Traffic at the intersection of northbound Union Street and Ind. 25/Winona Avenue won’t be able to go straight or turn left as early as next week.

The Warsaw City Council voted 6-1 Monday to approve a concurrence with the Indiana Department of Transportation as recommended by the Traffic Commission to make it a right-turn only. The change will be reviewed after a year to see if the number of accidents at the intersection has decreased or if other action is needed.

The Traffic Commission studied the intersection for months before unanimously voting Wednesday to recommend right-turn only at the intersection.

Traffic Commissioner and Warsaw Police Capt. Kip Shuter told the council that last fall he and City Planner Jeremy Skinner met with Warsaw Community Schools officials to discuss traffic at the high school, Edgewood Middle School, Washington STEM Academy and the central office. Indiana Department of Transportation also was involved in that meeting and did some traffic studies surrounding the area around the high school.

“That information came back this spring and ... we noticed a very high accident rate for Winona and Union. So we started investigating that and had more conversations with INDOT,” Shuter said.

Findings showed 15 total accidents involving 32 cars and with nine injuries at the Winona/Union intersection since 2014. Ten of those involved northbound vehicles colliding at right angles with either eastbound vehicles on Winona Avenue or westbound vehicles.

Accidents were happening all times of the day, every day of the week, Shuter said.

Councilman Ron Shoemaker, the sole councilman who voted against the Traffic Commission’s recommendation, asked if any of the accidents at the intersection involved running stop signs. Shuter said disregarding a stop sign was noted in four of the accidents.

INDOT will pass the resolution, then provide it to the city. The city council will have to pass an ordinance to enforce the resolution.

The speed limit on Winona is 30 mph. Shoemaker said it’s been his experience that the speed limit is rarely followed. Council?President Mike Klondaris later added he thought the problem with the intersection was more about speeding, not turning.

“I don’t doubt that speed is a factor in some of these crashes,” said ?INDOT?Traffic Engineer Dana Plattner. “I don’t know that it’s the reason these crashes are happening. From my experience, the visibility issues at the intersection are contributing to it, which is why we actually prefer for that traffic to move over to the Logan Street intersection if at all possible.”

City Councilwoman Diane Quance said school bus traffic has to use Logan Street. She suggested to Shuter that he put a speed board up along Winona Avenue once the intersection becomes a right-turn only, and also have a police officer sitting there a few days.

In another matter Monday, council heard funding requests for 2018 from local not-for-profit organizations. The council did not take any action on the requests.

The requests included Animal Welfare League, $20,000; City-County Athletic Complex, $31,000; Housing Opportunities of Warsaw, $7,000; Kosciusko Area Bus Service, $19,055 and a $10,000 match for a new bus; Kosciusko Community Senior Services, $20,000; Kosciusko Economic Development Corp., $55,000 and $5,000 for Northeast Regional Partnership fees; Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams, $20,000; The Beaman Home, $15,000; Warsaw Community Development Corp., $18,000; WCDC facade and alleyway program, $25,000; and $35,000, Warsaw Housing Authority.