For residents who live along Main Street in eastern Price, increased traffic due to the relocation of Wal-Mart created a problem with getting across the street in the last couple of years.
As a result, a traffic light was installed at 300 South Main to provide pedestrians with a controlled crossing and improve safety for vehicles entering the busy highway.
“That road has become a problem in a number of ways and the speed along there needs more control,” said resident Virginia Wardle. “A person can’t walk down the road without being pelted by rocks from trucks coming down the road from Highway 6 toward Airport Road.”
Apparently, traffic noise is also a problem for the residents.
“You can’t sit on your front porch and have a conversation,” added Wardle. “The engine brakes the trucks are using through that area makes that impossible. Those of us who live along there would like the speed reduced to what it would be in a residential zone.”
Councilman Richard Tatton pointed out that the road is a state highway and the city has only partial control regarding the situation.
“As for the stuff falling off of trucks, we can handle that through the tarping statutes,” said Price Police Chief AlecK Shilaos. “But the state just did a traffic and speed survey on the road last year and some of the speeds were changed.”
Wardle raised several other concerns at the council meeting.
“The road is being crushed there by the heavy traffic as well,” stated the resident. “The whole situation is a real problem. We have chucks of coal in our front yard as large as golf balls. I’m sure our property values along that road are zero because of this problem. The whole thing is just miserable for us.”
In connection with the noise issue, the council had consideration of an addition to the city’s present ordinance included as an item on the meeting’s agenda.
Officials were reviewing the ordinance due to a pervious noise complaint raised by Price resident Heather Wichmann.
According to the Price City Council, a total of 11 houses located along the road in the area are reportedly affected by the problem.
A short study conducted one day in front of the old Turner Lumber store on the road between 12:40 p.m. and 1:40 p.m. showed that 37 trucks passed by the site in the one-hour period.
The traffic study also showed that 11 of the coal-haul rigs could be heard using air brakes or engine brakes that raised the noise level.
“In my experience, I have found the best way to solve these kinds of problems is to get all the players around a table to talk about the problems,” suggested Mayor Joe Piccolo. “Maybe we can get the principal trucking companies that use that route to help us with the problem. Of course if that doesn’t work, then we could go ahead with some type of legislation to solve the situation.”
Since the problem seemed to contain more issues than just the noise the mayor suggested to the council that the noise ordinance amendment be tabled until such a meeting could be arranged.
The council agreed.
In another piece of business the city opened bids for a large number of road maintenance contracts for this year. All together there were five categories bidders could submit prices for.
The first category was for some road reconstruction projects. The bidders were Staker Paving, $97,551.50 and Nielsen Construction with a bid of $74,135.
The second category was for road-crack sealing. The bids for this were Superior Asphalt, $32,708; M and M Asphalt, $33,150; Bonneville Asphalt, $21,675: Kilgore Paving, $17,680; Intermountain Slurry Seal, $29,750; Big Red Asphalt, $19,108; Morgan Pavement, $18,606; and Holbrook Asphalt Company, $19,924.
Another bidding process for slurring sealing was filled by five companies; M and M Asphalt, $111,606.12; Kilgore Paving, $90,953.13; Intermountain Slurry Seal, $79,854.95; Big Red Asphalt, $104,638.50; and Morgan Pavement, $78,007.26.
The fourth category was for pavement overlays and milling work. Bidders included Staker Paving, $50,418.25 and Nielsen Construction whose bid came in at $43,080.
The final round of bids were for traffic paint stripping. Those bids were from Peck Stripping, $14,018.68; Intermountain Slurry Seal, $39,427.56; and Nielsen Construction, $21,904.20.
The council also approved a new document that will be used by the two cemeteries as deeds for burial lots.
“After looking at this I realized that some of the language in the old document needed to be cleaned up,” said City Attorney Nick Sampinos. “One of the things we needed to be sure of is that it spelled out that nothing but human remains could be put in our cemeteries.”
The council passed the new deed instrument.
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