Morrison council halts stoplight removal discussion

MORRISON – After three months of ongoing discussion, and in front of a full audience, a motion to remove traffic signals at a Morrison intersection screeched to a halt Tuesday night.

After Morrison Mayor Scott Vandermyde read a resolution to remove traffic signals at Genesee Street and U.S. Route 30, no one on the council seconded a motion to consider the item. The council’s silence in effect tabled the issue. It was the second meeting in a row in which the council, when formally presented an agenda item that could have led to a vote, did not move forward.

Earlier, residents during the public comment portion of the meeting spoke out, with some supporting the removal and others against it. Had the council approved the removal process it would have directed Vandermyde and City Administrator Brian Melton to initiate the removal process with the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The council has been discussing the issue for the past few months, with the age of the traffic lights, the city’s responsibility for them and poor timing as the reasons behind considering their removal. If removed, city officials said, IDOT would require traffic flow changes because of a poor line of site for vehicles turning from Genesee onto Route 30.

The 200 block of Genesee would have become a southbound one-way street from Route 30 to Main Street, while the 300 block of Genesee would have become a northbound one-way street from Route 30 to Knox Street. That would prevent motorists from turning east or west onto Route 30 or crossing the intersection.

Complicating the discussions have been talks about closing the 200 block of Genesee Street to traffic and possibly developing that stretch into a place for downtown events or a community gathering space.

Council member Josh West said while he has been against removing the traffic lights, he supports enhancing the intersection.

“So everything that I’ve heard from people who have called me, not in regards to the light, but in regards to fixing that intersection, I’ve been against the removal of the light the whole time,” West said. “The whole time I’ve said, ‘Yes, we do need to fix that intersection.’ I don’t disagree with that at all. I think we should move forward with fixing the intersection. It floods badly. It’s not handicap (accessible). It’s ugly. I get that. Let’s, for now, move on from the lights. A lot of people have spoken about it.

“But let’s improve that intersection. There’s a lot of other ways to improve it.”

Council member Sidonna Mahaffey asked Vandermyde and Melton when the idea of removing the stoplight was first mentioned.

“So here’s my question, because this has never been made clear to me,” Mahaffey said. “Did an engineer recommend the removal of those stoplights? Or did someone at the city or whoever say, ‘Hey, we wan to remove these stoplights’. Like, where did this idea even come from? How did this become a thing?

“Maybe I’m missing the boat and I’m still standing on the dock. But did the engineer recommend it for issues? Or did the city say to the engineers ‘What would it be to remove these lights?’ I think that’s one of the disconnects that a lot of people are having – myself included.”

Melton said the City Council has been considering improving the intersection since at least 2015.

“This isn’t a new idea,” he said, adding that closing the street and removing the stoplights are ideas that surfaced while discussing potential improvements to the intersection. “It just became one of those conversation pieces during a spit-balling conversation.”

Vandermyde said the idea to close the 200 block of North Genesee Street and turning it into a public spot surfaced in 2018, when work was being planned to upgrade Main Street.

“We started relooking at that when we completed Main Street and I got into the Mayor’s office,” he said.

Vandermyde said he contacted IDOT to see what would be required to remove the traffic lights, an engineering study was conducted and the idea was presented to council.

Melton said the council next will be presented with an intersection improvement plan for future consideration.