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Ripon police chief & city engineer could be given power to approve new stop signs
RIPON stop sign.jpg

The intersection of West Milgeo Avenue and North Acacia Avenue recently had new stop signs installed.

The Ripon City Council recently reviewed the “Traffic Control Devices” of the municipal code, comparing that to the other cities.

Changes may be on the way.

“Ripon was the only ordinance found where the City Council directed the Chief of Police to install a traffic control device,” City Administrator Kevin Werner said at the Dec. 11 meeting. “Other cities provided to either the Chief of Police or City Engineer with the authority.”

Council received a recommendation from staff to consider an amendment to this chapter to the ordinance in doing likewise – providing authority, in this case, to either the police chief or city engineer.

The area of Milgeo and Acacia just east of Highway 99 was recently identified by Police Chief Ed Ormonde as being hazardous. He believes that the stop signs will prevent or reduce the likelihood of collisions in the intersection.

“This would be more for safety and not for speed control,” Ormonde said during the November meeting.

Werner noted that the control devices in the intersection involves the engineering staff gathering traffic data and making evaluations applicable to state mandates “to determine if the device meets those mandates,” he said.

Elected leaders, meanwhile, took City Attorney Tom Terpstra recommendation to table this item for the January meeting in order for him to clean up the ordinance to reflect the new process.