Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Deputy and School Resource Officer Mike Walker made several requests to the Dell Rapids City Council on Monday, February 1st, during the council’s regular meeting. The requests made were to make the school zones safer in town.
Deputy Walker presented the council with four requests. The first request was for stop signs to be placed on State Ave at the intersection of 9th St.
“I feel like at 9th and State Ave, that’s the front door of St Mary High School, and there’s no traffic control there. Kids are walking across that intersection without anyone stopping. Also you have a lot of young drivers there who don’t know the right-of-way law that we know. I see a lot of confusion at that intersection, and with it being in front of the school, I would sure like to see something changed there to make it more safe.”
Another concern for Deputy Walker was placing No U-Turn signs on 13th St. from Garfield Ave to the football field, and along Garfield Ave from 13th St to 15th St along with having the city’s U-Turn ordinance clarified.
Walker said, “13th between Garfield all the way to the football field, I’d like to see that street and Garfield from 13th to 15th have no U Turns. In the mornings people are making U Turns on those streets. Kids are seeing parking spots on the other side, and they just whip right around. Even parents dropping off their kids are making U Turns right in front of the school during school traffic. I’d like to make it a no U-Turn law in that area.”
Current city ordinance about U Turns says:
Sec. 20-180. Limitations on turning around.
The driver of any vehicle shall not turn such vehicle so as to proceed in the opposite direction upon any one-way street, or upon any bridge or viaduct, or on any street in a business or commercial area, or at any intersection controlled by traffic-control signals, and shall not upon any other street so turn a vehicle except at an intersection and unless such movement can be made in safety and without interfering with other traffic.
Deputy Walker also asked the council about placing a “No Parking from Here to Corner” sign on 13th and Harrison and also to have yellow paint put on the curb in front of the fire hydrant on Garfield Ave near Dell Rapids High School.
No action was taken by the council for the placing of the stop sign and the U-Turn ordinance because such changes can only be made when they are official agenda items.