A SUV moves a lane over from the right-turn lane that goes into the Aldi’s parking lot on Husky Trail Wednesday afternoon to get into the right-turn lane that turns onto Parker Street. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Warsaw Traffic Commission greenlighted first-step solutions Wednesday, Feb. 7,  to two separate issues — one on Husky Trail, and the other at Pope, Prairie and Detroit streets.

Both issues were discussed at the commission’s last meeting, though Pope, Prairie and Detroit have been on the commission’s agenda for some time.

Public Works Superintendent Dustin Dillon on Wednesday first presented the solution proposal to the commission for the Pope, Prairie and Detroit concerns.

“I think what we would like to propose to the commission, as far as from our side, is to add the pavement markings from basically back from the right-of-way on SR 15, going east along Prairie around the curb and back to Winona Avenue,” he said.

He said if they stripe that and make drivers fully aware of which lane they are in, that could help with the speeding as vehicles go around the corner at Prairie and Detroit, as well as they will add a sign at the east end of Prairie. In the spring, when the weather is better, the curbing will be redone to “see where that goes,” he said.

“I think instead of just adding the striping at the curb, just to promote the awareness in full of going ahead and running the pavement markings, adding the turn arrows, the crosswalks — doing the full pavement marking all the way from 15 back up to Winona Avenue, they’re all South Detroit,” Dillon said.

A future part of the plan may also eliminate about 30 feet of parking from Pope Street in front of Warsaw Cut Glass to the middle of the building.

City Planner Justin Taylor said they had a discussion with Michiana Area Council of Governments about potentially implementing something along those lines, though he hadn’t had any discussions with Warsaw Cut Glass owners about it.

“It is right-of-way, but we do want to make sure we’re talking to them,” Taylor said. “… MACOG is on board to help us with whatever that looks like, so we’re kind of open to potentially maneuvering vehicles in that area to make it more visible.”

Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs said it would seem like visibility would be better there if there was parallel parking rather than angle parking, from the middle of the building going south.

The Indiana Department of Transportation has placed a ‘No U-Turn’ sign on Detroit Street in front of Caliber Collision. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said they were looking at two different complaints with that area. The first would be turning south onto Detroit Street from Pope Street, and taking those parking spots away at the northwest corner at Warsaw Cut Glass would help with the drivers’ line of sight. The other complaint about that area was speeding vehicles, but having the pavement markings to guide people will likely help.

Dillon agreed it was a good starting point and his estimate for the pavement markings and turn arrows was about $3,000. “It’s a pretty minimal expense to increase the safety here,” he said, and they can see if those measures improve the situation in the area.

Commission member and Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said the proposal was a good first start. It may not solve all the issues, she said, but “it’s a good first start.”

Jason Brown, commission member, said he would feel bad about taking away parking from Warsaw Cut Glass.

“All of that parking is in the city right-of-way. None of it belongs to Warsaw Cut Glass, except for south of the building,” Beam stated.

Grubbs commented that they potentially don’t have more than six vehicles at one time anyway.

Brown made the motion to go with Dillon’s proposal, which includes painting the lines and crosswalks on the streets, adding a directional sign that Prairie does “T” at Detroit Street, with curb improvements on the east side of the road.

“We’ll have the pavement markings, and hopefully the vast awareness, helps people stay in their lane and helps slow things down. This is something we’ll have to revisit, probably in the fall, to see how it’s going,” Dillon said.

The motion passed unanimously.

The Husky Trail issue concerns the turn lanes as one goes south on Husky Trail approaching Aldi’s and the carwash and approaching Parker Street. To turn into Aldi’s, as the turn lanes are currently configured, drivers are supposed to use the far right turn lane to turn in to the store parking lot and the left right-turn lane to go to Parker Street and turn right onto Parker. However, drivers are using both turn lanes to get to Parker Street to turn right.

Dillon said they had a meeting with Laura Slusher, traffic engineer with Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program, on Tuesday. She looked at the intersection and came up with a similar scenario that the city was considering, Dillon said, but the city wanted an outside expert to take a look at it.

“What we’re proposing here is to turn that right lane into a thru or right into the carwash, and a right-turn only right after that. We would basically keep about 200 feet from the four-way of solid line, not to change lanes, but to turn that into a dash right there as well so, basically, you could have two straight lanes going at that point turning into a right-hand turn lane,” Dillon explained.

He said, currently, after the carwash there is a sign delineating which lane drivers are supposed to be in.

Signage will be added along Husky Trail coming out of the roundabout, and pavement markings will be redone there once the weather is feasible to do the work.

Dillon said it was a good starting point and they could continue to monitor the traffic out there. Beam said he really liked it and appreciated their work. Dillon said the work would have minimal cost.

Beam made a motion to change the Husky Trail southbound to straight or right just north of Aldi’s. Dobbins seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

Grubbs notified the commission the Indiana Department of Transportation notified them of a U-turn restriction on North Detroit Street at Caliber Collision.

“There’s a concrete island in that area and people evidently are going past that island and U-turning back from the north and coming back south. And they saw fit that they needed to have a ‘No U-Turn’ sign posted there,” he said.

Dillon said they were just notified of the change and had no input on the sign.

Dobbins reported she received a complaint Tuesday about residents parking on both sides of Pine Cone Lane at Harrison Ridge addition. There was a situation Tuesday where the recycling truck “absolutely could not get through,” she said. It was stopped and the truck’s driver kept honking his horn until someone finally came out and moved their vehicle. She said the addition did not have a home owners association.

Dillon said they’ve ran into similar situations in the past especially with neighborhoods with narrower streets. It does create some challenges with some larger vehicles, as well as with snowplowing, when vehicles are parked on both sides of the streets.

He said he didn’t know if they really wanted to take any action on it other than encouraging neighbors to be good neighbors and maybe stagger their cars or pull up a little bit just to make sure there’s room on the road.

Taylor said he would be interested in seeing the photos that were sent to Dobbins to see if the vehicles were parked in a weird way as there should be enough space — about 28 feet — for two vehicles to park along the road and another vehicle to get through, even if it is a larger vehicle.

The next meeting of the Warsaw Traffic Commission is at 1 p.m. March 6. There will not be an April meeting due to spring break.