S. Franklin St. - St. John's Cemetery Rd / Traffic Calming Measures

Hi Everyone:

The purpose of this e-mail is to inform you that Steve Robbins met with Father Kolakowski of St. John’s Church yesterday, Friday, 02/27. At the conclusion of that meeting, Steve was able to confirm that St, John’s will make its cemetery road one way, where motorists will travel eastbound entering the cemetery from S. Franklin St. and exiting onto Boozer St. Moreover, that the appropriate signs designating the road as one way may be installed as early as next week.

This is a significant success for all residents of S. Franklin St. and I’d like to thank everyone for your presence and participation during last Wednesday’s, 02/25, meeting with the Mayor and select city officials. Of course, a special thanks to both Steve Robbins and Eleanor Voorhees for their relentless effort on this issue. Via letters, meetings, research, interviews, presentations etc. this has been a collective two-year pursuit for the three of us. Even so, proactive measures with the city and the church were not successful. It was not until my vehicle was totaled while parked in my driveway in January that they finally listened. I cannot help but think that this could have been avoided.

Nonetheless, I am so happy to see that a favorable resolution has finally been reached. Since I purchased my property in 1999, I have stopped counting the number of times vehicles turning from the cemetery road have made wide turns onto our street and have rode the sidewalk nearly ending up in my front yard. I now feel a sense of relief that when I park my car in my driveway, it stands a reduced risk of being totaled. Please allow these reasons to explain my level of engagement and persistence with the Mayor the other night as to how quickly something would be implemented to address this issue.

There still remains the other issue concerning the speed motorists travel our street (i.e., Swan St. to Highland Ave.). Even though an initial plan of action was conveyed at this week’s meeting by the Mayor, it will be necessary that we, as residents, continue to monitor its progress. We have already provided the city a detailed report with alternatives for various traffic calming measures. In addition, Steve Robbins conveyed to the Mayor potential funding sources that could assist in the implementation of proposed options once determined.

Let’s continue to make our efforts effective and impress upon the city the need to be proactive. The implementation of traffic calming measures that make our street safe for our children, pedestrians, our pets and our property is our goal. Your presence at the next meeting, 7 PM Thursday, 03/19, at the Justice Complex, 25 S. Union St., is very much appreciated. We hope to see you there again.

Thank You,
Paul Gorecki
87 S. Franklin St.