A stretch of Pulaski County Road 400 North will soon get a lower speed limit. The county council voted four-to-two Monday to reduce the speed limit to 35 miles per hour between U.S. 421 and County Road 1400 West, and make 400 and 1400 a four-way stop. The speed limit change had been approved by the county commissioners last month.
Resident Jack Cooper presented council members with a petition signed by several of his neighbors. “We have issues with people coming down our street like 60, 70 miles an hour, especially on the weekends with that Shadyhill racetrack,” Cooper told council members. “Everybody uses that as a speedway. In the morning, we’ve got kids next door that get on the school bus, and the kid’s almost been hit once or twice.”
Mike Tiede voted against the measure. “How about you just do the speed limit, not the stop sign?” Tiede asked. “I think you’re going to get people ticked off about the stop sign because that road goes right on through there, right?” Similarly, Interim Highway Superintendent Gary Kruger said he’d rather make the speed limit 45, instead of dropping all the way down to 35.
Cooper also asked the county to add signs warning motorists of a school bus stop, a deaf person in the area, and a horse crossing. “Well, I moved over there, and I’m trying to, like, make the neighborhood great, kind of like a Donald Trump thing,” he explained. “And I would appreciate, maybe, if the sheriff would maybe sit over there once or twice a week and write some tickets, and maybe that would do something.”
Council members weren’t sure if they could act on Cooper’s request for warning signs, but Council President Jay Sullivan directed the Highway Department to look into it. The new speed limit and stop signs aren’t expected to take effect until the changes are put into a written ordinance.
