The city will add a multitude of stop signs in high school districts

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The area between Columbia Falls High School and U.S. Highway 2 will soon see more stop signs at intersections – a lot more stop signs.

Columbia Falls Police Chief Clint Peters told the City Council last week that the city should install 38 additional stop signs in the blocks between Fourth Avenue West and 12th Avenue West.

The recommendation comes after the police department conducted a warrant study of the neighborhood, determining that many intersections were uncontrolled, meaning they had no stop signs at all.

The problem came to a head earlier this month, when neighbors complained about young drivers racing down West 10th Avenue because it was a clear line between the high school and the highway. There’s a dip in the road, not a big one, but they still managed to get their rigs off the ground.

The Council agreed with Peters that something needed to be done, so they gave the stop signs the green light. Peters noted that there are a lot of signs, so it could take some time to install them all, as city public works crews will have to install them. The hope is to have about half installed before the start of the school year.

The idea behind the signs is to stop a race longer than two blocks.

Some notable intersections will see four-way stop signs: West Eighth Avenue and West 12th Street, West Seventh Avenue and West 12th Street, and West 10th Avenue and West 11th Street will see four-way stop signs.

Peters pointed out that bad driving in recent times isn’t just from young drivers. It’s also from parents picking up and dropping off children at school. Overall traffic is also up, even though school enrollment hasn’t increased much.

“I feel like we have more vehicles than we have in the past,” Peters said.