially if the weeds are not cut down.”
Julian mentioned the intersection of Marshfield Road and Slab Road, though there haven’t been many wrecks in that intersection. When there has been, the wrecks have been worse than at Cutshall Road.
Sheriff Jerry Goodin said, “it’s the nature of the beast” on people going over the speed limits. He said that it wasn’t just an issue on Slab Road but an issue everywhere with the United States having an obsession with always being in a hurry.
“The only true way to slow people down is speed bumps and speed cameras (to record and ticket speeding violators),” said Goodin.
Julian said, “It’s aggravating to have to stop when you’re on the move and going down the road. Again, Slab Road is one of the very few roads in Scott County that does not have a 4-way stop.”
“I am going to give my opinion,” said Jones, “I don’t think a 4-way stop is the way to go but I’m not ready to kill the ordinance yet.” He added that he would vote to continue it on to a second reading.
Lizenby said he agreed but abstained against the second reading to prevent the decision to be made officially.
“I’d rather do something different than a stop sign, but I don’t know what that is,” said Jones.