Granite Street enters the slow lane


Marty, Beth, Andy and Ryan Gister are happy with the 25-mph speed limit on Granite Street.
Marty Gister, holding older son Andy, and Beth
Gister, with 18-month-old Ryan, hope that the new
25-mph speed limit will make Granite Street safer.

Beth and Marty Gister had to wait 11 months to win City Council approval of a lower speed limit on their block of Granite Street between Chestnut and Garnett streets. Once the council acted, the Gisters got results in less than 48 hours.

Henderson’s Public Works Department installed two 25-mph speed limit signs on Granite Street on Wednesday, responding quickly to the council’s unanimous vote Monday night to lower the speed limit from 35 mph and to test speed humps or bumps on the block.

It rained Tuesday, Beth Gister said, so she’s giving the Public Works Department the benefit of the doubt that it installed the signs as soon as possible.

The speed bumps must wait for City Engineer Frank Frazier to make a recommendation to the council March 21 on the type, number and position of the “traffic-calming measures” to be installed.

The Gisters said the 25-mph signs and the publicity about their crusade to slow down traffic 16 feet from their front porch seem to be cutting down on the number of speeders.

They had hoped to address the problem as cheaply as possible by simply lowering the speed limit and asking the police to enforce the new limit until drivers got the message that it was a bad idea to race down Granite in an attempt to make the light at Garnett. Instead, the city could spend $2,000 per speed hump on the Old West End street.

“I’m glad the city finally did do something,” Beth Gister said Saturday.