The city of McMinnville made plans in response to a citizen request for two four-way stop sign intersections in the Westwood neighborhood.

The city Safety Committee met on Wednesday morning and discussed a letter the city received asking for stop signs to be placed at the intersection of Westwood Fifth Avenue and Boyd Avenue and the intersection of Westwood Sixth and Boyd.

Both intersections are two-way stops with drivers on Boyd Avenue having to yield to those on Fifth and Sixth. 

Committee chair alderman Stacey Harvey read the letter, “This letter says, ‘We have known numerous occasions of people running the existing stop signs and speeding on Fifth and Sixth in Westwood. This has been a great concern since we have an enormous number of walkers in this family-friendly neighborhood. I’m requesting the issue be addressed by  the Board of Mayor and Aldermen as soon as possible before a tragedy occurs.’”

Stacey said in response to the letter, “I appreciate the letter, but it asks for a four-way stop sign, but people are running the existing stop signs. So I don’t really think a stop sign is going to stop that. I think a few tickets might help that.”

He then asked the officers present for the meeting their opinions. “What would you gentlemen think?”

Deputy chief of the McMinnville Police Department Michael Lane answered, “This is the first that we’ve heard of it. We’ll obviously be happy to go over there and do a study there and get the location. We’ll study that, and at the next meeting, we’ll give our report on that.”

Stacey praised that idea and gave credit to the McMinnville Police Department for its work at Sunset Drive in getting people to reduce their speed over there. He said, “Whatever you did over there has certainly helped a lot, which I appreciate.”

Deputy chief Lane added, “We’ll check on the history of any crashes over there, and then we’ll go over there and monitor it.”

Stacey said, “You can deploy your little radar devices and tell us what your average speed is. Would you please do that?”

They decided to review the results of the study at the next safety committee meeting before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting on Feb. 28. The officers said that should be enough time to conduct an accurate study on the intersections.

Stacey said, “If we get our meeting on the agenda for the 28th before the regular Board meeting, we can review that and take action from there.”