Eric Hoffhein, Warsaw Street Department, talks to the Traffic Commission Wednesday about using a solar LED flashing warning light near the school bus stop on East Center Street. Photo by David Slone.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The message board on East Center Street near Papa John’s reminding motorists to stop for stopped school buses will be replaced with a beacon — a solar LED flashing warning light — above the street sign that says “All lanes stop when school bus stops.”

The Warsaw Traffic Commission unanimously made that decision during their meeting Wednesday after about 15 minutes of discussion, with the street department paying for the approximately $699 light. The message board will be used by the Warsaw Police Department in other areas of the city where it’s needed as it’s the only message board the WPD owns and is not inexpensive.

The message board was place along the eastbound lane of East Center Street in December to help reduce the number of stop-arm violations at the Warsaw Community Schools bus stop in front of Papa John’s. WCS Director of Transportation Mark Fick has said the message board has helped to reduce the stop-arm violations at the Papa John’s location.

Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs told the commission Wednesday that Eric Hoffhein, Warsaw Street Department, brought up the possibility of replacing the message board with the beacon.

Shown is a solar LED flashing warning light the Warsaw Street Department will purchase to place on the “All lanes stop when school bus stops” sign on East Center Street near Papa John’s. Photo provided.

“I’ve seen the meetings in the past where (WPD Capt.) Joel (Beam) says, ‘Hey, we’ve got the board we can put out there, but it can be used in other places to raise awareness in other areas.’ I got to looking through some of the vendors we’ve used in the past, looking for a more permanent solution. And a vendor that’s out there has these solar LED flashing beacons,” Hoffhein said.

He said the cost of $699 was relatively low for the return on investment with the safety and raising awareness.

The beacon is programmable so it can be scheduled to flash for the time window when the school bus will come through that stop. “So it won’t constantly flash and hopefully people won’t become immune to it. That’s one of the things that when we do signs and signals, we look at, is it something the public will become immune to? You just see it all the time, you disregard what’s actually there,” Hoffhein stated, adding that hopefully they can get the stop-arm violations down to zero, at least at the Center Street location.

Grubbs asked Fick how he thought the beacon stacked up to what’s there now.

“I think that the sign is working. We’ve only had six since our last meeting – so six stop-arm (violations) total,” Fick said. “… The sign works. I don’t know if the yellow — I know there’s a red, too — but I think people see the sign that says ‘Stop for Bus.’ That’s my personal feeling. When they see it, they actually stop unless they’re the ones who just go through.”

Beam said the message board cost over $7,000 and is subscription based with a yearly fee. He also said if they go with the beacon they can’t go with a red light because that would stop traffic, so it would have to be the yellow light.

Hoffhein said it would be the yellow light and it can be seen from over 2,500 feet. “So it is going to be bright enough, even in the early mornings when that sun’s coming over White’s Hill. This will still be bright enough to grab attention,” he said, adding that it was his opinion that the beacon would be a good, viable replacement for the message board.

The commission discussed the maintenance of the beacon versus the message board, other yellow lights along Center Street and costs.

Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins asked Beam how many message boards does the city have. Beam said only the one and it’s used for speeding counts.

Mayor Joe Thallemer said the beacon sounds like it’s a really low-cost option “that would help our guys out and allow that sign that is out there to be used in other spots — continue to be used in different spots as it was originally designed for. Save a lot of maintenance on the batteries. I think for $700 it makes sense to look at it and see if you end up with complaints or concerns.”

With the beacon placed on the sign that’s out there now that says “All lanes stop when school bus stops,” Council President Jack Wilhite said it will be close to the flashing message board.

Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon said, “I think all the awareness and attention that we’ve given this stop has really helped with making the public aware of what’s going on in that area. We’ve cut (stop-arm violations) down from where we started to now six in the last month. That’s a significant change. I think the beacon will probably carry that on, and if it doesn’t, then we can always go a different route.”

Grubbs asked if the street department would purchase the beacon and Thallemer said yes, followed by Dillon saying yes.

City Planner Justin Taylor made a motion to approve the yellow beacon for the bus stop location. Dillon seconded the motion and it passed. Fick said once the beacon is purchased and in place, he will keep track of the number of stop-arm violations at that location.

The traffic commission spent the bulk of the rest of their meeting Wednesday cleaning up the Warsaw Municipal Code as it relates to road signage. At their February meeting, they focused on one-way stops. This month, they reviewed two-, three- and four-way stops.

All the ordinances that the traffic commission voted to vacate or change will be reviewed by the Warsaw Common Council after the city attorney draws up the proper ordinances.

Finally, Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said she was aware of a request to change around some unlimited parking to two-hour parking and suggested that, before the commission does any one-off requests, that they take another look at the total downtown Warsaw parking situation.

Grubbs asked if a committee has done that study in the past, and Thallemer said yes. Grubbs asked Dobbins if she would like to chair that committee, and she said yes.

“I guess I would just want to know what specifically you’re looking for because you can go down many different paths. I’m just curious,” Thallemer said, adding that it might just be a matter of updating the work that’s already been done. He asked Dobbins if she were interested in off- or on-street parking or both. “It’s more than just a parking study, and I think that if the traffic commission wants that done, that they articulate exactly what they’re looking for.”

Dobbins brought up an assessment that was done in the past looking at how much downtown parking was utilized other than for downtown businesses’ employees. Thallemer said they could do a count at different times of the day and see how many parking spaces were available, and from that they could see if there were a need to go deeper.

“It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of committee work, and I think the data, as far as the number of spots available, is going to tell you what you want to know. And, if not, I’m OK digging deeper,” Thallemer said.

He said the city had a developer they entertained this week and he made the same observation “that we’ve been making for a long time: You really don’t have much of a parking problem, it’s a walking problem.” Thallemer said the figures will bear that out.

Taylor said he would work with Dobbins on looking at the downtown parking. No one else from the commission volunteered to assist with that, but Dobbins said she might be able to find someone from Main Street Warsaw.

The traffic commission won’t meet in April due to spring break the first week of the month.