The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

September 8, 2009

Beckley council field traffic, road trash concerns

By Amelia A. Pridemore

The traffic bottleneck on Eisenhower Drive still irritates citizens, but Beckley city officials say problem traffic lights in that area have been repaired.

During Tuesday night’s Beckley Common Council meeting, Councilman Robert Rappold said a citizen regularly calls every time he is stuck in Eisenhower Drive traffic. The man says traffic lights at the intersections of Rural Acres Drive and Johnstown Road are the worst.

However, Mayor Emmett Pugh said the traffic lights are in good working order, and technical issues with a few were resolved about two months ago.

Earlier this year, 12 new traffic lights were installed on Eisenhower and Robert C. Byrd drives. Nine were part of a synchronized system designed to keep traffic moving as smoothly as possible. In late June, two reportedly needed “tweaking.” A state Division of Highways spokesman said the problem was likely a computer bug.

Manuel Cartelle, director of the city’s housing authority, performed traffic analysis for the DOH before his tenure with the city, and his office is on Beckwoods Drive. At first, the new lights were “horrible,” he said. Now, they “work perfectly.”

Pugh noted the synchronized lights are designed to give Stanaford Road and Rural Acres Drive traffic more “green light” time when Woodrow Wilson High School dismisses and when Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital changes shifts. While this relieves congestion on Stanaford and Rural Acres, Eisenhower’s traffic will inevitably back up more.

Rappold said he recommended alternate routes to his constituent.

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Councilman A.K. Minter also wanted to address trash on city roadways and eyesores — like trucks on blocks — located alongside them.

“At a lot of these intersections, at the traffic lights, people will stop and throw their cigarette butts out,” he said. “...All of this stops up our storm sewers.”

Pugh said the city has a street sweeper. But the city’s appearance will not become cleaner until some citizens basically clean up.

“You can legislate until you’re blue in the face, but if people have no respect for the environment and their surroundings, it will all fall on deaf ears,” he said. “How often do you see bags of trash along the highway? I don’t know what the answer is.”

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In other matters:

- Council members approved the first reading of an ordinance allowing the city to auction unwanted property. This property includes surplus office equipment, tools, and vehicles seized through civil forfeiture.

— E-mail: apridmore@register-herald.com

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