A resident near a scenic but hazardous stretch of North Ninth Street has requested wildlife warning signs with concerns that vehicles could injure or kill animals crossing the road. In addition, he believes that the road poses dangers for pedestrians and cyclists.
Bill Narver, who lives at the bottom of a hill on the east side of North Ninth, set the wheels in motion on the issue initially by speaking with a city councilor and then following up with an informal call directly to Public Works Director Kevin Fear.
“I’ve witnessed some pretty close, terrifying things on that hill,” Narver told councilors at their July 14 meeting.
Deer, turkey and other types of wildlife are common sights along the road. Based on homemade signs, vehicles driving a little too fast are apparently also common.
Fear brought the issue to the Public Works Committee earlier this month. After getting bumped up to the City Council, the discussion on adding signage to that section of town will next be a topic for the Police Committee.
Narver said he had planned for the wildlife signage issue to be a casual summer project for him with time to do a thorough job of researching the issue and determining costs. But the idea moved quickly and he asked councilors to delay a decision so he could continue to gather information.
City Manager Chris Workman in the July 14 council discussion pointed to a policy that applies to signage projects.
“We do have a neighborhood traffic management program that we’ve adopted through the City Council that goes through the Police Committee that deals with safety traffic-related issues,” Workman said. “What appears on the surface to have been a concern about wildlife and vehicles, it really sounds more like about how do we get better traffic control and here’s a way to do it outside of the scope” of the program.
Sensing that the issue is “skirting the policy,” Workman recommended that it go to the Police Committee to make a determination on whether wildlife signs are warranted and what type of data would back it up.
“Obviously, we want safety signs up, we want safety corridors, we want these things in place but it shouldn’t be because the neighborhood wants it or because this neighborhood’s more affluent than the other,” Workman explained. “It should be a safety issue and we can document there’s a safety issue there and this is a solution that the Police Committee feels like is warranted and justified.”
Jurisdiction of the road actually falls to Benton County and Workman admitted that “there’s a few hoops to jump through still” with moving anything definitive forward.
Councilor Diane Crocker called the stretch of North Ninth Street unsafe and stressed that it should be more of a priority for the city. Councilor Spencer Irwin said he almost always sees deer after driving up the hill.
If it’s determined that signage is a good idea, among the decisions to be made would be the type of wildlife signs to erect. A diamond-shaped sign with the silhouette of a deer on a yellow background is probably the most common. Narver appears to favor other options that might attract more attention.
“There are so many of those signs, drivers have come numb to them,” he said.
The neighborhood took up a collection and raised about $300 to go toward the purchase of the signs. However, most councilors appeared to be against citizens donating money for a specific signage project.
“To be frank, I think that the exact reason that we collect taxes in municipalities is to cover stuff like this and it seems like a weird double thing to suggest that we use a donation to cover it,” Irwin said.
In a report to the council included in the meeting’s materials, Public Works stated that if signage was ultimately approved, “It should not set a precedent for sign installation” requests. “We continually receive several requests for all different types of signage and obviously cannot approve all requests.”
Mayor Christopher McMorran said that the difference with this sign request was that it’s not something that would impact traffic patterns and just to get drivers to proceed with caution.
Narver followed up his comments at the council meeting with an email to the city stating that he had failed to share his perspective on a “Hill Blocks View” sign that is currently in place.
“The wildlife creates an issue for both sides of the hill,” he wrote. “In my opinion, both signs can make a point without being too busy or distracting.”
Narver added that it would be acceptable if the city determines that the “Hill Blocks View” sign is the only one needed. However, if there was support for an additional caution sign for wildlife, he still wanted to be involved in the process.
The Police Committee was not scheduled to meet again until September but it appears that the group will now get together on Aug. 4.
