No stop sign in Country Club Estates

There will be no new stop sign in Country Club Estates, but the Rehoboth Beach Streets and Transportation Committee agreed to explore using speed bumps to slow traffic.

Commissioner Bill Sargent recommend the city commissioners look into installing temporary speed bumps at Hickman Street and Stockley Street and on Munson Street.

More than 60 homeowners in the area signed a petition requesting a stop sign at Hickman and Stockley. After discussion by the committee, Tom Zellers, chairman of the Country Club Estates Homeowner’s Association, said he was amenable to the idea of speed bumps instead of the stop sign. He said the goal of homeowners is to slow traffic and reduce delivery-truck traffic.

Zellers said residents wanted to ban delivery trucks, or allow them to make deliveries only at certain times. He said trucks use Hickman and Munson during the summer to get to Wilmington and Rehoboth avenues without sitting at traffic signals. The committee raised doubts about how the city could institute or enforce such a policy.

Committee member Kathy Osterholm spoke out against a stop sign, saying the committee had no evidence that speeding was a huge problem in the area, pointing to a report by Chief Keith Banks that monitored speeding during the summer.

“I don’t know if we are setting ourselves up for more trouble than what the intent is,” she said. “Who are we to manage who comes and goes on those streets if there is no evidence of speeding?”

Zellers suggested investigating using temporary speed bumps, which he said have been used in Dewey Beach and Dover, and would be big enough to slow down cars, but small enough that fire trucks can straddle them. The bumps could also be removed if necessary.