The Henderson City Council’s Public Safety Committee plans to recommend the addition of two or three sets of stop signs along Roanoke Avenue as a traffic-calming measure, Police Chief Glen Allen said Tuesday.
The committee, led by council member Lonnie Davis, met at noon at the police station to discuss several topics, including how to make the best use of the drug seizure money the city receives from the federal government.
Allen said the committee did not recommend specific uses of the drug money but left those decisions up to the chief, who said he intends to be careful with the money. Although the chief is spending some of the money now to pay officers overtime to fill staffing gaps in the shorthanded department, he wants to find uses for most of the money that will have the longest-term effects.
Some people want him to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars as quickly as possible, Allen said, but “I’m more fiscally conservative. We don’t know what the future holds. … It’s not a guaranteed renewable resource.”
Although the use of the drug money has the potential for far-reaching effects in Henderson, the bigger topic of conversation Tuesday was the problem of speeding on Roanoke Avenue.
Residents along that road, used as a cut-through between Beckford Drive and Dabney Drive, have complained for years about speeders buzzing down their street. The most recent complaint came during the Speak Up Henderson forum July 25.
The city lowered the speed limit from 35 mph to 25 mph, but traffic-monitoring data showed that while the change reduced the average speed of cars, the majority of those vehicles continued to exceed the legal limit.
“We’ve written a lot of speeding tickets, but cars have not slowed down,” Allen said.
City Engineer Frank Frazier presented the Public Safety Committee with a number of traffic-slowing options, including speed humps like those installed on Granite Street; stop signs; stop signs preceded by rumble strips; and rumble strips alone.
Allen said the committee decided to try strategically placed stop signs, a tactic used to slow drivers on Parham Street. Placing stop signs in all directions at two or three intersections is the cheapest option and avoids creating an obstacle for emergency vehicles or causing extra noise near the Roanoke Avenue houses.
That recommendation now will go to the full council, which meets Monday night.