Council approves temporary speed bumps in front of Broad Street school
Butler City Council took a step Wednesday evening, Sept. 25, that was long-awaited at Broad Street Elementary School — allowing for the installation of temporary speed bumps on the block to slow drivers down in the school zone.
Councilman Don Shearer brought the motion to council Wednesday, and said administrators of the school had taken steps in the past to get drivers to stop speeding in front of the school. The temporary speed bumps, which council allowed to be in place from 8 to 9:30 a.m. and from 3 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, are the school’s newest method.
Shearer said a Broad Street security officer explained to him that the speed bumps can be rolled out and rolled back up at will, and school personnel will be the ones deploying the technology.
“Someone is going to lay them out every morning, roll them back whenever drop off is done, then they will come back out and roll them back out,” Shearer said. “They have tried different things over the years to try to slow down traffic and none of them would really work, so this is the next step in their evolution.”
Council also voted to send an application to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for the Community Development Block Grant funds. The Redevelopment Authority of the City of Butler had its last hearing on Monday to apply for $311,848 through the grant.
As outlined in the application, the city is applying to use the money to reconstruct a sidewalk and retaining wall on Mercer Street; improve Father Marinaro Park; continue the Owner-Occupied Housing Rehabilitation program; and for general administration and audit costs.
Council voted to hire two new officers for the Butler Bureau of Police; Adam Barber and Trevon K. Williams.
The votes were each a “lateral hiring,” which Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said meant the officers will have shorter probationary periods compared to officers not hired laterally.
“It’s a memorandum of understanding that we passed some time ago that allowed for police to come onto the force from another police department with some sort of credit there,” Dandoy said.
Bureau of Police chief Robert O’Neill was not present at the meeting to share what departments the officers are coming to Butler from.
