Council to consider four-way stops at two busy intersections

The Walnut and Indiana street intersection isn’t exactly busy late Monday afternoon but usually with all the new additions to the area and the presence of the post office and several places for food or drink, it’s a bustling intersection that can be dangerous to navigate when the streets are parked full and visibility wanes.

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

Increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic activity in the downtown area may result in two of Greencastle’s more bewildering intersections becoming simpler to navigate as four-way stops in the near future.

When the Greencastle City Council conducts its February regular session, beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, it is poised to consider first reading of Ordinance 2018-1, designating new four-way stop intersections at Vine and Franklin streets and at Indiana and Walnut streets.

With approval on two separate readings of the ordinance required for passage, the earliest that final adoption could occur would be in March.

Stopsign on Franklin Street side of the Franklin and Vine street intersection in Greencastle reminds drivers that cross traffic does not stop.

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

However, Mayor Bill Dory said it would likely be “a little later in the spring before the signs would go up.”

That way, he reasoned, the city would have time to educate the public on the changes.

Hopefully those changes would “slow down traffic and keep people safe,” the mayor said, agreeing that both intersections have visibility issues because of traffic congestion and parked vehicles.

The proposed ordinance has resulted from continued concerns expressed by members of the community, Dory said, along with internal discussions among department heads and the mayor.

“We’ve had enough continued concern expressed,” he said, “that department head discussions indicated we should probably move forward with it.”

Public discussion of the dangers of the Vine and Franklin intersection has come up at least twice at recent City Council meetings, including the November session. That’s when Council member Stacie Langdon urged city officials to re-examine that intersection after witnessing accident near-misses and seeing drivers stop on Vine Street, expecting it to be a four-way stop while currently it only requires Franklin Street traffic to stop.

Councilman Gary Lemon agreed at that time as well, noting “my perception is that traffic there has increased dramatically.”

The main addition to the intersection is the Wasser Brewing Co. brewery and restaurant at the southeast corner of Vine and Franklin, while the office of Prime Realty has moved into the building on the northwest corner of the intersection.

Meanwhile, the intersection of Walnut and Indiana has long been considered dangerous -- especially for drivers on Walnut trying to cross Indiana Street -- because of traffic volume in an area that includes the post office, the new city parking lot, fire department and Moore’s Bar. Other more recent additions like Tap 24, Completely Nuts and Candy Co., Scoops, Cricket’s and more have only added to pedestrian and vehicular traffic in that area.

Mayor Dory said residents have expressed concern to his office and other city officials about the sight lines and distances at the Indiana-Walnut intersection which currently requires only Walnut Street traffic to stop, giving Indiana Street the right of way.

The February City Council agenda also includes street closure requests from Main Street Greencastle (2018 First Friday events), Relay for Life (5K run March 17) and DePauw University (May 20 commencement), along with Resolution 2018-2 which designates an economic revitalization area for 39.98 acres of Chiyoda USA Corp. property and an annual contract between the city and the Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center.

The City Council is composed of President Adam Cohen, Stacie Langdon, Steve Fields, Tyler Wade, Mark Hammer, Gary Lemon and Dave Murray.