Every time I come back to

Marion, Cherry street, and others, that have stop signs.

I am amazed when I first noticed that almost no one completely stops at any of the stop signs, So one day I sat near the Cherry street stop sign, and watched, 33, people at this sign, just north of the elementary school. 24 out of 33, people did not come to a complete stop. 8 never slowed down and 5, almost stopped but kept rolling. I recognized some of these folks because they live in the area. Some are taking a shortcut to river trace. One lady is a elementary school teacher, another man is a deputy sheriff, several work at the school or city hall. Regardless, there is a pretty good chance that sooner or later a child will be struck by one of these people and either injured or killed. Granted most of time this four way is empty of opposing traffic, but three of the four houses have young children living there. This is also a very popular place for parents and kids to walk their dogs. I can understand that it may be counter productive for a policeman to sit just down the street near some of these intersections, but I can tell you that you would wear out a good pin, writing tickets. I am just saying obey the laws.

[ Editor’s Note: I will go ahead and agree with you on the idea that they are stop signs, and yes, we should all obey the law and stop at all stop signs at all times. Now, having said that… Marion has just been inundated by new stop signs.

I mean, they have popped up over the last few years like the dandelions in my back yard in the spring time.

Now, I have no doubt that as traffic patterns have changed over the years, it has become necessary to place new stop signs in certain places that once did not need them. I have no problem with those stop signs.

Off the top of my head, the signs put up a couple of years ago making the end of L. P. Mann where it meets Judge Smith Drive making it a three- way stop were probably a good idea. It’s pretty close to the schools, people drive well above the 25 mph speed limit there and I have no problem with it ( although I do still have trouble remembering to stop there on occasion). But some of these stop signs really seem to serve no purpose except to serve as virtual “ speed bumps.” You specifically mention Cherry Street, but just a few blocks over on Barton, there are five consecutive intersections with four- way stops, which is especially frustrating because four of those go on to dead- end streets. They are not high- traffic areas.

They are several blocks from the schools, and they were two- way stops for decades with no incidents of anyone being hit or any crashes there that I know of. It just seemed like someone raised a fuss and eventually all those stop signs went up.

I’m all for safety but there is such a concept as too much of a good thing]