Dunkin’ Donuts Mgmt. Still Working On Traffic Solution
May 5, 2021 at 10:20 p.m.
Dunkin’ Donuts Mgmt. Still Working On Traffic Solution
By David [email protected]
Dunkin’ Donuts is at 2234 E. Center St. When the drive-thru gets busy, the cars back up from the business, through its parking lot and onto East Center Street, blocking eastbound traffic.
The issue was previously discussed by the Traffic Commission and originally on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, but then taken off. A letter to the editor concerned about the traffic flow appeared in Tuesday’s newspaper, which Commission member Connie Fribley brought up at Wednesday’s meeting.
Commission Administrator Lance Grubbs responded, “I spoke with, evidently there are co-managers or co-owners there. I emailed Mr. Patel, who was the on-site Dunkin’ manager. And his partner, evidently from the 219 area code, I got a phone call from him not long after I sent that email. And he asked for suggestions again that we spoke about last August when (Warsaw Community Development Coordinator) Jeremy Skinner and I were there to meet with the manager.”
Grubbs said the partner was going to Clearwater Car Wash to see what kind of portable signs they have up and “he will look into that and email me as soon as he determines what is best, but something is going to be done there.” Grubbs said the partner has been at Dunkin’ Donuts personally when traffic was backed up on Center Street.
He said the partner asked if he could meet with the Warsaw Street Department to see if there’s any other signs that might be able to go up there, or at least take a look at what he has and see if that might remedy the situation.
“He’s looking for an inexpensive way, so they’re looking for on-lot. Maybe making two lanes into there, forego the parking on the right side as you enter, and have two lanes going through with separation by cones, and then having one cone, as Clearwater Car Wash does, that will alternate into the drive-thru. So that’s what he’s looking at,” Grubbs said, noting he just talked to the partner on Tuesday.
He said the partner is aware there are complaints about the traffic, but the initial manager thought the issues might just have been because of the pandemic.
“Now, they’re saying it’s going to be a little more permanent than what they initially thought because now not as many people are going inside,” Grubbs said. “His concern was that he wasn’t going to have any parking if he does two lanes there. I said they can’t park there now anyhow because of those cars backed up.”
Hopefully, he said, they will see changes there, specifically on weekends but during the week as well.
“They are aware of it and they are going to try to improve it,” Grubbs said.
City Councilwoman and Commission member Cindy Dobbins then brought up a downtown Warsaw parking issue.
“I have something that I notice almost every day. On the northwest corner of the intersection of Buffalo and Market (streets), people are making their own parking space using the back of the crosswalk as the white line. Even though it’s painted yellow there, they are still parking. Almost every day, someone is parking in that space,” she said.
After Wednesday’s Traffic Commission meeting, there was a vehicle parked in that spot.
Dobbins stated she wasn’t sure if a sign would work, but people were misconstrueing the white line for the crosswalk for a parking line.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said they’d look into that.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said drivers were doing that at the southeast corner of Buffalo and Center streets as well. “It happens a lot. I see it a lot,” he said.
Grubbs and Beam agreed they had a parking control officer that could take care of that.
In other business, the Commission:
• Approved for Shelden Street (CR 300N) from Blue Heron apartments to Ind. 15 to be 35 mph. There is a sign posted there already for that speed limit, but no ordinance in place for it.
Grubbs said 35 mph there was better than 30. Beam said there’s been one crash there in the last five years and he thought 35 mph was a good speed limit for the area.
Grubbs also said he and Beam met with city attorney Scott Reust last week about ordinances that need to be reviewed and updated. Some ordinances have misspellings, while some say street when they should say drive, etc.
“So, we’re trying to clean those up as they have been there for years, just to make sure all of the ordinances are covered,” Grubbs said.
• Heard a request from Keri Scott, East Clark Street, about making traffic one-way westbound on Clark Street. Part of his complaint was that a truck sits in front of 521 E. Clark St., “illegally” on the corner, that causes a “major” traffic jam.
The Commission didn’t take any action on the request, but Beam will meet with the resident at 521 E. Center St. and see if the truck issue can be addressed.
• Heard from Warsaw Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon that he received a phone call from a man who had several near-misses “with coming westbound on Prairie Street and sitting in the left-hand turn lane, turning onto South Buffalo Street (Ind. 15). People that are making the turn east onto Prairie Street were cutting into that lane.”
Dillon said the Indiana Department of Transportation was contacted. As INDOT is repaving the state road, once they are done they will put the stop bars back at the intersection.
“Once INDOT follows through with that, we’ll kind of monitor it a little bit, if we have to add some striping or turn arrows to kind of help out with the situation,” Dillon said.
Beam said there have been 45 crashes at the intersection in the last five years. A lot of them were rear-end crashes, but some were right-angle crashes as well.
• Approved a positive recommendation to the Board of Public Works and Safety that an encroachment agreement between the city and PVA Unlimited Inc. be approved.
A portion of the parking area on the PVA lot encroaches onto the right-of-way of East Hendricks Street and PVA wants to improve the encroachment by paving it. In the event the city wants to improve East Hendricks Street into the area of the encroachment, on 90-days written notice, the city may make alterations to the encroachment as needed.
Dunkin’ Donuts is at 2234 E. Center St. When the drive-thru gets busy, the cars back up from the business, through its parking lot and onto East Center Street, blocking eastbound traffic.
The issue was previously discussed by the Traffic Commission and originally on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, but then taken off. A letter to the editor concerned about the traffic flow appeared in Tuesday’s newspaper, which Commission member Connie Fribley brought up at Wednesday’s meeting.
Commission Administrator Lance Grubbs responded, “I spoke with, evidently there are co-managers or co-owners there. I emailed Mr. Patel, who was the on-site Dunkin’ manager. And his partner, evidently from the 219 area code, I got a phone call from him not long after I sent that email. And he asked for suggestions again that we spoke about last August when (Warsaw Community Development Coordinator) Jeremy Skinner and I were there to meet with the manager.”
Grubbs said the partner was going to Clearwater Car Wash to see what kind of portable signs they have up and “he will look into that and email me as soon as he determines what is best, but something is going to be done there.” Grubbs said the partner has been at Dunkin’ Donuts personally when traffic was backed up on Center Street.
He said the partner asked if he could meet with the Warsaw Street Department to see if there’s any other signs that might be able to go up there, or at least take a look at what he has and see if that might remedy the situation.
“He’s looking for an inexpensive way, so they’re looking for on-lot. Maybe making two lanes into there, forego the parking on the right side as you enter, and have two lanes going through with separation by cones, and then having one cone, as Clearwater Car Wash does, that will alternate into the drive-thru. So that’s what he’s looking at,” Grubbs said, noting he just talked to the partner on Tuesday.
He said the partner is aware there are complaints about the traffic, but the initial manager thought the issues might just have been because of the pandemic.
“Now, they’re saying it’s going to be a little more permanent than what they initially thought because now not as many people are going inside,” Grubbs said. “His concern was that he wasn’t going to have any parking if he does two lanes there. I said they can’t park there now anyhow because of those cars backed up.”
Hopefully, he said, they will see changes there, specifically on weekends but during the week as well.
“They are aware of it and they are going to try to improve it,” Grubbs said.
City Councilwoman and Commission member Cindy Dobbins then brought up a downtown Warsaw parking issue.
“I have something that I notice almost every day. On the northwest corner of the intersection of Buffalo and Market (streets), people are making their own parking space using the back of the crosswalk as the white line. Even though it’s painted yellow there, they are still parking. Almost every day, someone is parking in that space,” she said.
After Wednesday’s Traffic Commission meeting, there was a vehicle parked in that spot.
Dobbins stated she wasn’t sure if a sign would work, but people were misconstrueing the white line for the crosswalk for a parking line.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said they’d look into that.
Mayor Joe Thallemer said drivers were doing that at the southeast corner of Buffalo and Center streets as well. “It happens a lot. I see it a lot,” he said.
Grubbs and Beam agreed they had a parking control officer that could take care of that.
In other business, the Commission:
• Approved for Shelden Street (CR 300N) from Blue Heron apartments to Ind. 15 to be 35 mph. There is a sign posted there already for that speed limit, but no ordinance in place for it.
Grubbs said 35 mph there was better than 30. Beam said there’s been one crash there in the last five years and he thought 35 mph was a good speed limit for the area.
Grubbs also said he and Beam met with city attorney Scott Reust last week about ordinances that need to be reviewed and updated. Some ordinances have misspellings, while some say street when they should say drive, etc.
“So, we’re trying to clean those up as they have been there for years, just to make sure all of the ordinances are covered,” Grubbs said.
• Heard a request from Keri Scott, East Clark Street, about making traffic one-way westbound on Clark Street. Part of his complaint was that a truck sits in front of 521 E. Clark St., “illegally” on the corner, that causes a “major” traffic jam.
The Commission didn’t take any action on the request, but Beam will meet with the resident at 521 E. Center St. and see if the truck issue can be addressed.
• Heard from Warsaw Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon that he received a phone call from a man who had several near-misses “with coming westbound on Prairie Street and sitting in the left-hand turn lane, turning onto South Buffalo Street (Ind. 15). People that are making the turn east onto Prairie Street were cutting into that lane.”
Dillon said the Indiana Department of Transportation was contacted. As INDOT is repaving the state road, once they are done they will put the stop bars back at the intersection.
“Once INDOT follows through with that, we’ll kind of monitor it a little bit, if we have to add some striping or turn arrows to kind of help out with the situation,” Dillon said.
Beam said there have been 45 crashes at the intersection in the last five years. A lot of them were rear-end crashes, but some were right-angle crashes as well.
• Approved a positive recommendation to the Board of Public Works and Safety that an encroachment agreement between the city and PVA Unlimited Inc. be approved.
A portion of the parking area on the PVA lot encroaches onto the right-of-way of East Hendricks Street and PVA wants to improve the encroachment by paving it. In the event the city wants to improve East Hendricks Street into the area of the encroachment, on 90-days written notice, the city may make alterations to the encroachment as needed.
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