Speed-bump request granted by council

DECATUR — Mary Lou Janes and her daughter Sandra Bottoms appeared at Monday’s Decatur City Council meeting with a petition signed by 38 residents asking that a speed bump and a children at play sign be added to the west end of Hill Street.

Janes, a grandmother who lives at 328 Hill Avenue, near the intersection of Hill Avenue and Arkansas Highway 59, reported that drivers often speed by her home endangering the many children who live in her neighborhood.

“We are having problem with cars flying down this road. People just don’t care if kids are out there playing. It has even got as bad as people passing the bus,” Janes wrote in a letter to Mayor Charles Linam.

At Monday’s meeting, Janes told the council that drivers show little concern for the many children playing in the neighborhood. Janes said her front yard is very small and her grandchildren sometimes play on the sidewalk.

The problem is so bad,according to Janes, that her son even got into an argument with a woman, with two small children in her vehicle, who sped down the street and veered into her yard.

There are already two speed bumps on Hill Avenue, several blocks east of Janes residence. The speed limit is 25 miles per hour and, as its name implies,the street has several steep hills.

Police chief Terry Luker said his officers had given the area extra patrol. Luker reported that only one ticket had been written, to a person driving 7 MPH over thespeed limit.

Linam said the city already has several pre-manufactured speed bumps that could be installed at little or no cost but expressed concern that drivers could easily bypass a speed bump by driving through the parking lot of Tormey’s Garage.

Linam said he contacted the Decatur Schools’ transportation office and found that no bus drivers have filed complaints about being passed on Hill Avenue.

Linam also said he has parked nearby andwatched the area for several mornings in a row and never saw anyone driving at what he felt was a high rate of speed, although he admitted he didn’t have a radar gun to determine drivers’ exact speed. He pointed out that drivers may slow down when they see a police car but are unlikely to change their driving habits when they see his pick-up truck.

“I don’t like speed bumps, but I hate even more the idea of any of our children getting hurt,” he said.

Councilwoman Kim Goble, who lives on Hill Avenue, noted that drivers have plenty of room to pick up speed after they cross the two existing speed bumps on Hill Avenue and that a large number of children live in the area.Councilman David Sutton also commented that the two speed bumps are pretty far apart.

Councilwoman Nan Mc-Clain asked Janes if it was the same drivers speeding by on a regular basis.

Janes replied that to some extent it is the same cars, referring to the incident of the woman veering into her yard.

The council unanimously passed a motion, made by Sutton, to strategically place a speed bump on Hill Avenue, so drivers cannot avoid it.