The Roy City Council listened to concerns about the school sign signage and lights outside Roy Elementary School during its inaugural town hall meeting at the Roy Community Center on Monday, March 25.
The meeting was exclusively for public comment, and each person who requested to speak to the council had five minutes to do so, and the council was allowed to respond to concerns.
Roy resident Scott Hutchins shared his concerns about the school zone signage near Roy Elementary and the flashing light system. He said that the sign reads that the school zone is active from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“I’m not opposed to school zones. I think they’re great and are a necessary thing. However, I was driving to work on Presidents Day and coming through town at 6:20 in the morning. The flashing lights were not on, so people were not going 20 miles an hour. They were going 30,” Hutchins said. “On my way home, I saw the sign said 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. That’s my first heartache. School is in session from just after 9 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m. We only have half an hour after school, but we have three hours before school. I think that’s ridiculous.”
Hutchins suggested changing the time on the sign to read that the school zone is active from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or when the lights are flashing. He noted that school zones should not be active on holidays or during the summer break when school is not in session.
Councilor Jim Rotondo agreed in part with Hutchins, replying that the sign system needs to be examined and that the flashing lights should go off at the right time. He said that the early start time for the school zone is not just for the elementary students, however.
“The early part of it is for the school kids to travel safely across the highway to get on the bus or to wherever they’re going. The simple solution would be to take the verbiage off the sign and just say when flashing. It needs to be looked at and revamped,” Rotondo said.
Cindy Byrd, who lives outside city limits but has children and grandchildren that attend nearby schools, disagreed with both Hutchins and Rotondo, adding that her grandchildren and other students walk to catch the bus at 6 a.m.
“You can’t start the school zone at 9 a.m. when school is in session here. It covers the activity bus in the afternoon, and it covers kids that come back and forth all day long,” she said. “There really isn’t a big issue with this. Those lights flashing and that sign stating that all day does have an impact to slow some of the jerks down, but without those signs and without that low speed limit, they’ll go 40 and 45 through here.”
Byrd added that the school zone being active during the summer isn’t an issue either because “the cops don’t bother anybody in the summer” about the school zone in those months.
“Kids’ safety is more important than slowing people down that want to exceed the speed limit. If they’re inconvenienced for two minutes, oh well,” she said.
Councilor Harvey Gilchrist requested to speak with Police Chief Paul Antista and Public Works Director William Starks Jr. to address the school zone signage, but no action was immediately taken.
