By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Travel down North Meade Avenue may be about to get a little slower on a permanent basis, not just from construction.
On Wednesday, the city Streets Committee recommended doing away with a stretch of the road posted with a 25 mph speed limit, which would create a uniform 15 mph speed limit on Meade from its intersection with Borden Street to its intersection with Gresham Street.
Committee members collectively agreed that they believed it was confusing and problematic that the speed limit on Meade drops to 15 mph in the block by Washington Middle School, then goes back up to 25 mph for a block and a half until it reaches the Cal Ripken League baseball complex, then drops back down to 15 mph again from there until it gets beyond Lloyd Square Park.
Asked for his opinion, Glendive Police Department Assistant Chief of Police Jake Feist said he agreed it would be best to have a uniform speed limit, rather than having the speed limit change up and down from block to block.
“I agree 100 percent ... people speed up (in the 25 mph section),” Feist said.
Following the initial agreement to recommend putting a uniform 15 mph speed limit on that entire stretch of Meade, GPD Office Dan Cagle piped up to note that the 15 mph zone by WMS currently has specific hours on it, and recommended making that a 15 mph speed zone full-time as well to help avoid any confusion.
Committee members agreed with Cagle. Councilman Mike Dryden said he personally “doesn’t like” the 15 mph speed limit by WMS only being in effect certain hours, both for his own purposes and for when he is travelling the street with student drivers while teaching driver’s education.
“I just think it’s simpler to keep it (15 mph) 24 hours a day,” Dryden said.
The full city council will vote on Tuesday on whether to make the stretch of Meade from Borden to Gresham a full-time 15 mph zone.
In other business on Wednesday, the Streets Committee denied a request by Makoshika State Park manager Chris Dantic and the Glendive Convention and Visitors Bureau to paint decorative “dinosaur tracks” down the streets leading to the park, beginning at the Barry Street underpass.
According to Mayor Jerry Jimison, the request was made as a means of raising public awareness about Makoshika and to try and drive more visitors to it. Jimison noted that the CVB was offering to pay for the project at no cost to the city.
Asked by committee members for his opinion, Glendive Public Works Director Jack Rice said he does not “recommend painting anything on the street” other than the standard center lines and crosswalks. Rice added that he had consulted both the official state guidebook on street design and the Montana Department of Transportation and that neither allow “decorative street painting.”
“I called MDT and they said they absolutely do not allow it anywhere and they would not recommend it anywhere,” Rice said.
He added that for him, the city’s liability would be the concern, pondering aloud “What if someone gets confused by a dinosaur track and sideswipes somebody?”
The committee members ultimately agreed with Rice in denying the request.
“I would recommend they look at — no pun intended — a different avenue of getting their message across,” Dryden said. “I would encourage them to come up with other ways to spend their money to promote our town, because that doesn’t work.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.
