Drivers racing through from Rt. 9 to MacArthur Blvd. causing problems, accidents
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — City Council appears to be moving forward with a plan to make East Village Drive one-way for safety reasons.
“It’s being looked at by the police to see if they have any problem with that being one-way,” City Administrator Wes Swain said, adding that council members will reach out to homeowners in the area to determine how they feel about the idea.
Council President Sean McGuigan, who is one of three representatives of Ward I where the road is located (Janice Johnston and Kirk Gerety are the others), said there have been accidents in the area this summer and that residents had approached him with the idea.
East Village Drive runs from Holly Hills Drive just off Route 9 to East Laurel Drive and then Par Drive, which connects with MacArthur Boulevard. There are 11 households that would be affected by the change.
McGuigan said people use the road to cut through the neighborhood to avoid the light at Route 9 and MacArthur. He said he was contacted by residents concerned about their safety.
“There have been a couple of accidents there and residents have noticed people using that as a cut-through traveling north on Route 9 to avoid the light,” he said. “You can spill into that neighborhood, avoid the light and come out on Route 52 closer to go to Ocean City quicker.”
He said the solicitor is creating an ordinance that would make the road one-way heading west to stop people from cutting through. He hopes to have it on the agenda for the next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 10 via Zoom.
Gail Wilkinson’s car was parked in her driveway when a truck took the turn too fast, lost control, crossed her lawn and smashed into it. She said her car was knocked sideways and the truck continued through the neighbor’s yard and came to a stop up against a tree.
“It needs to happen,” she said of making the street one-way. “My car got almost totaled when someone came flying in and lost control. People come off here, it’s a dangerous curve and they drive too quickly and they need to shut it down from this side.”
Wilkinson said she had just returned home from work when the accident happened in March.
“When you put your car in your driveway you don’t expect this to happen. Maybe in the street,” she said. “People use it as a cut-through — just as this car is right now — to go to the bridge and some of them are flying. It’s too dangerous.”
About three weeks later another driver hit a telephone pole down the street.
“He went off the road and cracked that telephone pole in half,” Wilkinson said.
That telephone pole was outside the home of Jake and Amber Cook, whose car was totaled in an accident on the street last summer.
Amber Cook said her husband approached McGuigan with the idea of making the street one-way.
“It’s kind of dangerous. There’s been like three accidents. We have little kids in the neighborhood and we just don’t want anyone to get hurt; people just speed through,” Cook said, adding that a lot of the neighbors agree that making the road one-way would be a positive change.
Next door, Tracey Austin said she is also in favor of the change.
“I think it would be a good thing for our neighborhood. I’ve seen a couple of car accidents in the last year or so, and it seems to be people coming off Route 9 extremely fast to cut through over here to Route 52,” she said. “I think if there is any inconvenience for the neighbors that it’s probably worth it.”
Wilkinson also said most of her direct neighbors would be in favor of the change, adding that a couple of weeks ago another car crashed into the fence of a home on Route 9 at the end of Holly Hills Drive.
The city also is considering lowering the speed limit on two parts of Shore Road.
McGuigan said City Council discussed doing so at both ends of the city, near Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar and Jose Kelly’s Public House in the south and Garden Point Apartments and Primo Pizza in the north, for the safety of pedestrians.
The speed limit is 35 mph between Connecticut Avenue and the border with Linwood, while it is 30 mph south to the intersection with Route 52. McGuigan said there is concern that reducing the limit would result in traffic congestion. He also said Shore Road is a county road and the city would need permission to do so.
The city also approved a resolution to apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year 2021 FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program to fund two projects.
Swain said the city would like to build a storm water pump station at Gulf Mill Road, a project that would cost about $440,000, with the city paying 25 percent of the cost, or $110,000. Gulf Mill Road is a loop abutting the Garden State Parkway south of Laurel Drive.
The other project would replace bulkheads along the bay at a cost of about $3 million, with the city paying $750,000.