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Austin tells Uintah council 6550 is unsafe, presents petition and offers to install stop signs
Summary
A resident identified in the meeting as Austin told the Uintah City Council that speeding on 6550 is a long-running safety problem, presented a three-page petition that he said included signatures from every household he visited, and offered to buy materials and help install stop signs if the city needs a low-cost option.
Austin, a presenter and resident who said he lives on 6550, told the council that speeding along that stretch is an ongoing safety hazard for families and children and presented a three-page petition he said all contacted neighbors signed. "Not a single person didn't sign this petition," Austin told the council, arguing the scale of neighborhood support required action.
Austin described 6550 as a long, downhill, pass-through street with businesses and a growing number of families nearby, which he said makes the corridor uniquely prone to speeding. He told the council he had discussed the problem with county commissioner Jim Harvey and the mayor of Washington Terrace and said the portable speed trailer the city deployed previously had been effective in slowing traffic.
To address the problem, Austin proposed several practical options he said would reduce excessive speed without large expenditures: regularly deploying the speed trailer, converting two intersections on 6550 to three- or four-way stops, or installing permanent stop signs. He added that policing capacity is limited: "The police department is tapped. They're short staffed," Austin said, and suggested city-led infrastructure changes would be a more durable solution.
Austin offered to help implement low-cost physical changes himself if the city permits it, saying he would provide labor and some materials: "I will buy the cement. I will bury the signs," he said, and volunteered to dig holes and install signage if allowed.
The chair told Austin the speeding item will be back on the council agenda on the 17th and that a lieutenant will present collected data at that meeting for further discussion and possible action. The council did not take a formal vote on remedies at this session.
