City Board Votes To Remove Three Speed Humps On West Main Street

The three speed humps on West Main Street between Juniper Lane and the four way stop at North Mountain Street will soon be gone.
The Smithville Board of Aldermen Monday night voted to remove them, apparently bowing to public pressure.
Aldermen Stephen White, W.J. “Dub” White, and Cecil Burger voted for the removal of the speed humps. Aldermen Paul Young and Aaron Meeks “passed” when their names were called to vote on the issue.
The city board, earlier this year at the request of several residents in the area, voted to install the speed humps as a pilot project, but since they were put down most of the aldermen say they have heard nothing but complaints from the public, who often travel the street going to and from the downtown business district.
Residents in the neighborhood, including Bert Driver, Ruth Johns, and others, told the Mayor and Aldermen Monday night that the speed humps have been very effective in slowing traffic on a street where speeding has been a problem and the posted speed limit is 15 miles per hour. They asked that the speed humps not be removed.
Two Smithville residents, who don’t live on West Main Street, but who own property in town, expressed opposing views on the issue during the meeting Monday night.
William McKinley Jones spoke out against the speed humps, but former Smithville Mayor Waniford Cantrell said he thought the speed humps should be kept there and asked that another one be installed on the east side of the West Main Street bridge.
Mary McCoy presented a petition to the Aldermen, signed by several residents in the Smith Road area, asking that speed humps be installed on their street because of the speeding problem on that narrow and winding road.
However rather than put down more speed humps, city officials are searching for alternative solutions and Monday night Smithville Police Chief Gus Clemente and the department’s new Public Information Officer Tom Stufano pledged a stepped up enforcement campaign on streets with the most problems with speeding.
Yet some question how effective the extra patrols can be with only two to three officers on duty per shift.