Southside wants traffic solutions

Southside School District Superintendent Paul Wieneke is asking Mason County for help with Collier Road.

Wieneke’s request was discussed at Monday’s Mason County commission briefing.

“Southside School District has requested that you resend us your Right of Way Engineer for another feasibility discussion about the following Collier Road safe solutions:

■ Widening the west side of Collier Rd. to include a right turn lane (southeast to Arcadia Rd.),

■ Install flashing yellow warning lights at the intersection of Arcadia Rd/Collier/Binns Swiger, and

■ Install increased safety warning lights or warning signs on the northbound lane of Collier Rd. from Arcadia towards Old Arcadia Rd.,” Wieneke wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to Mason County Director of Public Works Loretta Swanson.

Swanson said the county has met with Southside several times to talk about the challenges surrounding traffic control at the start and end of the school day and has performed survey work and talked to Southside’s school board.

The district has also done a good job trying to mitigate problems on Collier Road, which borders the school.

“They’ve taken steps such as making sure that folks are ridesharing and that people who can take the bus take the bus, and figure out how to stagger start and stop times or when they come and arrive and leave from school. So the district’s done a nice job at looking at ways that they have control over, to reduce the impacts,” Swanson said.

Speeding on Collier and Southeast Arcadia is concerning to the district, she said.

Wieneke also wrote about the speeding problem in his letter, and said he spoke with Mason County Sheriff Ryan Spurling. “He dispatched officers the following day. Several speeding tickets were issued on Arcadia Rd. approaching Collier intersection, but could not catch a 50-mile/hr. speeder traveling Southbound on Collier Rd, right turn onto Old Arcadia – through the school zone (where I am directing traffic),” according to Wieneke’s letter.

Swanson said she thought the area was “appropriately signed” in terms of speed but that the county will perform another speed analysis. Accident history will also be included in the new analysis, she said.

Initially, Swanson said her team talked with the district about widening the edge of the shoulder on the east side of Collier, so that cars waiting to enter the school parking lot could pull off to the side.

“This would allow the regular traffic that had nothing to do with the school to continue by without some conflict there,” Swanson said.

The county has suggested a long-term solution of constructing a loop off Southeast Arcadia on district property, according to Swanson.

She said the construction would be “a process,” and require surplusing timber, among other things.

The school district does not support building the loop “at this time,” according to Wieneke’s letter.

“The district does not support the County’s multi-million dollar, labor intensive engineering solution to log and carve an access easement from Arcadia Rd to the back of the school property at this time [underlined in original copy]. The adjoining neighbors also voiced, ‘do not support this solution,’” Wieneke wrote.

Swanson said the county thought the loop was the “best solution,” because the other suggestions were “Band-Aids and patches.”

The biggest traffic impact is in the afternoon, so Swanson and Commissioner Sharon Trask made plans to visit the school around that time in the next week.

Swanson said they are evaluating proposals and want to work with the district to find a solution.

The solution may take more dollars, a bond issue and longer conversations with the community.