“We’re going to be putting speed bumps everywhere,” Sarah Amaden, an East Hampton Village trustee, said at Friday’s village board meeting meeting. “We’re going to open a can of worms.”
Her comments came during a vote on a walk-on resolution to hire South Fork Asphalt to place three permanent speed humps on La Forest Lane at a cost of $18,000. Ms. Amaden ultimately overcame her skepticism and voted for the humps, as did the entire board minus Chris Minardi, the deputy mayor, who opposed the resolution.
“I’m against this. I don’t think we should put speed humps. I don’t think the street needs this,” he said. His dissent was notable as it is rare for this village board to split votes. The village is paying L.K. McLean Associates to do a traffic study on the road after residents petitioned the board to make it one way. However, L.K. McLean has not started measuring traffic yet, and it won’t have data until October. “My decision is that we wait for the data. I think speed humps are going to divert traffic.”
Jeff Erickson, the acting police chief, said police officers patrolled the area for speeders between December and January and wrote only two summonses for speeding. “It’s not that my guys aren’t out there doing their jobs; it’s just that people speed.”
Mayor Jerry Larsen pushed to have the speed humps installed before May. “I would like to give neighbors relief this summer.” It’s not clear how their installation, ahead of the traffic study, will impact it and the outcome of residents’ push for a one-way road. Dave Collins, the superintendent of public works for the village, said that other than painting warning stripes and adding warning signs about the humps, there wouldn’t be any maintenance.
The vote came at the end of a larger presentation by Chief Erickson, who outlined other strategies he hoped to employ in the coming months to calm traffic. He focused on the residential streets of the village, which, because of the popularity of traffic-avoiding apps like Waze, are increasingly used to bypass the ever-clogged Route 27.
For example, Further and Dunemere Lanes are used to avoid village traffic. “We’ve received numerous complaints about speeding there,” the acting chief told the board. Despite enforcement, he said it was an ongoing battle and suggested two solar-powered radar speed signs as a step before speed humps are considered.
“Are there stats that show these signs slow people down?” asked Ms. Amaden. “They show an instant reduction in speed,” the acting chief said. The signs also collect data, which he said could prove useful to the village as it tries to get a handle on the problem. They will cost approximately $4,500 each.
Ms. Amaden wondered why the village would not put speed humps on Dunemere and Further Lanes. “If Sagaponack is using them on their main thoroughfares, why wouldn’t we do that?”
“To put enough speed humps on them to have an impact, it would take a lot,” said Mayor Larsen. “La Forest we can fix with three. I think moving forward we budget for speed humps on roads. I’m not opposed to doing what Sagaponack did.”
In addition, Chief Erickson spoke about stop signs. He thought two more should be added at the three-way intersection at Dunemere, Egypt, and Further Lanes. Right now there is a single stop sign, for drivers headed south on Egypt Lane. He also suggested making the intersection at Cove Hollow and Jericho Roads a four-way stop, which would add two more stop signs. “Hopefully that will give residents on Cove Hollow some sort of relief.” Finally, he suggested making the intersection at Buell Lane and Church Street a three-way stop, up from the single stop sign at Church Street. However, that would require state approval, since Buell Lane is the southern portion of Route 114, a state road.
Mayor Larsen said the village has also received several complaints about ebikes being ridden on sidewalks. “It’s really a big enforcement issue,” he said. The Police Department would increase enforcement in the core business district, where bikes are prohibited on sidewalks, but before officers could ticket riders outside the business district, the village law would need to be amended. “If someone is walking out of a store and not paying attention, there could be a terrible issue. We are dealing with it. We will be moving forward with code changes about the bikes, and we want to get that done before summer.”
In other news from the roadways, the board accepted a $486,250 quote from Rosemar Contracting to pave Hither Lane, David’s Lane, and Cross Highway this spring. Mr. Collins said all three of those roads recently had new water mains installed by the Suffolk County Water Authority.
“The beauty of it is when S.C.W.A. does a new water main, they pave curb to curb. We get a complete new road surface.” He said the work would be completed by Memorial Day.
