By Jordan Puckett
Sun staff

New Richmond Village Council voted to revert the newly changed stop sign on Front Street back to the way it was during the June 11 council meeting. This will change the sign back to a stop “except when turning right.”

Council began discussion of the sign after resident Rick Hinson voiced his concerns about the sign.

“My question tonight is, are you going to do anything with the stop sign that’s on Old 52 that stated the same thing on that side as on the other side?” Hinson said.

Mayor Ramona Carr asked Police Chief Randy Harvey to address the question. She asked him about the legality of the sign.

“All signage has to be approved by the Ohio Department of Transportation,” Chief Harvey said, “otherwise it is technically not a legal sign… For the purpose of the village and liability, it just seems like all stop signs should mean stop. It’s a contradiction of terms to have a stop sign with another sign below it that says ‘except when turning right.’”

Council members again mentioned the possibility of replacing the stop with a yield sign or simply waiting for summer to end before making any changes at all. A few council members said this would be a good decision, but they are still receiving complaints on the stop sign.

“I think, personally, we have to stop listening to citizens and their complaints,” Chief Harvey said. “Everybody’s got an opinion. For ordinances and resolutions to be passed just on one or two or three or four people, that’s not proper. When we go to make changes like this, you have got to look at the data. As far as I know, as long as I’ve been here, there have not been any citations or crashes at either one of those locations… That’s the way it should be done. Look at the data and quit listening to people’s individual opinions.”

Council member Nick Wolf expressed his concern about the sign, saying that he’d seen several people run the stop sign while he was dining in Frisch’s Big Boy. He said one his biggest concerns is that two cars will be traveling down the road, see the green light ahead, and the rear car will forget about the new complete stop and cause a rear end collision.

Wolf made a motion that the stop sign at Front and Cornerstone be changed back to say “stop except when turning right” and add a sign on Cobra road that says “oncoming traffic does not stop.”

Council approved the motion with a 5 to 1 vote.