Staff writer
Local residents have been causing a stir by steering away from being straight with the laws of the road by driving straight through on a field near 240th and Pawnee Rds. in order to avoid driving on a curve.
Road and bridge superintendent Jesse Hamm addressed the issue with commissioners at Thursday’s end of the month meeting.
Hamm told commissioners Pawnee Rd. used to be straight past the intersection with 240th Rd. years ago, but that a curve was created for the transition of Pawnee on to 240th, as the route is a main thoroughfare for north-south traffic on the east side of Marion Reservoir.
However, Hamm said he had someone call him over the weekend who witnessed someone going straight where the old road used to be.
“We have no stop signs, we have no yield signs,” Hamm said. “It’s not even a road anymore.”
Chairman Randy Dallke told Hamm that he did not know this was going on.
“I’d seen that here 20, 30 days ago that there was this road that was going through like this,” Dallke said. “If there’s someone who’s in a hurry, there could be a collision right there and that won’t be pretty.”
Hamm proposed putting up some sort of barricade to keep cars on the curve and off the old straight section.
An issue raised with a barricade was that Westar works on a gas line that is in that area.
“If they’re going to be working in there, then we’ll be in the company’s way,” Hamm said, “but at the same time, I don’t want to see an accident happen.”
Commissioners told Hamm to do what he needed to do to stop people from driving through.