By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — After some discussion, the Warsaw Traffic Commission on Wednesday, May 1, unanimously voted to recommend to the city council that all-way stop signs be placed at the intersection of Fort Wayne and West streets.
City Planner Justin Taylor introduced the suggestion of a four-way stop at the intersection by saying the technical review committee reviewed the possible placement.
“The tech review committee, in short, thought it would be a good decision to have a four-way stop at this location. As far as the new development (Gateway Grove), it just makes sense to stop traffic as it goes east-west,” he said.
City engineer Aaron Ott said Gateway Grove is a new development and they weren’t making a change to an existing intersection.
With the YMCA facility there, he said it feels like a city street there and that an all-way stop will be the safest condition “unless we see that there is a dominant movement of traffic one way or other.”
Taylor said if you’re headed southbound on West Street, there is a stop there, but if you’re heading east or west on Fort Wayne — since Fort Wayne is being extended — “it does make sense for us to add that stop sign in there, too, to make that a safer intersection.”
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said adding stop signs there would be consistent with what the city does with developments.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins drove by there and said there’s probably going to be a significant amount of traffic coming by there. She agreed that a stop sign was in order.
Jack Wilhite, council president, asked if the intersection was going to be an all-way or a two-way stop.
“It becomes an all-way. It’s an assumed stop at the Y because it’s a private driveway, but yes, we’re proposing to make the other three directions all stop,” Ott replied.
When Wilhite asked about the horseshoe that goes into the YMCA, he was told it was private. Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs asked if they should make a recommendation to the YMCA about that intersection and if the YMCA had some type of traffic control signage.
“That would be a good idea that they add a stop sign,” Beam said, so traffic leaving the YMCA doesn’t think it can just go through the intersection.
There was some discussion about if an engineering analysis was needed at the intersection. Ott said the development there wouldn’t be built for several months so there was time to look at it.
Grubbs suggested having a stop sign there at Fort Wayne Street westbound at West Street. He said a stop sign is needed there.
Wilhite made a motion to put a stop sign there and Dobbins seconded it.
Public Works and Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon said, “I think what we would need to do is confirm that an engineering study or analysis is not needed, I’m 100% sure on that, but then that would be a recommendation for the council to adopt a stop sign at that intersection.”
Wilhite asked if an engineering study should be done before the commission takes any action. Dillon said the analysis could be done in-house as it’s fairly simple. Ott said he could have it by the commission’s next meeting. Dillon said the commission could take action pending the analysis added to it to make a recommendation to the city council.
“I would move that we go ahead and make the recommendation for Aaron’s study to, for the safety and precautions and the line of sight, go ahead and add a stop sign on West Fort Wayne Street,” Dillon said.
Dobbins seconded the motion, and Wilhite withdrew his initial motion. The commission then unanimously approved Dillon’s motion.
Wilhite then mentioned that the city has placed other stop signs in the area of Gateway Grove and asked if they’ve been placed into ordinance yet. There was some disagreement on whether or not they had, and which stop signs, but Dillon said he would check into that.
Dillon also reported an arrow sign has been added at the end of Prairie Street that the commission had discussed at previous meetings. Signage at Husky Trail for the right lane also has been updated, with traffic markings to be updated when the weather warms up consistently
