Greencastle Council tackles stop signs, road modifications around town

Residents, motorists and pedestrians will see some changes to a pair of Greencastle streets immediately, following the recent actions of the Greencastle City Council.

The council voted last week in favor of three ordinances pertaining to no parking zones and stop signs following recommendations from city engineer, Jeff Mahan of Align. 

One of the ordinances pertained to the west end of Anderson Street between Bloomington Street and Wood Street and passed by a 6-0 vote. 

Under the ordinance, there will be two way traffic at the entrance of Miller Asbury Apartments before moving to one way traffic the remainder of Anderson Street heading east to Wood Street. 

In addition, council 6-0 in favor of adding stop signs in several areas around Greencastle. 

Under the ordinance, there will be two stop signs added at the intersection of College Street and Franklin Street, the intersection of Franklin Street and Northwood Blvd./Durham Street, two at the intersection of Madison Street and Columbia Street and two on Calbert Way to the entrance of Walmart. 

Mayor Lynda Dunbar told council the stop signs would be flashing and should be a welcome addition to the streets. 

The final ordinance pertained to no parking zones on the north side of Franklin Street from Indianapolis Road to Spring Street. The measure was approved by a 5--0-1 vote with councilman Vincent Aguirre abstaining. 

Prior to the vote, Dunbar read a portion of a report from Mahan, which stated that due to the geometric design standard as adopted by the City of Greencastle, "Franklin Street already fails to meet the standard to allow one sided parking in its current classification as a collector street."

Mahan stated the minimum width by standard is 30 feet, however, the current width of Franklin Street from curb to curb is 28 feet. 

"The purpose of the standard is to create a safe travel environment for drivers, reduce safety risks for those who could use roadside parking and establish a consistent presentation to drivers when utilizing similar streets (collector streets) in the City of Greencastle," Mahan wrote. 

Mahan stated the classification of Franklin Street as a collector street presents problems with lane reduction. 

He wrote the ideal lane width for a collector street is 12 feet in each lane and Franklin Street already meets the ideal width at 24 feet.

"Any change in lane width presents a possible conflict with its classification as a collector street by the Thoroughfare Plan," Mahan wrote.

Resident Trudy Selvia approached council asking if there would be modifications made to the road to allow those who want to park in front of their homes an opportunity to do so, as well as keeping semi truck traffic off the road at night time. 

"Where is it on the priorities list for the city," Selvia asked. 

Dunbar replied that Franklin Street is not a high priority for the city, however, due to all the traffic and issues associated with the US 231 traffic, there are some things that can be looked at. 

"We can talk to our city engineer and express the concerns. We do have several houses that need parking out there and maybe we can make some smaller changes and don't have to wait until we do the whole street," Dunbar said. 

Dunbar said there is a Safe Cities Grant the city will look to go after and that grant would allow someone to come in and totally analyze all the city streets, look at traffic counts and where signage should go, among other things. 

"If that grant comes available, we are definitely going to apply for it. I can tell you it's probably something we cannot afford to do without that grant because it is very costly," Dunbar said.