Speed bump policy approved
Hartselle City Council has established a policy allowing residents to petition the city to install speed bumps on roads.
Mayor Dwight Tankersley said he has received interest from the community about installing speed bumps on roads where residents have complained about speeding.
So, city planner Jeremy Griffith developed a procedure for requesting speed bumps on streets, which was unanimously adopted by the council Tuesday night.
Residents can ask the council to install speed bumps on their road if all property owners on the road sign a petition. The city will also require the residents to pay for a traffic study from a licensed engineer to see if drivers average traveling more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
Once it receives the approval of a traffic engineer, the police chief and fire chief must also give their approval that the speed bumps would not negatively impact emergency response times.
Griffith also added that the streets in question couldn’t be “collector” roadways.
Upon approval from the engineer, police chief and fire chief, the city council must still approve the installation of the speed bumps, which would be constructed by the city or its designated contractor. The residents requesting the speed bumps would pay the installation cost.
Griffith said he felt like the city needed to have a fair procedure in place if speed bumps are necessary.
“We’re taking a proactive approach to this situation,” Griffith said in the council’s work session Monday night.
However, Tankersley said he would like to resolve the speeding issues without installing speed bumps.
“We try to resolve speeding issues first by asking the police department to step up enforcement and issue citations in that area,” Tankersley said. “That usually corrects the problem and there’s no need speed bumps.”
In other business, the council accepted a bid from Eddie Preuitt Ford to purchase three vehicles for the Public Works Department at the price of $15,484.05 each.
Parade permits were issued for the Crestline Elementary PTO 5K and 1-mile fun run on March 5 and the Hartselle Art Studio and Gallery 5K and 1-mile fun run on April 10.
A $3,550 invoice to install a digital video recording system at the city jail was approved.
