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Residents tell Kingsport board speeding and collapsing sidewalks are creating unsafe neighborhoods
Summary
Multiple residents urged the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to act on neighborhood speeding, deteriorating sidewalks and a long-unrepaired collapsed sidewalk/drainage hole; staff said notes were taken and follow-up would occur but no immediate enforcement action was directed at the meeting.
Several Kingsport residents used the public-comment period on April 7 to urge the board to address neighborhood safety and infrastructure problems, including speeding, non-enforcement, collapsed sidewalks and incomplete alley/sidewalk repairs.
Bart Bush, who said he lives at 970 Shady Side Drive in the Hunts Crossing neighborhood, presented results of a multi-year traffic study and told the board that drivers routinely exceed the 25 mph speed limit. "We have documentation of people doing excess of 50–60 mph in a 25 mph zone," Bush said, and asked that the board instruct the police traffic division and chief to increase enforcement.
Clarence Pennington, who lives near Bush, said he corroborated those concerns and described daily dog-walking and pedestrian activity made unsafe by motorists who "just fly through my neighborhood." Both commentators said previous calls to police and meetings with staff had produced limited results.
Patty Teague described long-standing infrastructure problems in Lower Severe Terrace: large holes and collapsed sidewalk/drainage running adjacent to a former Ford Anderson Ford site that have been marked with orange barriers for more than two years, sidewalks covered in blacktop, 18-wheelers parking on sidewalks, and narrow two-block streets with cars parked on both sides that constrain emergency and everyday movement. She provided photos to illustrate the site conditions.
City staff acknowledged the concerns and said staff in the room were taking notes for follow-up; the meeting’s procedural rules limited an on-the-spot exchange. The board encouraged residents to meet staff before or after the meeting and said follow-up would be handled through the appropriate city departments.
No new enforcement program or specific timetable was announced during the meeting; residents were directed to follow up with city staff and the traffic division for potential enforcement and with public-works staff for infrastructure repairs.
