Residents living along a speed-prone segment of Main Street in Atlantic Beach are doing their part to help keep the neighborhood safe.
Patty Nottingham, alongside her sister-in-law, Megan Nottingham, addressed the City Commission during the Jan. 8 meeting about their efforts to have speed tables installed to help slow traffic.
The Nottingham families live next door to each other with five children ages 4 to 8 between their respective households. Drivers traveling at dangerously high speeds down Main Street make it unsafe for the kids to play outside. Over the past six years, they have requested that the city implement traffic calming devices several times, yet no action was ever taken to correct the problem.
So, they took matters into their own hands.
The Nottinghams said they have submitted videos of speeders to the police and recently canvassed the area with a petition to gain the support of other residents fed up with the speeding and unsafe conditions.
“We went door to door, and we spoke with all of our neighbors on Main Street. We didn't encounter a single person that said no. They are all in favor of speed tables on our street,” said Patty Nottingham, adding that an estimated 14 kids live in Main Street just from 9th Street to 14th Street. “They've seen us play, and they've seen the problems constantly. We've had people go 60 miles per hour down our street multiple times per day. There's no set time that speeding is a problem.”
They also successfully appealed to the city to reinstate parking along the Main Street corridor to help slow traffic. City officials told the families that they have identified three proposed locations to install speed tables, but nothing has been done.
“We keep hitting roadblocks,” said Nottingham. “We keep getting feedback from people saying we're not sure who makes the final decision, or were not sure where we are in the process, or we don't know the next step. For us, the next step is putting a speed table. That's all we want. Six years in the making to get one project done is very alarming to our neighbors on our street.”
Megan Nottingham said in addition to supporting the speed table initiative, many residents also questioned whether the city could remove the other measures like the roundabout at Main Street that they say isn’t doing enough to fix the problem.
“A lot of people really didn't see the benefit of the circle,” she said. “That seems to be a common theme.”
Mayor Curtis Ford broke protocol by responding during the courtesy of the floor to visitors to confirm that the plan to install the speed tables is moving forward. City Manager Bill Killingsworth said the project also includes the removal of the roundabout and bollards.
“I hear you, and I feel your pain on this. Six years is a little long to accomplish a simple thing, but I have it on good authority that our new City Manager, Mr. Killingsworth, has approved the installation of the three speed tables that were proposed and put it out for RFP,” he said. “More needs to be done, but that is a simple beginning to something that should have been done a long time ago.”
