BTC meeting: Speed bumps on Church Street; traffic pattern changes for new daycare

By John Estridge

There are two portable speed bumps along Church Street/Alley in Brookville.

According to Brookville Town Manager Tim Ripperger, the speed bumps are between Fifth and Sixth streets and Sixth and Seventh streets along the alley.

This move came after a request from a town resident. She first stated the need on social media, saying vehicles were speeding down the alley near where her children played. She was concerned about their safety. Her comment was answered by BTC President Curtis Ward on the social media platform. She then came to a meeting with the same request and the same comment.

Ward asked for a committee to be formed from town council members and for the members to meet with town officials to see what would be needed to help the situation. BTC members Catherine Pelsor and Eric Johnson were joined in a meeting by park and street department supervisor Brent Riehle and Brookville Police Department Chief Terry Mitchum.

Ripperger said the speed bumps are being placed in those two locations on a trial basis. Ripperger said he is waiting on comments about the speed bumps and to the date of the March 23 meeting, he had received no comments.

The same task force looked at how to do parking for a new daycare center in the old Elsie Dreyer Nursing Home buildings located at Third and Main streets.

Ripperger said the proposal was to have the alley, which runs north and south behind the daycare, be a one-way alley. Entry would be from the north, head south and then unload and load behind the daycare off the alley.

Vehicles would then exit onto St. Michael’s Boulevard on the east, and St. Michael Boulevard would also be one-way there heading east, Ripperger said.

This was the proposal to keep from having a traffic backup on Third Street and then back up to Main Street.

Also, there had been a proposal to have two places beside the daycare center along Third Street reserved just for daycare parking. However, Ripperger said Mitchum was against this option, and it was because of the same fear the traffic would back up on Third Street and onto Main waiting for those two parking places to be vacant. Instead, Mitchum would like to see a no-parking zone there with the curb painted yellow.

Ward said there is also the fear if parking is allowed beside the daycare, the permanent residents in the area would take up the parking spaces.

Having St. Michaels Boulevard one-way east would allow residents in that area to get out even when the daycare is busy with drop offs and pickups, Ripperger said.

A stop sign will be placed at the alley’s exit onto St. Michael’s Boulevard, Ripperger said.

Ward and BTC member Brooke Leffingwell said council could revisit the yellow curb area in the future if needed.

Ward asked Ripperger to write a letter to Franklin County Area Plan Director Cindy Orschell as the Franklin County Board of Zoning Appeals asked that traffic changes be made. The BZA gave an approval for a variance sought by the daycare owners at the BZA’s March meeting with the condition there is a change in the traffic patterns to facilitate safe drop offs and pickups and to have no traffic backups on Main Street.