During the Warsaw Traffic Commission meeting on Wednesday, Mayor Joe Thallemer, left, gave the oath of office to Warsaw Community Schools Director of Transportation Mark Fick, right. Fick replaces Dr. David Robertson on the Traffic Commission as WCS’ representative as Robertson left the school system in late 2022. Photo by David Slone, Times Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Cleaning up the Warsaw Municipal Code as it relates to road signage, the Warsaw Traffic Commission voted Wednesday to vacate a number of ordinances for one-way stops that no longer exist or never existed in the first place.

“We have several ordinances that have been in review and we want to thank Eric Hoffhein for doing that. It’s a lot of work to take a look at this. He’s been all over the city,” Traffic Commission Administrator Lance Grubbs said.

The commission looked at one-way stop ordinances only on Wednesday and will review two-way stops at its March 1 meeting.

Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam thanked Hoffhein from the Warsaw Street Department for doing the “tedious” task of looking at and going through the signs and sign ordinances.

“A lot of these are things that should have been taken care of years ago. There’s stops on 250 North at the railroad tracks and we haven’t had a stop sign there in 20-plus years. So it’s just old stuff we’re trying to clear up,” Beam said.

Before getting into the ordinances for one-way stops, Beam brought up an ordinance section (74-212) that prohibits parking downtown from 2-5 a.m. He said he thought that was something they should probably get rid of. Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said parking prohibition might help the Warsaw Street Department when they need to plow. Beam said it wasn’t just for the winter months but all year round. Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon said the ordinance isn’t being enforced in any way and he didn’t see any issue with allowing parking downtown between 2-5 a.m.

Councilman Jack Wilhite made a motion to remove section 74-212 and the commission unanimously approved.

Grubbs then brought up the need to add to city ordinances one-way stop signs at the southwest corner of the intersection of West Baker Street and Ranch Road and at the southwest corner of the intersection of Patterson Road Extended and Normandy Lane. He said the city has East Baker Street to Ranch Road in ordinance, but not the southwest corner.

“So there’s stop signs at both locations, it’s just not in ordinance. That’s kind of a no-brainer,” Mayor Joe Thallemer said of the Baker Street intersection, adding that the stop sign can’t be enforced if there’s no ordinance in place to support it. “There’s no reason not to do that.”

The commission approved adding the southwest corners at both intersections to the stop ordinances.

One-way stop ordinances approved by the commission to be vacated included at the southwest corner of the intersection of CR 350N and the north/south Conrail tracks; at the southwest corner of the intersection of CR 250N and the north/south Conrail tracks; at the northeast corner of the intersection of CR 250N and SR 15; and at the southwest corner of the intersection of CR 300N and SR 15. The stop signs at those intersections were removed and replaced with either railroad crossing arms or stop lights.

One-way stop ordinances at the southeast corner of the intersection of Dubois Drive and Parker Street and the northeast corner of the intersection of Brookview Drive and North Parker Street also were voted on to be vacated because of the modified traffic pattern and intersection was removed at those locations.

The next ordinance the commission reviewed was for the northwest corner of the intersection of Oriole Lane and Parker Street.

“I’m not sure why that was there in the first place. It’s a dead-end road at Oriole Lane,” Grubbs said. “There is no Oriole Lane going west.”

There is a stop sign at the northeast corner of the Oriole Lane and Parker Street intersection, he said. The commission voted to get rid of the ordinance supporting a stop sign at the northwest corner of the intersection.

The commission then looked at a similar situation at the intersection of Ivywood and Dogwood Lane. Grubbs said there’s no stop sign at the southwest corner of the intersection, but there is one at the northwest corner. The commission voted to vacate the stop sign ordinance for the southwest corner of the intersection.

They also voted to vacate the one-way stop sign ordinances for the southeast corner of the intersection of Stag Drive and CR 75N and the southeast corner of the intersection of Doe Street and CR 175E. They voted to clean up the ordinance for the southeast corner of the intersection of Indiana and Canal streets as that intersection is now a two-way stop.

All the ordinances that the Traffic Commission voted to vacate will be reviewed by the Warsaw Common Council.

Also during the meeting, Thallemer gave the oath of office to Warsaw Community Schools Director of Transportation Mark Fick. Fick replaces Dr. David Robertson on the Traffic Commission as WCS’ representative as Robertson left the school system in late 2022.