St. Charles Eyes Traffic Change at Banbury-Independence

Public safety concerns were reflected in two issues brought before the St. Charles City Council, which convened earlier this week as the Government Services Committee.

As a committee, members voted to recommend the full council approve an ordinance making traffic flow changes at the intersection of Banbury and Independence avenues. The committee also declined to recommend the council consider restrictions on the use of fire pits

Police Chief James Lamkin spoke to the intersection, saying safety concerns have sparked as many as a half-dozen studies of the area in recent years. Lamkin said there appears to be some confusion about which drivers should yield to the others at the intersection. Yet the intersection does not warrant stop signs, he said.

Consequently, the department recommended the city require traffic on Banbury to yield to traffic on Independence Avenue. The committee voted to recommend the full City Council advance an ordinance making that change.

Drawing broader discussion among committee members, however, was the fire pit, or portable fireplace issue, which apparently was brought before the committee largely as a result of the complaints of one resident.

Fire Chief Patrick Mullen said the fire department issues very few citations in regard to the use of firepits, largely because most residents cooperate when there has been a complaint.

Fire pits are allowed for use in yards with some restrictions, including some related to their proximity to structures and a requirement they be tended continually until the fire is out.

Generally, he said, residents can use the pits to burn only seasoned wood — not brush, leaves, grass or freshly/recently cut “green” wood, which would be considered yard waste, which is barred from burning under the city’s existing ordinance.

Mullen said the department does not receive a lot of complaints about fire pits There were 19 open-burning complains made in 2011. So far this year, he continued, there have been 14 complaints, and seven of those came from one person, Mullen said.

The department, he continued, generally works out such complaints administratively, talking to people on both sides to resolve the conflict peacefully. That usually results in compliance with the regulations on the first visit by the department, he said.

In the case of the resident who has complained seven times this year, Mullen said that situation appears to be an ongoing conflict between two neighbors who don’t get along.

At that point, 2^nd Ward Alderman Cliff Carrignan suggested that perhaps any consideration for changing the ordinance would be catering to one person at a time when complaints are down. “The code in place now seems to be doing a good job,” he said. “Why mess with something that is doing a good job?”

His fellow committee members apparently agreed. They advanced no recommendation to the full council on the issue.

In other business, the committee:

Reviewed two reports — one pertaining to the city’s electrical reliability, the other dealing with the city’s efforts to combat the emerald ash borer.

Recommended approval of a wholesale water supply agreement with Illinois American Water Company to provide water and sanitary sewer service to the River Grange area.

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