HANSVILLE — The only access road to the very northern tip of Kitsap County seems pretty harmless, with minimal congestion and the occasional intersection, driveway or farm turnoff.

But residents who use Hansville Road on a daily basis are concerned about what is becoming of the old country road that is now a 55 mph, two-lane highway with no turn lanes.

Hansville resident Tiffany Woltersdorf brought the issue to the attention of the Hansville Community Center Board last month, particularly discussing the dangers of the intersection at The Point Casino at Salish Lane and Hansville Road.

On Jan. 10, Hansville resident Sue Brydon was killed after she tried turning left into the casino. Another car attempted to pass Brydon on her driver’s side and they collided.

“Now is the time to tell their concerns to the county,” Woltersdorf said about improving the safety of the road. “Everyone is trying to get everything considered while it’s the right time.”

She said she has talked with officials with the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, which owns the casino, and Kitsap County Assistant Director of Public Works Jon Brand to find out what could be done.

“For folks in the North End and Hansville, Hansville Road is what we drive several times a day and we need to make it as perfect as can be,” Woltersdorf said. “We’re grateful for the county making changes it needs to make.”

While Brand said there are currently no plans to improve the casino intersection, the county and the tribe are discussing potential changes to the roadway.

The intersection is part of the county’s six-year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) to construct paved shoulders on Hansville Road between the Delaney/Hansville/Little Boston Roads intersection and Twin Spits Road.

“We may be able to work with the tribe to incorporate those channelization improvements with that project,” Brand said.

The TIP also includes two projects to widen and add left turn lanes at the Little Boston/Hansville roads and Little Boston/Hansville/Eglon roads intersection. In fact, the design on the former is ahead of schedule and could be done this year, Brand said. They were both slated for construction in 2006.

“Things went more smoothly than we anticipated, so we may and try and build that this year,” he said.

Up the road, resident Cinda Bakken, of the Finn Creek Agricultural community, said she and her neighbors, who reside in the valley just south of Hansville proper, are concerned about speeding cars through there. Currently, the speed limit is 55 mph but it decreases to 35 mph, just north of the vineyard.

The residents’ are becoming more and more concerned for their safety when they turn in and out of their farms onto Hansville Road and also for those who are coming on and off Gust Halvor Road.

Bakken expects to send a letter to the county this week with signatures from about a dozen neighbors in the valley requesting new sign installations — a tractor sign posted with a cautionary speed sign and a deer sign installed at the south end of the valley. That’s a natural wildlife crossing, Bakken said, and a bear and a deer have been killed in accidents there.

“You watch and eventually that’s going to be some sort of trail that will get us back through there,” she said, referring to ongoing plans for a network of pedestrian hiking trails throughout the North End.

Public Works traffic investigator Steve Johnson said his office will consider the petition, but noted that, most of the time, signs are worthless because people notice them once and then never pay attention to them again.

“They’re an added expense. They don’t do anything,” Johnson added. “They’re a feel good thing for the neighbors.”

Several years ago, there was a report done by a local Boy Scout who requested that tractor signs be posted within this same stretch road, Johnson said, but the request was denied.

“I’ve never seen tractor out on the road, I know they come out there occasionally but we’ve never had a tractor accident,” he said.