All right to turn left ... for now

Perhaps lost in the maze of downtown detours and altered traffic patterns, the sign noting the left-turn restriction at the southeast corner of the square has disappeared.

Before you go blaming some street-sign-collecting dorm denizens or those renegades in red from Wabash, trust that it was done intentionally.

Old photo shows no-left-turn sign in place on the southeast corner of the courthouse square in Greencastle.

The no-left-turn restriction has been rescinded for the time being while construction is ongoing on Vine Street.

That's why you're probably more likely these days to find yourself caught up in westbound traffic on Washington Street, waiting for some left-turn artist to go south on Indiana.

Allowing the left turn on Indiana is supposed to be helping local traffic flow during the closing of South Vine Street for the last of the city's Stellar Communities Grant streetscape projects.

However, one recent observation found westbound mid-afternoon traffic backed up from the Washington-Indiana stoplight all the way back past College Avenue to the east. All the result of just one left-turning vehicle waiting to turn.

Not that everyone paid much attention to the old sign that proclaimed "no left turn between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m." anyway. Drivers regularly ignored it and turned left during the prohibited peak-traffic hours.

"Actually," Mayor Sue Murray told the Banner Graphic, "that no-left turn is not listed anywhere in the city ordinance."

That's likely due to Washington Street being U.S. 231 in that area and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) having jurisdiction.

And that's where the genesis of the no-left-turn issue gets fuzzy.

Longtime Greencastle residents remember the days when a painted barrel was rolled out into that intersection during the appropriate hours with a sign atop it noting the left-turn ban.

However, INDOT officials told Mayor Murray it has a record of the city making a request to allow the left turn at Washington-Indiana intersection during the tenure of the late Jane Harlan as mayor (1981-84).

"They said it used to be flip-flopped back then where you couldn't turn left on Vine (from Washington)," Mayor Murray said. "I don't remember that."

While the turning restriction has been lifted for now, that doesn't mean it will become permanent, the mayor noted.

"INDOT said it is up to us if it goes back up or not," she said, indicating that the issue will be taken up after construction is complete.

However, INDOT has recommended that if the city decides to keep the left turn allowable at the intersection that it eliminate the three parking spaces along the north side of Washington Street between the Old National Bank corner and the alley. That would allow INDOT to create a left-turn lane and still maintain through traffic on U.S. 231.

No decision has been reached on that, however, the mayor stressed.

In fact, there has yet to be any formal discussion of the matter by the City Council and other local officials, she said.