SEELEY LAKE – A petition, to return the speed on Highway 83 to its original limits prior to the changes implemented this past October, has been available at businesses in Seeley Lake and Condon for nearly two months.
The intent is to get as many signatures as possible and return it to the Montana Transportation Commission (Commission) this spring asking them to reconsider their decision for the speed limit change. The petition also requests pedestrian-operated crossing lights on Highway 83 at Riverview Drive and the south end of Boy Scout Road.
The speed limit changes made in October were a result of the Seeley Lake Community Council’s (SLCC) Traffic Project that was launched in 2014. The SLCC held several open meetings and conducted a survey during the summer of 2015 to determine the community’s sentiments. Their survey included 330 signatures for three different options. Ninety-percent of those that signed the survey wanted speed reduction through town. While the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) established two new temporary crossings in the spring of 2016 at Riverview Drive and Boy Scout Road, they would not lower the speed limit.
Community member Bruce Friede said the SLCC’s requests did not fit with the engineering study for Highway 83. In some cases, the requested speed limits were 15 miles per hour lower than those recommended by the engineers.
“While it stirred conversation, I think people either just went along with the council or felt there was merit to reducing the speed limit. Driving slower is safer,” said Friede. “But town won’t be able to unload and we will see more and more people.”
Friede said he wrote letters to the Commission and others wrote letters to the SLCC and the Commission opposing the proposal.
One Seeley Lake resident wrote a letter to MDT calling the SLCC’s survey process “a very one-sided approach in soliciting votes and passing it off to both the County Commissioners and MDT as a ‘fair’ representation of what the residents of Seeley Lake want.”
The SLCC appealed their request for lowered speed limits to the Commission. The Commission approved new speed limits for Highway 83 through Seeley Lake at their Sept. 22, 2016 meeting. The signs were changed Oct. 17.
“We did not feel like we were heard,” said Friede. “If the local leadership wants to do this with honesty and based on engineering science [then okay] but don’t sell us a bill of goods that there is going to be a huge cross country meet on the golf course or that it is needed for the sewer system that didn’t happen [testimony at the May 26, 2016 Commissioner meeting]. They tried to sell something that was not true and that’s wrong.”
The petition states “we the undersigned hereby request/demand that the speed limit through the Town of Seeley Lake be changed back to the speed limit that we had prior to the recent change.
The MDT said that there was no change necessary in the speed limit study they did in 2015. We also want the pedestrian crossing to be lighted with a pedestrian operated flashing light system for their safety.”
Friede said pedestrian-activated lights are a safer option to signs because motorists will pay more attention to a flashing light than a permanent sign.
Petitions are available to be signed at businesses in Seeley Lake and Condon. Friede said Condon was included because they are a part of Missoula County, Condon residents come to Seeley Lake regularly for services, to go to work and school and “they should have just as much say as anyone else.”
Friede said they currently have more than 230 signatures on the petition, nearly matching those that the SLCC had on their petition asking for change.
“The Community Council stated they had a majority. I don’t call 238 signatures [for the proposed change] a majority in this community,” said Friede. He continued, “The more signatures we can get the stronger our position will be. Then the [Seeley Lake] Community Council and MDT would be opened up to what the community is really saying.”
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