STOPLIGHTS OF MADISON COUNTY

Reviews mixed after one Arkansas county gets its first stoplight

There was a lot of complaining, Mayor Trahan says

Traffic and pedestrians move Thursday through a newly installed traffic light at Harris and Lee streets in Huntsville at the end of the school day. The light is the first of its kind in Madison County, leaving four other counties in the state without a traffic signal.
Traffic and pedestrians move Thursday through a newly installed traffic light at Harris and Lee streets in Huntsville at the end of the school day. The light is the first of its kind in Madison County, leaving four other counties in the state without a traffic signal.

HUNTSVILLE -- Madison County just got its first stoplight, and it's receiving mixed reviews.

photo

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Map showing Arkansas counties without a stoplight

"Well, I'll have you know I hate it," Jessica Watkins wrote on the Huntsville Police Department's Facebook page.

"I've already seen three people run it," wrote Jacob Littrell.

"I ran it!" wrote Gayle Comer.

It's not like the traffic signal sneaks up on people. They're just not used to having such a thing, said Huntsville Police Chief Todd Thomas.

"We know there's going to be a learning curve, especially when some of these people haven't seen stoplights hardly ever," Thomas said. "Some people don't leave the county much."

For the better part of a year, Madison County residents have braced themselves for their new stoplight -- the first one ever in the county of 15,717 residents.

Now, only four Arkansas counties have no stoplights -- Montgomery, Newton, Perry and Pike. That's based on information from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and sheriff's offices.

The Madison County stoplight issue has been controversial from the beginning. Many residents didn't want one. The county's dearth of traffic signals had been a point of pride. It was immortalized in song. The first line of "Madison County" by The Ozark Travelers goes "Madison County ain't got no stoplights."

But now it does.

Korey Danley, The Ozark Travelers' singer and mandolin player who wrote the song, recently drove through Huntsville's new stoplight.

"I didn't even realize it had gone up yet," she said. "Kinda makes my song seem a little more sentimental."

Jessica Watkins elaborated on her Facebook comment in a text message to a reporter: "I grew up in Huntsville, and my absolute favorite thing about it was that it has the 'small-town feel.' The traffic light takes that away, for me. You associate traffic lights with the bigger cities like Fayetteville. ... It just changes the overall, 'country-town,' feel. ... It feels like Huntsville is a city now, instead of a town."

When the traffic signal began operating in late October, Madison County residents realized they got eight stoplights instead of just one, all clustered around the intersection of Lee and Harris streets, which are part of Arkansas 23 going through Huntsville.

The eight boxes, known as single-face traffic signals, have lights that face in only one direction, as opposed to vintage stoplights that had lights facing in four directions.

The eight lights are on poles that hang over the streets. Four of the lights are along Harris Street (two each northbound and southbound). Two lights are on Lee Street, which intersects Harris Street on the east side only. And two lights regulate the traffic leaving the parking lot of Huntsville Lumber Co.

The sheer number of stoplights at the intersection may be confusing to motorists, said Thomas. For each road lane, there are two stoplights facing motorists. The lights don't have left-turn arrows, so drivers may think a solid green light on the box to their left protects them from oncoming traffic when turning left, Thomas said.

But it doesn't.

"I don't see the necessity for the extra lights," the police chief said.

The new stoplights haven't sullied Huntsville's reputation as a countryfied place, Thomas said. But growth is changing the Madison County seat.

"For all intents and purposes, it's a modern-day Mayberry compared to most places," he said, comparing his town to the fictional Mayberry of The Andy Griffith Show.

From the basement door of the police department, Thomas pointed at construction going on around town.

"You're losing some of that Mayberry feel when you step into that modern age," he said. "I am not an advocate of change, but I'm a realist and I realize it's a necessity."

The new stoplight frees the police chief up from directing traffic at the intersection every morning while kids were on the way to the nearby Huntsville High School.

"That's almost an hour a day that I could be doing chief work," he said.

Thomas said he'll try to educate the public about the traffic light through the police department's Facebook page. In the meantime, the public has been using the Facebook page to critique the new lights. Some of them, like Chillone Woodruff, say they "Love it!"

The purpose of the light was to help alleviate traffic in particular around the time students were heading to and from school. Also, the light was meant to help truck drivers turn left from Lee Street onto Harris.

Huntsville Mayor Darrell Trahan said it has been working in that regard.

"The biggest problem we've had is 18-wheelers trying to turn left on Highway 23," Trahan said. "If they were fully loaded, they couldn't find a gap in traffic large enough to turn left.

"Before it went in, there was a lot of complaining. It was change and that's just not something a lot of folks want to see. ... It has been very beneficial already. It has alleviated a lot of the traffic issues."

Jerry Whittmore, owner of Jerry Whittmore Timber, said he wishes cars would stop farther back from the intersection. He's afraid the back wheels of one of his truck trailers will to roll over somebody's car hood. Before the light was installed, the trucks would pull out when no car was at the intersection.

"It makes it a lot tighter bend for the trucks," Whittmore said. "It kind of crowds you is what it does."

Trahan said Huntsville paid about $10,000 for the stoplight. The state highway department paid the rest, awarding a contract to install it for $155,805 to Ewing Signal Construction LLC of Nixa, Mo. Huntsville will have to pay to maintain the stoplight.

Betty Ramirez, manager of the Pizza Hut at the intersection of Lee and Harris, said the amount of traffic cutting through their parking lot seems to have increased since the light was installed. Drivers going to and from the high school avoid the intersection that way.

Along with the stoplights, a large streetlight was installed at the intersection. Ramirez said it has turned night into day.

"It's a lot lighter out there at night," she said. "Security is a lot better."

Montgomery County Sheriff David White said they don't plan to follow Madison County is this wave of urbanization.

"We don't want one, don't need one and it ain't gonna happen anytime soon," White said. "I think the people, what little bit I've heard of it, they're quite proud we don't have one."

Pike County Sheriff Charlie Caldwell agreed.

"I like not having any stoplights," he said. "People run 'em all the time. Plus, usually if people get to a four-way stop, they are courteous and let people go. We're a small county and we don't have a lot of congested traffic like they do in the bigger towns. It would make a lot people mad probably having to stop where they don't need to."

Caldwell said traffic in Pike County spikes after someone finds a big diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro.

Jim Hepler, assistant manager at Huntsville Lumber Co. at the intersection of Lee and Harris, said the light has been "working pretty good."

"I guess the main thing is people just don't realize there is a stoplight," he said.

Hepler said the stoplight managed to survive Halloween without getting egged or toilet papered.

He figured that was a good sign.

NW News on 11/07/2016

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