Any decision on “no parking” signs and speed limits in the Park Ridge Subdivision was tabled by the City of Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission Wednesday until further data can be collected. At the October meeting, Park Ridge Homeowners Association President Aaron Gaff and Treasurer Michal Piwonski brought some street concerns in the subdivision to the Commission. Where Nuthatch Drive intersects with Highlander Drive, there’s a sharp curve where multiple cars frequently park on the east side of the street between the first two homes, blocking the view of the oncoming traffic from the curve. Along Park Ridge Drive, there’s a hill top and curve between the playground and last house. Multiple cars frequently park at the top of the hill, blocking the view of oncoming cars from the curve. Gaff and Piwonski also expressed concern with the 30 mph speed limit in the subdivision. Traffic Commission Administrator and Warsaw Police Dept. Lt. Kip Shuter told the board Wednesday that a 30 mph sign is probably too close to the intersection. “We’d probably move that further west. I would say ... past the entrance drive to the church, but we’ve got some other work to do as far as speed goes,” Shuter said. He said traffic counts on Park Ridge are being done this week. The study will give the commission data on the speeds that vehicles are traveling at in the subdivision, as well as data on vehicle directions and times. “So we’re going to need to wait on that data to continue with that discussion for the speed limit,” Shuter said. Once he receives that data, he said he wants to input it into the USLimits2, a Federal Highways Administration web-based tool to help set reasonable, safe, and consistent speed limits for specific segments of roads. “It will help us decide proper speed limit,” Shuter said. As for parking along Park Ridge Drive, Shuter said he previously parked his vehicle on Park Ridge Drive where the road starts to curve a little back to the north around the playground area at the top of the hillcrest. In photos provided by Shuter, Commission members could see an approaching car wouldn’t be seen by a car parked in front of the house at 180 Parker Drive until it started coming around the curve. He then provided photos from the opposite direction where the Commission had complaints about people parking in front of the house at 180. Those photos showed oncoming traffic wasn’t visible until it was just about 100 feet away. “Just kind of confirming we do have an issue,” Shuter said. At the intersection of Park Ridge, Nuthatch and Highlander, Shuter said vehicles parking in front of the first two houses may be an issue. He said state statute says you can’t park at an intersection. “I do think we need to continue to wait for our data to make any decisions on this,” Shuter said. He said there’s been no crash data out there within the last 3 years, 10 months, and there’s nothing in the Park Ridge Homeowners Association covenant that would be helpful. In other business, the commission: • Heard from city engineer James Emans that all the surface paving on East Market Street should have been completed by the end of the day Wednesday. He said Market is done, and the cross streets were being worked on, but all the paving should have been finished by yesterday. Striping will be completed next week, as will minor landscaping that shouldn’t impede traffic flow. Construction signs should be down by the end of next week. City Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said, “All the street lights at night look really, really nice. They’re very attractive.” • Heard from Shuter that he didn’t know of any changes made on U.S. 30. “Basically, it still backs up on Parker Street,” he said. While driving through there a few days ago around 9 a.m., he said it was backed up all along the corner past Menard’s. He said he hasn’t talked to the Indiana Department of Transportation to find out if they did any adjustments to the Smart Traffic Boxes or not, but will follow up on that to see if they will be doing any. At the October meeting, Shuter reported meeting with INDOT at Parker and U.S. 30 Sept. 1 when INDOT was installing a new traffic control box at that intersection. The stoplight cycle was increased from 80 seconds to 100. • Heard from Public Works Superintendent Jeff Beeler that the surface is all down on Mariner Drive. There is some siding and seeding left to do on the edges. “They’re waiting for Mariners Drive Extension to finish before they finish the surface out on the section going up to the Y,” Beeler reported. “They have a few driveway entrances left. It is very, very close. It looks nice.” Emans said it might all be done by the end of this week. Shuter said the temporary entrance to the movie theater has been blocked off and the regular entrance off Mariners Drive is back open. • Also heard from Beeler that work on Country Club Road is going “very, very well. It is ahead of schedule. So let’s wait until the end of the week to see what happens.” He said it’s all paved. “They’re mainly waiting for cure time, so it is very, very soon it will be open. I just don’t want to give a date.” Shuter said they were contacted about a month ago by the railroad that they wanted to close Ranch Road to redo the crossing there. “We called them back and told them they can’t because that was the detour for Country Club. So that has been postponed until next year as far as I know,” Shuter said. Beeler said if they call the railroad back as soon as Country Club bridge opens, the railroad has a crew in Leesburg who might be able to redo the Ranch Road crossing before winter if the weather holds out. “They definitely realize, and they have had many phone calls to them, that it does need addressed, so they’re aware of it, but we need to get Country Club opened up first,” Beeler said. • Heard from Shuter that late Wednesday morning he got a response from INDOT about a sign on Ind. 15 South in Silver Lake regarding no compression braking, also known as “jake” braking. Shuter received a photo Tuesday of the “no compression braking by city ordinance” sign in Silver Lake that he forwarded to INDOT. Shuter was told that INDOT did not authorize it and that sign was there illegally. It will probably be removed by INDOT when they go through and remove signs. “They do not allow restriction of compression brakes on state highways, plain and simple,” Shuter said. “In my opinion, that settles the discussion altogether.” The Commission discussed jake braking at its previous meetings after members received complaints of it on U.S. 30.
