By Alex Malm
The issue of speed limits was a topic of discussion during the Nov. 14 Town Council meeting.
It was explained by Londonderry Town Manager, Mike Malaguti, that a vote was taken during the Oct. 3 Traffic Safety Committee meeting to request the Town Council look at changing the speed limits for Calla, Sunflower, Sandy Brook and Acorn roads.
Malaguti said since there are no posted speed limits on those roads it is automatically the default 35 miles per hour.
Town Council Chairman, John Farrell, said the last few years there have been ballot questions about lowering speed limits in town that weren’t successful.
He said people in town have not been in favor of such changes.
‘They were both defeated by the voters,” said Farrell.
Malaguti also noted they had a directed patrolman to enforce speeding recently on Calla.
“There were no violations that were noted at that time,” said Malaguti.
Town Councilor, Chad Franz, said the proposal would be to reduce speed limits for cul-de-sacs or dead end roads, town wide.
He also noted that on Sept. 3, a girl on his street, Sunflower Lane, was hit by a car while crossing the road and while she is okay, he wants to be able to mitigate the risk of people getting hurt in the future.
Traffic Safety Committee Chairman, Bob Ramsay, said if they are going to do it for some roads with dead ends or cul-de-sacs in town then they should do it for all the roads.
Ramsay also noted that by changing the speed limits it wouldn’t necessarily stop people from speeding.
Director of Engineering and Environmental Services, John Trottier, noted, “If we’re going to do this, there needs to be some engineering study put to it.”
Another argument that was made by Franz is that there were 13 people during the Traffic Safety Committee meeting that were in favor of lowering the speed limit, however, Farrell said that the ballot question failed previously.
“And the ballot measure was defeated twice by the town,” said Farrell.
Londonderry Police Chief, Kim Bernard, also said he would want it to be changed for all the same type of streets if they were going to make any changes. He stated there are many roads in town and with various speed limits already, it becomes difficult to know what roads have what speed limits.
Town Council Vice Chairman, Joe Green, said if they look at it further he wants to know what the cost will be to change the speed limits.
It was decided they would revisit the proposal during a future meeting when more information is available.
The next Town Council meeting is Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.