(Photo Source: Kevin L. Smith/The Cortland Voice).
The Homer Town Board recently voted unanimously in favor of the Cortland County Highway Department putting in a request to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) to change the speed limit on East Homer Crossing Road.
According to county highway superintendent Charles Sudbrink, the current speed limit is 55-miles-per-hour, despite it not being posted on the side of the road.
East Homer Crossing Road is tucked between state route 13 and Rt. 114/E. River Rd. Although East Homer Crossing Road is considered 55MPH, Rt. 13 and 114 are posted at 40MPH, Sudbrink said.
The request to the NYSDOT comes after a handful of residents on East Homer Crossing Road approached the town board about safety concerns on the road.
“The road has become kind of a problem because people fly up and down that road,” said Tessa Keefe, mother and a wife who is a resident of the road in question. “(Drivers are) not even close to the speed limit. Some people assume it’s 55 (MPH), but sometimes people go between 65-to-80 (MPH) on the road.”
Tessa noted “at least a dozen children” live on the street.
“(The children) ride bikes up and down the road, and go fishing up at the (East Branch Tioughnioga) river,” she said. “There’s no shoulder or sidewalk on the road for the kids to go on.”
Karen Keefe, Tessa’s mother and a longtime resident of East Homer Crossing Road, said the road has “gone from a simple crossing road, to a road people use to speed to the (Cortland County) landfill.”
“It’s not just cars. Trucks (are also) going back and forth to the county landfill,” Tessa added. “Sometimes, people in the neighborhood are out yelling at cars to slow down.”
Tessa said on one positive note there are some people “who slow down or go around people when they’re walking along the road.”
“This especially occurs when I’m walking my dog,” she added. “But unfortunately, it’s the people who are unaware or don’t care that make me the most nervous.”
A handful of residents noted recently there’s been an “abnormal increase” in traffic on the road. Town supervisor Fred Forbes made the assumption that the road is receiving more traffic due to Lorens Crossing Road “being closed off.” Lorens Crossing Road is currently closed due to road construction repairs, Forbes added.
Tessa said “before somebody gets hurt, there’s an accident, or an argument that goes too far, we’d like to see some change.”
“People are disregarding the safety of children and the residents,” Karen said. “There’s a lot of social activity within this little community, so it makes me nervous something is going to happen.”
Sudbrink noted a request to the NYSDOT won’t be simple.
“It’s not going to be a quick fix,” he said. “I have no problem putting in a request, but we might not get an answer for two years.”
“Two years is better than continuing this (current situation),” Karen replied.
A potential two-year delay to the request is due to the NYSDOT sending “an engineering staff out to do an analysis of the road,” Sudbrink said.
“(East Homer Crossing Road) might be lowered to 30, but (the engineers) might come back and say it can be lowered to 40,” he added.
Sudbrink continued that the NYSDOT will look for detailed information attached to the request, including accidents, how many vehicles get stuck in ditches, and more.
“We’re trying to prevent an accident. Not document all of the accidents until we lower the speed limit,” he said.
Residents of the road collectively expressed that there’s been near-miss accidents almost every day.
Residents wondered if a letter from the town and a petition from the residents would move along the request to the NYSDOT.
“It definitely wouldn’t hurt,” Sudbrink said.
Forbes added that state departments, including the NYSDOT, tend to “listen to individuals more than entities.”
Sudbrink said that while the request to the NYSDOT is being processed, the county highway department will post either child-at-play signs or the “yellow/black” caution signs on the sides of East Homer Crossing Road.
