Council approves stop signs

by Mike Fitzgerald

Cars, cats and cash. That pretty much summed up the Tuesday night holiday edition of the Pinedale Town Council meeting.

The cars part — actually drivers reportedly ignoring yield signs on Pinedale side streets — drew the most heat as Wendi Schwartz, owner of Café on Pine, and council member Gary Heuck once again traded more jabs than Oscar De La Hoya.

“For three months now I’ve been here talking about this issue,” Schwartz said. “Summer is coming, there’s more and more traffic, the town keeps growing. We need the stop signs now.”

Heuck shook his head and countered. “People don’t want a bunch of stop signs,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of the drivers in town drive safely and one or two people want to penalize them. The cops should take care of it.”

Back to Schwartz: “It’s not one person. It’s 10 times the people you hear from, Gary. You just say no to everything. If I offered you a million dollars you’d say no.” No money was exchanged as Mayor Steve Smith and council member Dave Hohl jumped into the fray. Smith proposed a five-intersection trial period and Hohl, who lives near Schwartz, agreed.

Council member Nylla Kunard said she would like to see a study on the streets as well and didn’t want to exclude others who might want stop signs at other side streets in town. “For three months you’ve been talking about a study,” Schwartz said. “Let’s give it a whirl.”

So stop signs will replace yield signs at the east-west sides of Washington and Madison, Washington and Jackson, Washington and Cole, Washington and Entertainment Lane and Jackson and Wilson. The vote was 3-1 in favor with Hohl, Kunard and Chris House for and Heuck against. An amendment was added making it open for other streets to be considered. A streets study was unanimously approved in a separate motion. The cats part of the meeting was much more peaceful.

Everyone on the council, Mayor Smith and animal control officer Julie Early agreed to amend the current ordinance to even the days that dogs and cats are held at the animal shelter after being picked up, as long as they’re not vicious or infectious. By a 4-0 vote, it’s now five days for the cats and dogs, instead of just 24 hours for the cats.

Carmel Keil had lobbied for the change at past meetings. “This will give people more time to find their pet cat and for good cats to be adopted,” Smith said. The cash part of the meeting centered on discussion of the town’s upcoming 2007-2008 budget, which was up for its first reading. Much of the money talk centered on how much more to budget for streets and the new town shop.

Smith said the incoming flow looked good. “The sales tax (revenue) looks even better than expected,” he said. The budget will be back to the drawing board for its next review and second reading before a final approval.