A Few Minutes with the Mayor – September 2024

EARLY FALL IN JACKSONVILLE means school is back in session—making this a good time to be aware of our younger citizens, as they walk and bike to school. Remember, some of them are too short for you to see, especially if you drive a big SUV or truck. Please watch out for our kids, and remind your friends and neighbors to do the same. Pedestrians should cross streets only in designated crossing areas, but we are talking about excited children, who don’t always remember to adhere to the safest way to navigate traffic. These crossing areas are generally where an intersection is located, even if there is not a painted crosswalk. In a high foot traffic area, such as a school, there may be a crosswalk in the middle of the block. Just being aware of a problematic situation is the key to preventing many accidents from occurring. Again, please help in safeguarding our children. Parents, please review pedestrian traffic safety regarding walking and biking with your kids.

Speaking of traffic, the City of Jacksonville has nearly completed the recommendations set forth from the Jacksonville Traffic Ad-Hoc Committee. Most of the recommendations have been completed.

These include:

  1. Increased enforcement of traffic laws and violations.
  2. An ODOT speed study at Shafer Lane and 5th Street.
  3. Acquisition of additional Mobile Speed Radar Signs that can be moved around town.
  4. “Slow” stencils on streets where traffic is entering into residential areas at South 3rd Street, South Oregon Street, and G Street.
  5. Fog striping along streets entering into residential areas at South 3rd street, South Oregon Street, Applegate Street, G Street, and Hueners Lane.
  6. Stop Bar Striping at stop signs on Beverly Way and D Street.
  7. Addition of “Trail Crossing” signs in intersections connecting the Woodland Trails and Grove Woods Trails. These are located at Graham and Applegate Streets, Applegate and Hill Streets, and Graham and South 3rd Streets.

In progress are:

  1. The crosswalk request to ODOT at Shafer Lane and 5th Street, or a solution to the crossing problem in heavy traffic. We don’t have a completion date from ODOT yet.
  2. Installation of both full and split speed bumps on various streets. The speed bumps have been purchased and are awaiting availability of crew installation time. New signage will warn of the speed bumps. We look for that to happen by the end of September.

Items we are not able to complete at this time are:

  1. Speed Radar Signs: Jacksonville is not eligible to use speed radar signs with photographic capabilities.
  2. ODOT disallowed lowering the speed down to 20mph, on the 5th Street corridor, entering Jacksonville at our north city limit.
  3. We will be looking at further research, and discussion, involving the city’s legal and insurance liabilities associated with establishing a citizen’s volunteer, or auxiliary, group to support the police department.

I would like to acknowledge the Jacksonville Traffic Ad-Hoc Committee for the work they accomplished in bringing these safety changes. The committee was comprised of: Chair-Councilor Andy Hellenthal, citizens Susan Murray, Cindy Rasmussen, and me. Special recognition goes to the citizen group “Citizen’s for A Safer Jacksonville” for the suggestions they brought to the table. They were appreciated and very valuable.

I would like to share good news from our Police Department. Kaden Johnson, who was a Jacksonville Police Officer previously, has rejoined our force. One of our new recruits, Nick Nelson, just graduated from the police academy and is also on patrol. Welcome to Officers Johnson and Nelson. And finally, our second new recruit just started his course at the academy and should be hitting the street this fall. This is a wonderful step forward in re-staffing our police department, and reaching our goal of having a full staff. Thanks are due to Chief Towe and Sergeant Hannum for the long hours they put in during the past year. We are also grateful to the other local law enforcement agencies who stepped in when needed.

I look forward to the cooler temperatures coming with our beautiful fall weather, and saying goodbye to the heat we’ve experienced this summer. Until October…