Jack Stanfill, who lives in the 2400 block of Northlake Way, is concerned about the safety of the street he calls home.
Stanfill says a neighbor’s mailbox was destroyed last week and several neighbors have had near-misses with other vehicles on the roadway. The speed limit is 35 mph, but Stanfill says most vehicles speed along at 40 mph or more.
“As Seabeck and Holly have built up, this road has never improved and it’s only added more traffic and the cars are moving faster,” Stanfill said.
Stanfill says that he and his neighbors would like to see the county take several steps to make the road safer.
“We’d just like for them, until they can fix the road the way its supposed to be, is get the speed down to 30 mph and enforce it,” Stanfill said. “We’re not asking them to spend any money.”
Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown said that he is familiar with the concerns and said that the public works department is already doing a review of Northlake Way. He also noted that the county installed a sign last year that shows a driver’s current speed and lights up a bright red warning cautioning drivers to slow down if they are traveling over the posted speed limit.
“Any time we have safety concerns from any citizen in the county we try to address it,” Brown said. “This is a pretty significant arterial and some people would like to see speeds reduced on this major thoroughfare, but expecting folks to drive 25 mph isn’t a reality.”
In addition to reduced speeds, Stanfill and his neighbors have called for a no-passing zone between David and Taylor streets and enforcement of existing no-parking zones along the roadway.
“Crosswalks would be nice, too,” Stanfill said.
Brown said he gives a lot of credit to the county’s public works department in keeping county roads as safe as possible.
“Over the past several years they’ve installed a lot of guard rails and additional signage where necessary,” Brown said. “We’re really concerned about safety on county roads, but we can’t do everything. We can’t have a sheriff’s deputy on every road and we can’t reduce speeds on every road to 25 mph, but what we can do is be committed to the issue of public safety and continue doing what makes sense.”
