Clark Place won’t be getting any speed humps — at least not for now. The Maybrook village board is still investigating specifications, cost and need for the traffic control measures to cut down on vehicle speeds on the roadway.

At the village board’s last meeting, members unanimously decided to authorize Village Engineer Sean Hoffman to continue to gather data on such required speed hump specs as elevation, the process to buy and install such humps and estimated costs with price quotes. The board will also work to establish a village-wide policy on speed humps.

For nearly a year, the board has been discussing speed humps for Clark Place. Traffic speed studies by Maybrook Police Chief Arnold “Butch” Amthor showed nearly half of the Clark Place traffic exceeding the posted 30 miles per hour (mph) limit, most of them travelling at 40 mph or more and some more than 70 mph. There are school bus stops on the street, and residents pleaded for safety measures.

Several months ago, as the issue came to a head, the board authorized posting of flashing speed signs on Clark and increased police patrols.
“We’ve been keeping up on this,” Mayor Dennis Leahy said. “We have the current flashing speed sign, which is permanent, and have bought a mobile sign to use, not just on Clark Place. We are keeping an eye on this.”

Since installation of the flashing speed sign, traffic data has shown an approximate decrease in speeding of more than 20 percent in April with only four percent of motorists speeding in May. However, Hoffman said, that four percent of speeders still represents a total of 200 vehicles.
Although all village board members support the speed humps, some wondered just how low the percentage of speeders can go.

Trustees William Treco and William Giannico questioned just how much further speeding could be cut.

“I don’t think we can get much lower than four percent,” Treco said of the percentage of speeders.

As he keeps investigating the speed humps, Hoffman said there are certain legal requirements on their installation, such as height, slope and sides. But a traffic engineer he consulted did recommend speed humps that can be removed during winter months to facilitate snow removal by village plows.

Both Leahy and Treco noted their concerns about liability issues surrounding the speed humps, but joined with the rest of the board to support the speed humps.

As the process continues with no speed hump installation scheduled as yet, Trustee Daryl Capozzoli said he fears, with school closed for the summer, there will be an increase in speeders because there won’t be school buses on the street nor children waiting for the buses to slow motorists down.

Chief Amthor suggested the village develop a website residents can use to ask for “special attention” to problem street areas, not just on Clark.

On a related issue, the board discussed resident complaints about parking on Wiley Street. Parking is currently permitted on both sides of Wiley, which is a narrow village street. Parents dropping off or picking up their children from school buses often line the street and some parked cars, Leahy said, face the “wrong” direction. Garbage trucks sometimes can’t get up or down the street and operators have complained to the village. There is a concern about emergency vehicles being able to navigate up or down Wiley.

“We will address this issue,“ Leahy promised. Police are expected to monitor the situation and the village Public Works will add appropriate signage on the street.