5 months ago
Some Macon neighborhoods are one step closer to slowing speeders on their streets.
Monday night, Macon city council's public works and engineering committee held a public forum to find out how people feel about installing speed tables to help slow down traffic.
They are about six feet wide, with ridges.
You can see them on Poplar Street in downtown Macon.
While the city would maintain them, community members would have to pay for the installation.
But some say they won't let that be a bump in the road.
Amanda Upshaw says she hopes cars in her Shirley Hills neighborhood will soon slow down with the help of speed tables.
She says when the kids are outside playing and you have a car driving by at 45 mph, it is dangerous.
Upshaw is just one of several community members who voiced support for the traffic calming measure at the public forum.
John Beitz says he thinks it is a very good first step.
The speed tables can cost $2500-$5000 each, but Amanda Upshaw says her neighborhood association is ready for the road improvement.
She says they had expected it would be a fundraising effort on behalf of the neighborhood.
To qualify for a speed table, the street must be a local, residential street with a speed limit of 25 mph.
The street must be 1,000 feet long and 21 feet wide, and at least 500 cars must travel on the street everyday.
Public Works Committee Chairman, Lonnie Miley, says once an ordinance is approved, any citizen or neighborhood association can begin immediately requesting a city traffic engineer to come out and survey their area to see if it is feasible for a speed table.
Amanda Upshaw says she plans to do just that.
She says she thinks the speed tables will improve property values, and are an attraction for people to live in the city.
She says she thinks speed tables will be a great benefit to any neighborhood that requests them.
The public works and engineering committee will vote on the ordinance to adopt a speed table installation program at their meeting next week.
Committee Chairman Lonnie Miley says based on the public input, he expects the ordinance to pass.
Once approved by full council, people can begin contacting the city's traffic engineering department to request a traffic study in their neighborhood.
Also at city hall Monday night, the appropriations committee approved the purchase of 12 new police cars.
They will purchase nine patrol cars and an animal control truck from Peach County Ford, and two detective cars from Riverside Ford.
In looking at a tight budget, council also discussed possible outsourcing for the city's legal department.
Currently, Macon has one city attorney and four assistant city attorneys.
Council members talked about forming a committee to look at outsourcing legal work, and determine if there is any opportunity for cost saving.
