By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
SUAMICO – Speed limits on three segments of roads in the village were lowered by 10 mph following action Monday, Aug. 19, by the Suamico village board.
Board members split 4-3 to lower the speed limit from 35 to 25 mph on Moonlight Drive and also on Rainbow Drive, both from the intersection with Sunny Lane north to the end of those respective roads.
Trustees Steve Andrews, Dan Roddan, Mike Schneider and Sky Van Rossum voted for the lower speed limits on those two road segments, while Village President Laura Nelson and trustees Michelle Eckert and Jason Ward were opposed.
Board members heard from Brown County direct enforcement officers Jim Kowalkowski and Justin Raska regarding the speed limit changes, which they noted were backed by the village’s Health and Safety Committee.
“Crash history, all that is given to the committee,” Kowalkowski said. “They make a recommendation to the board as to what that particular thing should be.”
Raska said a resident on Moonlight Drive requested the speed limit to be lowered to 25 mph.
Eckert said she has driven on that section of Moonlight Drive and asked “why the heck are we doing this?”
“I don’t really see a good reason,” she said. “One person said it (should have a lower speed limit) and another person said not. I mean, we can’t lower a speed limit every time somebody says it.”
Trustee Dan Roddan said facts and data support lowering the speed limit.
“We’re talking about a stretch of roadway that isn’t very long – it’s a dead end,” he said.
Roddan said the recommendation to lower the speed limit related to safety because of the number of people who walk along that section of roadway.
Bill Chambers, who owns about 31 acres of property along Moonlight Drive, spoke in opposition to lowering the speed limit.
“The people that are living there that have lived there for the last five (to) six years – there will be no more, because there’s no more developable lots for more people – they’re going to drive the same speed that they were before…,” Chambers said. “It’s not a safety thing, it’s not a crash thing, it’s just a speed trap.”
The request to lower the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph on Westline Road from Lineville Road north to its end at Robin Lane was unanimously approved by the board.
Board members agreed with the request from the Town of Pittsfield to lower the speed limit in the interest of public safety to be consistent with having a speed limit of 35 mph all along Westline Road.
Westline Road had been 45 mph from Pine Ridge Court north to the intersection with Robin Lane.