Bridgeport City Council approved a measure to increase the speed limit at the intersection of the stop signal at the base of the road leading to Meadowbrook Mall to the entrance to the mall near Dick’s Sporting Goods Monday night.

 

It was one of two measures involving the police or security in front of Council.

 

As for the speed limit, the increase will be from the current 25 miles per hours to 35 miles per hour. A time wasn’t announced for when the increase will take place, but Chief John Walker said there will be some community education done prior to the change.

 

While the potential change has been known since last week, Bridgeport Police Chief John Walker talked about numbers involved that led to the change at last night’s meeting. Walker said results of a traffic study showed almost no one was following the posted limit coming off the four-lane Meadowbrook Road-Johnson Avenue area onto the four lanes leading to the mall.

 

Walker said a traffic study was done from January 18 of this year to January 27. During that time, Walker said 120,096 cars traveled the roadway in question. Of that total, few were doing the speed limit or even five miles per hour over it.

 

“Of those vehicles, 113,296 were going 31 miles per hour up to 70,” said Walker.  “There’s definitely an enforcement problem we need to address there.”

 

Enforcement, due to the road layout, is difficult, Deputy Chief Mark Rogers said last week. Although those going over 35 miles per hour are a concern, there are not a significant number of accidents on the road, according to Rogers.

 

Rogers said last week most of the accidents were weather-related or came during the holiday shopping season when traffic is too dense for speeding. He also said most of the accidents were near the traffic signal as opposed to the mall road.

 

With the information in front of them, Council unanimously passed the measure. Council then approved a contract for security windows in the lobby of the Bridgeport Municipal Complex. Council agreed to a contract for $12,822 with POW Glass of Mannington to do the project.

 

The glass is like the glass in front of the windows on the police department side of City Hall. When asked if there were any incidents at the lobby window where general business is done, Walker said there has been.

 

Walker pointed to a situation where a person wanting to go to the police department went to the business lobby windows. From there, he said things got tense before the situation was resolved.

 

Council approved a contract for $10,696.04 for Casto Technical Services out of Charleston. The contract will provide HVAC upgrades to City Hall.

 

Also this evening, Council once again presented proclamations to local sports teams. This time, it was the Bridgeport Middle School football, cheerleading and boys’ cross country teams for all winning Harrison County or Conference Championships. The presence led to a packed house.

 

Prior to the regular meeting, Council received an update from Citynet on the high-speed internet project in the city. The update came during the work session. 

 

Also during the work session, the first draft of the 2020-21 fiscal year budget was presented by Finance Director Monica Musgrave. Council will discuss the budget during a special session Monday at 6 p.m.

 

The meeting closed with Council member John Wilson offering kind words to the family of Richard Sparks. Sparks was a long-time city employee who passed away recently after years of service to Bridgeport with his work at the Bridgeport Cemetery.

 

More on the meeting in the days ahead on Connect-Bridgeport.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Chief John Walker explaining the reason for looking for a speed limit increase, while the second photo is the windows that will be replaced with security glass. In the bottom photo, City Manager Randy Wetmore, left, and Council member Don Burton listen to a presentation on the Citynet high speed intenet project from Citynet Senior Vice President Drew Pomeroy during the work session.