(Spencer)– Some lower speed limits could be in the offing for portions of Spencer. Police Chief Mark Warburton says his department recently had a speed study done in the area of Iowa Great Lakes Lutheran School…
“Basically they’re going to continue the 35 mph zone on East 18th Street out 700 feet, so basically taking that 35 zone all the way out to the east edge of the school property out there, then switching over to 45, so pretty minor out there. But it also indicated on 10th Avenue East from East 18th Street to East Milwaukee, that’s currently a 35 mph zone of course, except for the school, it’s a 20 mph zone with a flashing sign, right? And they want to reduce that speed zone from 35 down to 30. Their speed zone indicated that there was a lot of traffic and the traffic just wasn’t moving that fast. And I think that a lot of variables because of the school zone, because we have a radar sign up in that area, and we have a lot of pedestrian traffic coming across there; there’s a lot of kids coming across that intersection. So I think that the culmination of all of that kind of reduces the driver’s attention to go a little fast and so they all slow down and take their time through that area.”
Warburton says another area is on the Spencer’s south side, near the South T…
“The D.O.T recommended a speed zone change from the South T all the way to 11th Avenue Southwest there to the Speidel corner, so the South T to the Speidel corner there they want to reduce that speed zone down to a 40 mph zone instead of the current 45 right now. I don’t think you’re going to see, really not going to need much driver education in that area. There’s a lot of cars in that area as well, it’s congested down there. I don’t think drivers will even notice there’s a reduction in the speeed, so.”
Warburton says the city’s Public Safety Committee will bring a recommendation to the city council at an upcoming meeting.
