Washington opts against four-way stop … for now

WASHINGTON — Police Chief Jim Lester said he had reviewed data from the Iowa Avenue and Third Street intersection after council members voiced concerns about visibility at a meeting in August.

“We’re going to initially address that and paint no parking yellow near the stop signs near the intersections,” Lester said. “The city ordinance says there should be no parking within 10 feet of a stop sign. He’s going to have his guys paint those yellow. We may lose a couple of spaces, but I think that will clear up the line of sight issues.”

Lester said a monitoring station set up near the intersection tallied 9,205 cars passing through it in one week.

While city officials hope the plan will solve visibility problems, Mayor Jaron Rosien suggested the council could return to the issue if problems persisted.

“This is where we had a request that we put a four-way stop in, this is where council had a request that we absolutely not put a four-way stop in,” he said. “Chief Lester’s recommendation is before adding stop signs, that we enforce the current existing law about not parking within 10 feet of the stop sign.”

While the council had previously discussed Third Street’s intersection with Marion Avenue as well, Lester didn’t recommend any changes to that intersection at the meeting.