BILLINGS — 10:00 p.m. update:
City Engineer Mac Fogelsong led the discussion and heard from the residents.
One woman said she sees people speeding at 60 miles per hour and then having to slam on the brakes at the curve right before getting to Lake Elmo in the northbound direction.
Fogelsong said Lake Elmo Drive does not meet the criteria for stop signs, but hypothetically, he offered some concerns.
“What we would probably find is we’d have folks that would start to disobey the stop signs,” Fogelsong said. “What we might also see is speeds increase between the stop signs because they’re annoyed by the stop signs.”
Councilman Roy Neese and Public Works Director Debi Meling also attended the meeting.
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On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Castle Rock Middle School, the city engineer will give a presentation about the traffic study conducted on Lake Elmo Drive and take public opinion on what else can be done to improve safety on the road.
In 2022, Megan Vaden’s life was changed forever when her son was one of the two kids hit on Lake Elmo Drive in the Heights.
Her son, Ben, was eight years old at the time and suffered from a traumatic brain injury and brain damage.
Since the accident, Vaden has been lobbying for safety improvements.
“There’s lots of different issues with roads, sidewalks, curb and gutter. All of the different things,” she said on Tuesday. “And I’m just kind of wondering when the next person has to get hurt or killed before it’s actually taken seriously.”
Mac Fogelsong, the city engineer, said the city has made improvements and he hopes to learn more about what is wanted from residents on Lake Elmo Drive.
“We’re going to have a conversation of kind of what improvements have been made. We’re going to look at the updated data that we have now and then we’re also going to introduce the concept for our new transportation master plan that we’re going to hatch here shortly,” Fogelsong said. “It’s a great conversation to get together with the neighborhood and just talk about current and future events.”
