BROWNSTOWN

A yellow-striped crosswalk is painted over two shades of pavement.

Part of the pavement is newer after construction of the nearby Jackson County Judicial Center along South Sugar Street in Brownstown.

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With more people coming and going from that building to the Jackson County Courthouse across the street, the Brownstown Town Council wants to make the crosswalk more prominent.

In late 2018, the council approved making the intersections of Walnut and Sugar streets and Cross and Sugar streets four-way stops.

That was one way to slow traffic down in the area, and the council thinks changing the crosswalk would make it even safer for pedestrians walking to and from the buildings.

“I found myself when I’m cutting through there, if there are no cars there or there are few cars there, I feel I’m drifting over into where the pedestrians would be coming across,” Councilman Gregg Goshorn said.

Delineators were placed near the new stop signs in the area, and Goshorn said maybe those would be effective near the crosswalk.

Councilman Mark Reynolds said he likes the flashing signs that were placed at the crosswalks near the middle and high schools last year. The town purchased six of those, but they were $1,500 apiece.

Council President Sally Lawson said those signs allow motorists to get in a habit of slowing down near the schools when they see them flashing.

Reynolds also asked about the possibility of a speed bump, similar to the new ones added in the high school parking lot that have a gradual slope. If the town installed a high speed bump, it would have to be removed to allow snowplows to go over them.

“If you have a hard bump, the plow can’t get over it, but if it’s a gradual slope and it goes down, then you would be able to plow over it,” Reynolds said.

Goshorn said a raised pedestrian walkway also is a possibility.

While the judicial center and courthouse are on county-owned property, the street is owned by the town, so it would be responsible for making any changes to the crosswalk.

Jackson County Commissioner Drew Markel told Reynolds if there’s any way the county can help to let him know.

Councilwoman Sharon Koch suggested talking to employees of each building that use the crosswalk to see what would be best.

“That should be extremely helpful,” she said. “I wonder if there are people there that do walk across there multiple times a day.”

Lawson asked Reynolds to get a recommendation from Markel on what he thinks would be best, and then the council would proceed from there.