New stop sign postponed to Aug. 6

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
June 10, 2013

Watch out for the new stop sign on Country Club Road, east of the Post Office, where you turn into Bull Valley Country Club, that could be coming to a corner near you soon.

I jumped the gun about a decision by the Woodstock City Council at its June 4th meeting. After seeing the question as part of the Consent Agenda for that meeting, I made an assumption that they had passed it.

The issue was tabled until the August 6th meeting.

This gives residents time to clear their calendars and to plan to attend the August 6th City Council meeting. In the meantime, you can wind up the Council members and give them your 2¢ worth. Better yet, give them a buck's worth.

The documentation in the City Council packet is "interesting", to say the least. Based on that documentation, the issue never should have gone to the City Council. And, once it did, the action of the City Council at its June 4th Regular Meeting should have been 0-7. That's for 0 for; 7 against.

But what did they do? They considered it and postponed action. If they do approve it, then every driver on Country Club Road - e-v-e-r-y driver - will be required to stop 24/7/365.

How did this even come up? One resident in Bull Valley Country Club area complained. One. That's o-n-e. Just o-n-e. One person contacted the City of Woodstock. Oh, he said he had talked to others. Did the City get their names? Did the City contact them? If so, it's not documented. The City didn't.

What did happen was that the City sicced its consulting engineers (at what cost?) on that corner to determine whether it should become an all-way stop intersection. Hampton, Lenzini & Renwick spent some hours pondering the weighty problem and wrote up a report and a recommendation. What was its recommendation?

They recommended AGAINST it. The consulting engineers said that a four-stop there was not warranted. That should have been the end of it. Stop (oops, sorry). End. Finis. But they wrote that it might be possible in the future that such a stop could be warranted and suggested, maybe, a study during the summer months.

But the City of Woodstock couldn't wait for summer. After all, the Village of Bull Valley is putting in a dog park on the northwest corner of that intersection. It won't even be in Woodstock. And what do you think the charge will be to Woodstock residents, if they want to park their dogs there? Hefty, for sure. If at all.

The question (remember now; brought up by one (that's o-n-e) resident made its way onto the June 4 agenda. Do you think the City surveyed the hundreds of drivers on Country Club Road?

Garbage! Baloney! And some stronger words! Why should hundreds of drivers each day and night on Country Club Road have to stop at that corner, 24/7/365, so that a few residents trying to get out of their Bull Valley Country Club homes won't be inconvenienced for 10-15-20 seconds to get on their way?

Maybe a few hundred phone calls to Roscoe Stelford, Woodstock City Manager? Call him at 815.338.4300 or email him at citymanager@woodstockil.gov Be nice now; remember; he's new to the job.

Keep in mind that Roscoe inherited this problem. It would have started under the reign of the recently-retired City Manager, Tim Clifton. He is the one who just should have said "No."

And you will want to let the City Council members know your feelings, because they are the ones who will vote on it.

Want to email the members of the Woodstock City Council? Send your emails to:

mlarson@woodstockil.gov; rthompson@woodstockil.gov; jdillon@woodstockil.gov; bsager@woodstockil.gov; mturner@woodstockil.gov; msaladin@woodstockil.gov; jstarzynski@woodstockil.gov,