The Festus City Council recently agreed to add stop signs to two intersections.
Council members voted 5-2 on May 27 to add a fourth stop sign to what for years had been a three-way stop at the intersection of South Mill Street, Lee Avenue and Harrison Lane and to add two stop signs to what is now a two-way stop at the Central Avenue-Huber Street intersection. Jim Collier of Ward 1, Staci Templeton and Brian Wehner of Ward 2 and Jim Tinnin and Mike Cook of Ward 4 voted yes, while Dave Boyer of Ward 1 and Bobby Venz of Ward 3 voted no. Kevin Dennis of Ward 3 was absent from the meeting.
Michael Christopher, the city’s public works director, said the new stop sign was installed Monday at the South Mill Street intersection, creating a four-way stop there, and the two new signs to be added to the Central Avenue intersection are expected to be added the week of June 9, also making a four-way stop at that intersection.
Council members spent quite a bit of time discussing the intersections during the May 27 work session and the regular meeting that immediately followed, but most of the conversation was focused on the South Mill Street intersection, which previously had no stop sign on southbound South Mill where the road rises up a hill.
The city had hired the Intuition & Logic engineering firm in Chesterfield to complete a traffic study, and the company concluded that the traffic volume and actual and potential vehicle accidents at the intersections warranted additional stop signs.
Venz said he thought better signage at the South Mill Street intersection would improve the situation without requiring the installation of another stop sign. He said the small “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop” signs previously posted at Lee Avenue and Harrison Lane did not adequately warn drivers that southbound traffic on South Mill Street did not stop at the intersection. However, he said forcing drivers to stop at the top of a hill would create more problems, including more air pollution.
Boyer said he believes the unusual three-way stop at the South Mill intersection was established because years ago many people drove manual-transmission vehicles and had difficulty stopping on a hill. He said motorcycles and big trucks still have manual transmissions today, so people with those kinds of vehicles may still have a problem coming to a stop at the top of a hill.
Other council members said they have often felt unsafe driving through the South Mill intersection.
“There have been many, many times I’ve had to avoid an accident because that three-way stop is not anything I’ve ever seen before moving to Festus,” Templeton said.
Cook said he voted for the motion because the traffic study and experts supported the addition of the signs.
“Simple answer, we had a professional engineering study done. That’s what we pay (the engineering firm) for. And, I have a public works director who has a degree in engineering,” Cook said. “They’re the experts.”
The proposed addition of two stop signs at the Central Avenue intersection drew far less discussion.