With Warsaw Community Schools starting the school year on Friday, there appears to be some question as to what the speed limit on Husky Trail in Warsaw is by Harrison Elementary School.  
At the Warsaw Traffic Commission meeting Wednesday, Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs said, “It’s been brought to my attention by several different people that the speed limit is 35 mph there, unless the lights are flashing and school is in session and then its 25 mph.”
He said the 35 mph zone is - going northbound - right after the roundabout and - going southbound - right after the stop sign at CR 200N. “So, those sometime aren’t seen, so there’s confusion there.”
Grubbs said as you go farther on Husky Trail, there’s a flashing light with signs that say “School,” “Speed Limit 25,” “When Flashing” and “Your Speed.” A littler farther, another sign says “School Speed Limit 25.”
“So people are wondering if it’s 25 all the time. I’m not saying we should change anything, I’m just trying to get an idea of, if there is confusion, we want to make sure that people know it’s 35 when school is not in session and the lights are not flashing,” he said.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said that one thing that adds to the confusion is that, regardless, if you drive over 25 mph, those lights flash. He said the school sets those, so the school should be asked to not have the lights flash when the speed limit is 35.
WCS Transportation Director Mark Fick said the flashing signs “are set from school hours, and then they’re off.”
Beam said if a driver goes 35 mph during non-school hours, the lights start flashing.

      

Commission member Jason Brown asked what the advantage was to even allow 35 mph there on Husky Road and why not just make it all 25 mph all the time.
Beam said that was discussed at one point, but it’s just a long drive to go at that speed the entire length of the road.
Eric Hoffhein, Warsaw Street Department, said outside of school hours, there are some pedestrians that use the sidewalks through there, but there is a setback (greenspace) between the road and the sidewalks, so it’s not like the public is walking right along the edge of the road.
“So 35 is actually a decent speed for the size and width of that road,” he said. “I think, to help ease some of the confusion, I’m not sure when the school 25 signs were put up. It might have been before the flashing lights were installed years ago, but I can remove those ‘School 25s’ and then we rely on the flashing yellow light school zone signs for that 25 mph, and then that way we get that 35 out there a little bit more to where the motoring public will see it.”
Fick said if they remove any of those signs that say “school zone” or anything like that, they will catch flack because of what previously happened on Husky Trail. On June 10, 2019, Gideon Cook, 8, was struck and killed while attempting to cross Husky Trial in front of Harrison Elementary.
Hoffhein said there would still be the main light assembly with the flashing lights, which would still dictate the 25 mph speed zone. There’s a secondary sign past that, which says “School Speed Limit 25,” that is redundant and doesn’t need to be there because it’s less than 100 yards away, he said. The 25 mph sign could be changed to a 35 mph sign for non-school hours.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins asked if some of the school signs had times on them as to when the school speed zones were in effect. Beam said they do.
“We’ve got school assemblies out at all the other school zones that will say that during these times, so around the middle schools it’s different than the elementary schools because the buses and dismissal times are different,” Hoffhein stated.
Harrison’s school zone doesn’t have those because it has a different setup with the sign saying “When Flashing,” he said.
“There’s a couple different options you can go with in a school zone. This one is for greater efficacy, to grab more attention, whereas you go down Smith Street and it’s a four-sign assembly. It’s got the school placard, the school speed limit, the times of the day and then the days that it’s seen,” Hoffhein said.
He said whatever they do, he wants to make sure that safety is foremost. Hoffhein has been going through all the school zones in Warsaw last week and this week and making sure all the signs are updated and standing up the way they should be.
Fick said Harrison is one of the biggest walking areas WCS has because kids living in Canterbury, Kuder and other housing complexes walk to school.
Beam said that one reason they went to flashing lights along Husky Trail was because on some days of the week the school started on a delay or ended sooner. The flashing lights give the school flexibility.
Council President Jack Wilhite asked who controlled the flashing lights and the flashing speed board. Beam said the school controls that whole setup. Fick said it was set up to flash if a driver goes 36 or faster or 26 and faster during school hours.
Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon asked, “What was the complaint, Lance? That people just didn’t know or they were going too slow?”
Grubbs replied it was confusion. “People were following people who were going 25 and they’re saying the speed limit is 35,” he said. Other people said drivers were going too fast when there were children on the sidewalks or activities at the school.
Dillon said as far as the redundancy of signs, he wouldn’t recommend taking them down because if a person comes out of a drive or off another road, they may not see the first speed limit sign. It doesn’t hurt to remind people they are driving in a school zone.
City Planner Justin Taylor asked, “Is this causing confusion with PD and enforcement of this area? I’m just curious because it seems like if we’re erring on the side of slowing people down ...”
“Then it’s not a problem,” Beam said.
WPD Sgt. Lewis Fuller said, “I just don’t think, if people are confused because they want to go faster, and they’re mad at people who go slower, personally, I don’t see a problem. Sorry you had to go 25 mph to keep people safe. Too bad. That’s my thought.”
Beam said, if he remembered correctly, 8,000 vehicles a day travel on Husky Trail.
Dillon said Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner is in the process of some preliminary design engineering of CR 200N and Husky Trail.
“At certain times of the day, there’s a substantial backup on the hill, waiting to go through that four-way (intersection),” he said.
A little later, Dillon reminded everyone, “Friday here is the first day of school. I don’t want to speak for Mark (Fick) or for (WCS Assistant Superintendent) Tracy (Horrel), but as a reminder to everybody, they’ve been off all summer. They haven’t seen the lights, the school buses are going to be out. The stop arm violations. Just be very cautious.”
Fick said from August 2023 to August 2024, “we had 281 stop arm violations. We had 289 last year, so we’re going down. It’s not the best, but it’s going down. We sent 116 to the prosecuting attorney; we got three from plates from police themselves; and violations not sent numbered 162. So, violations not sent were either too close to call, or we couldn’t read the license plate or it was just visibility.”
The most problematic areas were Papa Johns, 56; Center Street before Blosser’s, 52; Orchard Ridge, 18; West Lake Street by Time Out Inn, 11; Sheldon Street, 11; and Green Acres, 9.
Starting Friday, WCS will have buses going out at 6 a.m. and be finished by about 5:30 p.m. Fick said buses run about all day transporting kids “all over the place.” There will be police patrols out at the school zones.
Horrell said, “Just be patient the first couple weeks.”