Residents from a street in Park Hills came to the first in-person meeting of Park Hills city council in over a year Monday night to protest the speed bumps that are being temporarily installed at some intersections in the city.
“I understand the intersection of Audubon and Lawton are going to be getting these same, wonderful, humongous speed bumps—not humps—bumps,” said Bill Hemmer, who lives on Wald court. “I don’t really understand why we have to have these speed bumps.”
He told council they delay emergency response time and damage cars, even when the cars just roll over the bumps.
Hemmer said the city has to drill holes in the pavement to install the bumps, and he said water can get in and damage the pavement.
“They are very annoying to go over,” he stated.
Hemmer asked why the police don’t just issue more tickets to people who run the stop signs. He reminded people that the city has two unmarked police cars, and they could use them to be parked at the intersections.
“I just feel like we are penalizing all the people who are law abiding,” he said, “and the few bad eggs in the dozens are causing us all the issues, having to be going over these bumps.”
In addition to parking the unmarked police cars at intersections, Hemmer said he thought maybe the city could put something in the newsletters saying, on this day, of this month we are going to be targeting those who run stop signs. The article could encourage everyone to tell friends and neighbors.
Mayor Kathy Zembrodt said the city had a lot of complaints about the area around Trolley Park, where there are many children who come to play, and when people run stop signs they put children and their caretakers in danger. She said this is a problem all over the city, so the bumps are a kind of trial to see if they can slow people down.
Councilmember Kevin Downes stressed that when it comes to the safety of people and their kids, he is going to err on the side of safety every time. Councilmember Joe Shields agreed.
“We have to weigh the inconvenience of the bumps against the safety of the kids,” Downes said.
Brian Donnelly also lives on Wald Court, and he identified himself as a 22-year senior traffic engineer for the Department of Transportation. He told council that installing speed bumps is contrary to every engineering standard. He advised that since the city has a great engineer in Jay Bayer, they should use him as a resource.
He said the difference between speed humps, speed bumps and speed tables.
“When you put speed bumps near a stop sign, you are exposing yourself to enormous liability if there is any kind of accident,” he said. “There is no engineering justification for putting speed bumps within 75 to 100 feet of a stop sign. So please, do not put that back.”
Councilmember Pam Spoor said they appreciated Donnelly coming, and that council was open to hearing any new ideas that they might have.
Donnelly said the best option he had was lighted stop signs because they are hard to ignore.
Councilmember Sarah Froelich said that she has been speaking out about this issue for a long time, and she thinks the best thing the city could do is to incorporate speed humps, which are concrete or asphalt and are about 15 to 20 feet in length.
Police Chief Cody Stanley said the reason he suggested speed bumps is that a motorist almost has to stop at a speed bump, and if the city puts the bump by a stop sign, they have to stop to go over the bump. He told council that people are going to run stop signs if you put one sign up, two signs up, a lighted sign up or whatever. He said people just don’t want to come to a complete stop. Council determines what will be done, he said, he can only make suggestions.
Zembrodt liked the idea of putting the issue into the Infrastructure committee, and possibly creating a sub committee to find out all the ideas and options and coming up with a plan for the city.
‘I think we threaded a needle’
Senator Chris McDaniel came to the meeting to explain what the state assembly decided on in their session this year.
He mentioned the state employment pension, and said they adjusted it.
“When I came to Frankfort, we were one hiccup away from default inside the pension system,” he stated. “I think we threaded a needle over the last decade.”
Downes asked about the chances that the new Brent Spence bridge project will include tolls.
“That is almost impossible at this point,” McDaniel said. “The plan that is in place now, that is in the road plan, is that there is no toll in the plan. I can’t imagine a scenario that there would be a toll, absent something bizarre happening.”
McDaniel said there were three things he thought were problems. The first is the dwindling workforce, the second is the difference in the eastern part of the state, where the coal industry has virtually collapsed, and the need to help them get their workforce running. The third problem is inflation, and the need to prepare for a recession.
Legislation
Council listened to the first reading of the amended 2021-2022 budget, and then the first reading of the 2022-2023 budget.
Council also passed a municipal order authorizing the standard allowance for the local recovery fund as authorized by the ARPA funds.
This means that they accept the $772,733 that the government allots to the city through the ARPA funding. The amount is divided into parts, and the second part should come in late June or July. Initial plans are to use the money to help with the street repair.
