Woodstock set to approve new stop signs, Country Club Rd.

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
August 2, 2013

OK, folks. Now's your chance. Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

On Tuesday, August 6, the Woodstock City Council is to ponder the weighty question of whether to roll over on the request of one (just one!) Bull Valley County Club (City of Woodstock) resident, whose time is so precious that he can't spare seconds to turn onto Country Club Road, and approve installation of two stop signs to stop all traffic eastbound and westbound on Country Club Road at Club Road (entrance to Bull Valley Country Club).

These new stop signs would require all cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, stage coaches, baby carriages, etc. to stop 24/7/365. So, whether there is any traffic in the 40MPH speed zone there late at night, early in the evening, on weekdays or week-ends, you (that's y-o-u) will be required to come to a full stop and proceed only when safe to do so.

Another possibility, of course, is to leave it as it is, which is what the City's engineering firm recommended earlier in the year, when the request was first made. A study was conducted and the accident (i.e., crash) data were analyzed. Incidents of risk were NOT at the threshold to call for action. In other words, the stop signs were not recommended.

Yet the Woodstock City Council decided to proceed.

And now the Council is set to vote on Tuesday night, when the City Council session starts at 7:00PM at City Hall on August 6.

If you care, now is the time to communicate with your City Council members. Keep in mind that Woodstock does not operate on a Ward system. All Councilmen (and women) are elected at-large. Therefore, there is no one council member to pounce on or who will carry your banner.

You can call City Council members at home. Their phone numbers are listed on the City's website at www.woodstockil.gov Click on "City Council" to see their names and phone numbers.

You can email them. Here are their email addresses: mlarson@woodstockil.gov, rthompson@woodstockil.gov, jdillon@woodstockil.gov, bsager@woodstockil.gov, mturner@woodstockil.gov, jstarzynski@woodstockil.gov, msaladin@woodstockil.gov,

If you do nothing, they'll approve it.

Of course, they might approve it anyway, even if hundreds of residents contact them and say "No." The vote is likely to be part of the Consent Agenda and stamped with a blanket approval without discussion. If you go to the meeting, ask for Item D-7 to be pulled for discussion. It will help if you call 3-4-5 council members ahead of time. Even if you request that D-7 be pulled for discussion, it takes the formal request from a Council member to get it pulled for discussion.

This one will be up to you. I have a conflicting meeting scheduled for the same time that is more important to me, and I shall not be at this City Council meeting.