March 29, 2024

Clogged up?

Council approves first reading of one way street ordinances by elementary school

City officials are trying to fix the congestion problem that happens at the end of the school day at Clarke Community Elementary School.

During a Tuesday, Aug. 4, Osceola City Council meeting, there was a proposal to establish a one-way road south down the 100 block of South Dewey Street and then one way west on the 400 block of East Jefferson Street.

This is right next to the circle drive at Clarke Community Elementary School, where children are dropped off.

Congestion

The purpose of the proposed one-way streets is meant to alleviate the congestion that occurs during the afternoon at pickup time at the end of the school day.

For some reason, congestion problems occur only in the afternoon, especially with school buses parked on the south and west sides of the school.

“The buses can’t turn west,” said Osceola Police Chief Marty Duffus. “They can’t, nobody can move, is essentially what we have. It’s just absolutely plugged.”

The situation has been monitored for a period of time with the police, elementary principals and district superintendent. A potential solution was the one-way streets.

24 hours?

There was a lengthy discussion on the one-way streets during the city council meeting.

A problem with making the streets one way only for a period of time during the day is sometimes school is let out early for different reasons, including regularly scheduled early outs and inclement weather.

“I still think you’ve got to have it, that set up that way, 24 hours, or people are going to be confused and there’s going to be accidents,” said Councilman Dennis Page.

Duffus said it would be less confusing to have the streets permanently as one ways, 24 hours a day, especially if a driver is new to town.

Notify

The council also had concerns that not all of the residents on the selected streets had been notified about the potential one-way streets.

Council members had the opportunity to waive the second and third readings of the ordinance, which was a recommendation because school starts in a few weeks and signage needs to be up on the streets.

“If we don’t waive any of the readings, we won’t have this in the ordinance before school starts,” said Ty Wheeler, city administrator/clerk.

The school start date is Aug. 24.

Final approval

The council approved the first reading of the ordinance for the one way streets on South Dewey and East Jefferson Streets, 24 hours a day, with proper signage and one-way parking.

A special session was scheduled Aug. 11 for final approval on the one-way ordinances, and to make sure residents were notified in advance.