The Monterey Board of Mayor and Alderman voted Monday night to remove a stop sign on Crossville Street citing safety issues.
Mayor Alex Garcia said he and the chief of police had received numerous calls about the stop sign. It intersects with the vehicle pick-up and drop-off line at Burks Elementary School. Garcia used drone footage at the meeting to show some motorists passing stopped vehicles waiting to get into the vehicle line.
“We’re going to work with the schools,” Garcia said. “And you can see it is just continuous. But we’re going to work with the schools. They have two pick up lines, so we’re going to advise that nobody stops there. If they can’t turn, they’re going to have to go to the next pick-up line and then that will just keep the flow of the traffic going.”
Garcia asked Police Chief John Mackie to remove the sign Tuesday morning. After the vote, some aldermen offered ideas on ways to alleviate the back up of traffic. Alderman Jamie Phillips said he thinks it all boils down to the timing of when buses are released.
“They hold Burks until after the high school is let out,” Phillips said. “All the traffic from the high school is already funneled over through there because they don’t start letting kids out in that line until seven or eight minutes, at least after three, the high school is already out. Burks needs to get with them. They need to coordinate something so they don’t start releasing the car riders until the buses are gone.”
Garcia says once the stop sign is removed, the next step is a meeting to come up with a plan that will permanently fix the traffic back up issue.
“We have talked to the school resource officer, but I don’t think that he’s been out there yet,” Garcia said. “Well, we’re going to have a meeting this week with the school. I’m going to be there, the principal, the SRO officer, Chief Mackie and whoever else he wants to bring. I think we need to listen to Chief Mackie and pull the stop sign and then we can reevaluate.”
