South State speed limit may be lowered

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March 9, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Sheriff Tom Williams thinks lowering speed limits on State Street as it runs south of town will mean fewer accidents.
“We’ve had 30 reportable accidents on South State Street (old U.S. 169) in the last five years, including three fatalities, and 50 more accidents that didn’t require a state report being filed, Williams said.
Reports must be made to the Kansas Department of Transportation of any accident that results in a fatality, injury or substantial property damage.
Williams’ proposal was to make the speed limit 35 miles an hour from Iola’s city limit to where the road south of Lake Bassett leads to the county maintenance shops; then 45 miles an hour to the where the road curves east toward Allen County Airport. Today, the speed limit for all that stretch is 55 miles an hour.
Commissioners asked County Counselor Alan Weber to look into the proposed change and prepare an enabling ordinance if he found no concerns.
Larry Crawford, who lives just north of the road leading to the Gates Corporation plant, applauded the proposal.
“They have 750 people working at Gates now and there’s a lot of traffic coming and going when shifts change,” said Crawford.
Williams said his officers “would enforce the lower speed limits. There probably will be a lot of tickets and some upset people,” but making the stretch of road safer would be worth the inconvenience.
In conclusion, he said the change wouldn’t make much difference for motorists.
“We drove the road and found that the lower speeds will add just 58 seconds to a trip from the city limit to the curve,” Williams said. The distance is about a mile and a half.

AN EXPENDITURE of $1,200 was approved to give dispatchers in the 911 emergency service center a rudimentary grasp of Spanish.
Hutchinson Community College offers a course specifically geared for dispatchers  — it’s called workplace Spanish — that will teach them phrases to better understand conversations in calls from Hispanics not fully fluent in English.
Angie Murphy, dispatch director, said she checked with Allen County Community College first, and found it did not offer such a course. Nor does Neosho County Community College in Chanute.
Cost will be $75 each for 16 dispatchers who signed on for the course, which will be taught in Iola.
Commissioners renewed casualty, liability, property, vehicle and worker’s compensation insurance coverage with Loren Korte’s Personal Service Insurance. The premium for all will be $256,000, $31,000 more than a year ago. That includes a $20,000 increase for worker’s compensation coverage, Korte said.

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