By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County commissioners court has approved the placement of several traffic control devices on a county road where residents have repeatedly complained of speeding vehicles.
The court voted 5-0 during its October regular meeting on Oct. 22 to approve traffic control measures for Bayview Drive, located off U.S. Highway 90 west of Del Rio, beginning by lowering the road’s speed limit from 25 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. read the heading of the agenda
County Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia has received approval from Val Verde
County Commissioners Court to place stop signs at the intersection of Bayview and Burk,
pictured here. Garcia will also place speed bumps on Bayview and guardrails to keep
drivers from circumnavigating the speed bumps. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
item: “Discussion and possible action of approval on installing traffic control devices on S. Bayview Drive, as requested by the residents.”
County Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia, in whose precinct Bayview Drive is located, asked for placement of the item on the court’s agenda.
After reading the agenda heading, Owens noted, “There was a petition signed, and there is a plan already in place to try to conform as close as possible with TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) rules. Is that correct?”
“That’s correct,” Garcia responded.
Owens then recognized Garcia, who said, “When I was first sworn in, I was approached by Mr. Martinez, wanting a speed bump on South Bayview. After speaking with him, I spoke with the county attorney, the sheriff and the county engineer, and all three of them recommended against it for various reasons, liability reasons, emergency vehicle traffic – the sheriff had a concern on that.
“The county engineer discussed it being a hazard and really does not like these things. So for all of these reasons, I told Mr. Martinez that I would not be putting a speed bump on South Bayview,” Garcia added.
The commissioner noted several residents of Bayview Drive had come to the commissioners court meeting on Oct. 8 and spoken during the “Citizen Comments” portion of the agenda, telling the court they were worried about the possibility of a fatal vehicle-pedestrian collision because of the speeding private and commercial vehicles on the road.
Garcia said, “After their presentation and their petition, it caused a lot of heartache, because I’m advocating (today) for something I don’t agree with. I think the speed bumps are a bad idea, after listening to the three people I just mentioned.”
But Garcia then added, “But, you know, government has three things to offer. They can give you what you want, they can give you what they think is in your best interest or they can give you nothing, and I have a problem with the last two, so I’m going to go ahead with the first one and give them what they want, even though I think it’s a bad idea.”
After his brief civics comment, Garcia said, “So, meeting with the county engineer and discussing how we can go about this in a most lawful and regulatory manner, looking at TxDOT regulations, the Federal Highway Administration regulations on how to design this, because we need to design a speed bump they can travel at the posted speed.”
Then Garcia proceeded with his motion.
He said, “I make a motion that we lower the speed limit on South Bayview to 20 miles per hour, that we create an intersection at Bayview and Burk with three stop signs, that speed bumps be installed 250 feet from each intersection, that speed bumps be installed approximately 600 feet in between and that guardrails be installed on each side of the speed bumps so that people do not try to avoid the speed bump by going onto the
shoulder where people will be walking.”
Garcia said he was calling for the installation of a total of eight speed bumps.
“One speed bump isn’t going to solve the problem. You have to create a series of these to continue to have people driving at the lower speed,” Garcia said.
He added, “From discussions with the county engineer, I think this is the only way we can do this that meets state regs and will accomplish what the residents want.”
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores commented, “Commissioner, can you add (to your motion) that you will install proper signage for the speed bumps?”
“Yes, signs will be installed that say speed bump,” Garcia replied.
County Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw gave the second, and the court approved Garcia’s motion without further comment.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
