City addresses faulty traffic light issues

Clinton city leaders held a 20-minute City Council session Tuesday evening with red lights on Gary Boulevard, primarily at N. 13th Street, the biggest item of discussion.
Councilman Jason Hulin brought up the stop lights after the council breezed through laudatory reports about two events held here last weekend with financial aid from the city’s reapportioned lodging tax, and approved requests from two other organizations for help with events coming up soon. That, plus passage of an altered permit for the new in-town water treatment plant, consumed the first nine minutes of the meeting.
Consultant Lonnie Teel explained that the original water permit called for an eight-inch pipeline going down the railroad tracks and said it was redesigned to have a six-inch line crossing city property. The redesign passed without discussion.
Hulin interrupted all the harmony, though, by complaining about the red light at 13th and Gary. He said it’s been broken three times in a year.
“It’s not broken,” declared City Manager Mark Skiles. “Nobody likes to stop. Since it’s been flashing red, there’ve been no complaints.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the timer?” asked Hulin.
“They’re set for 30 seconds in each direction,” said Public Works Director Donald Webb. “People complain they’re sitting there too long.”
“What does it take to get it fixed?” asked Hulin. If money’s the problem, he said there’s $100,000 for capital improvements in the city budget with no specific allocation.
“It needs to be fixed,” he continued. “We need effective traffic lights. Why don’t we get it fixed?”
After Skiles said something else, Hulin told him, “Figure out a time schedule and get it fixed.” He said the city has never had a four-way stop sign at that light but it’s had one the past few days.
Webb said the city has had the light timers checked, but that didn’t satisfy Hulin.
“Maybe we should call somebody else,” he said.
Mayor David Berrong agreed.
“It looks like amateur hour,” he said, suggesting that the city go beyond what it’s been doing.
“Do you put these in the pavement?” asked Councilman Bobby Stewart, referring to the timers.
“Not on that one,” replied Webb. But for most others in town the answer was yes, that they’re pressure sensitive and are supposed to go into action when an automobile pulls up to a light and rolls over them.  
In addition to going to flashing red lights, the city recently put up four-way stop signs for the 13th-and-Gary intersection. Skiles said the four-way stop signs could be removed.
Councilman Don Rodolph thought the city should find out what it’s going to cost to fix the timers. Then when Berrong mentioned the word “problem” again, Skiles repeated, “I don’t think we’ve got a problem. We’ve got people who don’t like to sit at street lights.”
“Something’s not working,” said Berrong.
When Webb said a company called Signal Tech has been checking the timers, Hulin repeated his suggestion about finding another checker. Especially if it’s been three times that the lights have been out of order.
Webb said he personally hasn’t been hung up at one of the lights.
“Let’s take the stop signs out and leave the lights flashing red,” Skiles told him. And it appeared late Wednesday morning that was what has been done.
Stewart wanted to know if the pads (another word for the timers) in the concrete are controlled by the state or the city.
Berrong and Rodolph assured him it’s the city.
Stewart also had used the word “loop” in reference to the timers, and the discussion ended with Webb saying he doesn’t know what it would cost “to loop us in.”
While that ended the red light talk, Hulin obviously had something else bugging him. Referring to Skiles’ laudatory comments about the Hub City Beat Down wrestling tournament and the OK Kids Coach Pitch State Baseball Tournament – both of which were financed in part with money from the lodging tax – Hulin noted that the manager hadn’t mentioned a 69-team couples golf tournament that had been held at Riverside Golf Course last weekend. He estimated the golf tourney had attracted 50 couples from outside the Elk City-to-Weatherford radius of Clinton. He said he personally had talked with one couple from Southlake, Texas (in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex), and another from north of Wichita, Kan., and both had praise for the course here. He said one of the couples told him this was the best municipal golf course they’d played.
Hulin also estimated the golf tournament had brought $5,000 to $6,000 into the city, and he praised employees for working so diligently Friday to get the course in top shape.
(While no money came from the lodging tax to help finance the golf tournament, Riverside Golf Course does receive a large subsidy from the city in its budget each year. This year it was $244,000.)
In a late addition to the agenda, the council renewed the city’s annual agreement with Summer Playground for 2019 without discussion. It calls for the city to provide Summer Playground its annual fee of $8,000 in exchange for the organization overseeing a variety of children’s activities. The city also will furnish facilities at no cost where the activities can be held, including the municipal swimming pool.
The agreement requires Summer Playground to provide services to at least 200 children during the summer.
Besides swimming, the services are to include other exercise programs as well as academic and “fun” programs.