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Sylva officials talk about traffic on 107
By Justin Goble
Sylva safety officials Tuesday focused on traffic as their main concern.
Discussion during the Jan. 10 meeting of the town’s Public Safety Committee centered around speeding on Main Street and N.C. 107.
“We’re trying to get enforcement where there’s the most potential for risk,” Sylva Police Chief Jeff Jamison said. “Something has to be done with N.C. 107, there’s no doubt about it. But I don’t want Sylva to be known as a speed trap. I want to find a way for people to obey the law instead of issuing a lot of tickets. I would like to see 107 reconstructed to make people slow down.”
The dense traffic makes the four-lane road especially hard to patrol, Jamison said. With such a large number of cars throughout the day, the only effective way police have to catch offenders is with two squad cars so that one can clock traffic and the other can stop those speeders and issue a citation.
“The last count I saw showed that there are an average of 25,000 cars using N.C. 107 per day,” Jamison said. “We really need two officers to work it. Officers can’t turn around because of the heavy traffic flow. It’s difficult to patrol with conventional means.”
While it may cut down on the number of speeders, this type of patrolling of 107 would put a strain on the town’s already overworked police force, Jamison said. Dealing with the dump trucks at the Lowe’s construction site hasn’t made matters easier.
“We’ve got officers dealing with the trucks exclusively,” Jamison asked. “It’s unfortunate that we have to put so much effort into something we shouldn’t have to deal with. I would prefer to find an alternative to citations. ”
Committee Member Maurice Moody applauded Jamison’s efforts, saying that the last thing the town needs is to have N.C. 107 become a speed trap.
“Jeff has not only issued citations, but he’s dealt with the contractors,” Moody said. “The whole town suffers when you make it a speed trap. You turn people off when you pass through. The truckers can’t avoid driving through 107 but they’re professionals and they know better (than to speed).”
The amount of speeding on Main Street was also an issue. Moody and town Manager Jay Denton both said drivers breaking the speed limit downtown poses a danger to the numerous pedestrians trying to cross the street. Moody suggested that an increased number of signs identifying crosswalks may cause drivers to be more careful.
“I would like to see more signage,” Moody said. “I went to Western Carolina University to look at their signs. They had them pretty well marked. We’ve made a couple of requests to the Department of Transportation, but they don’t seem to want to because it’s a state road.”
While agreeing that signs may help, Jamison said that getting residents to stop at crosswalks takes an effort to get them actively thinking about it.
“We have to get people to stop for people crossing the road at a crosswalk,” Jamison said. “It’s a mindset people have to get into.”
“We also need to encourage residents not to jaywalk,” Moody said. “They need to go around and use the crosswalks.”
Denton argued since most of the offenders are town residents instead of visitors, posting signs probably wouldn’t alleviate the problem.
“I want traffic to slow down,” Denton said. “I’m amazed people haven’t been run over on Main Street. It’s time to do something. I’m not against Jeff’s staff issuing citations. Let’s look at the reality of this. It’s local folks that are doing all the speeding. You can put up all the signs you want, but you won’t get people to slow down unless there’s someone there to encourage people to slow down.”
Though he argued for constructive ways to deter speeding, Jamison said it wasn’t because he was averse to issuing citations to offenders. He said that there may be other ways to stop offenders than handing out tickets, though that is always an option that police can utilize.
“I’m not soft on traffic crime, that’s not it,” Jamison said. “If we get a call about so-and-so’s son speeding up on Sunrise Park, I could send an officer out there and catch him and issue a citation. But I could also call that person’s dad, tell them we’ve heard his son is speeding and he could talk to him, which may resolve the issue. If the son speeds again and ends up getting a ticket, then we can at least say we tried.”
While manpower to patrol the town’s roads is limited, ideas were offered on how to make patrolling the roads in their current state an easier task for the officers the town already has. Jamison told the committee that some changes in equipment would not only make the task easier but save money since it would cut down on the number of officers needed to effectively patrol.
“We only have front-facing radar,” he said. “We have no way to position our cars where just one officer can catch speeders. We need rear-facing radar antennas as well. And that’s going to cost money, because you have to replace the system. That may not fix the whole problem, but it would help.
“And there’s a piece of equipment that you could buy that one officer could operate,” Jamison said. “That would offer us savings, since you don’t have to have another officer out there. And that would be a motorcycle.”
Moody suggested the town could look into buying officers scooters, which offer the benefits of a motorcycle at a lower cost. Jamison, however, was afraid that such a small vehicle would be dangerous for the officers on a road as crowded as 107.
“The problem I have with scooters is visibility,” Jamison said. “I don’t think they’re visible enough, and that could put the officer in danger.”
Committee members agreed that many of the town’s traffic woes could be fixed with increased funding. However, with the town’s taxes high as it is, those funds could be difficult to come by.
“The sole problem here is money,” Moody said. “It’s the first time in history that the town’s tax rate has been higher than the county’s. I don’t think the residents need a tax increase, but it would be ideal if we had more funds. Jeff needs two more officers.”
Jamison said that the police department could apply for grants, but most of those that could be applied for required a matching dollar amount from the town. Grant funds in general have been dwindling as well, he said, with more money being devoted to homeland security since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
As for N.C. 107 being re-configured to quell some of the traffic issues, Mayor Brenda Oliver said that DOT looked at the road, but couldn’t offer help until the county approves its land use plan.
“The DOT looked at 107, but they packed up their tents and left when they saw that we had no plan,” Oliver said. “They told us they would come back when we had a plan. When the municipalities agree that this is a good document and approve it, it will be forwarded to DOT, and they will come out and look at the traffic flow and make recommendations.”
A multi-jurisdictional meeting to approve the land use plan will be held Monday, Feb. 13, at 6 p.m. at the Justice Center.
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