A Yazoo City resident said the speed bumps within her neighborhood should be removed by the city leaders, citing health concerns and physical and automobile damage.
But many of the residents within the area said the speed bumps are “the best thing to have happened.”
Mamie Jean Williams appeared before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen during its open meeting to request that the speed bumps in the Eighth Street and Willow Drive area be removed. She distributed a letter with five questions surrounding the placement of speed bumps within Yazoo City.
The letter asks:
• Why do I have to present to the Board to discuss anything regarding speed bumps when residents weren’t required to present to the Board to install them?
• Why are residents calling and personally requesting speed bumps from Supervisors and Aldermen? How was the information disseminated to the public? And, why do some residents know to call and others don’t?
• When the city decided to purchase the speed bumps, what was the plan to install them? Was there a traffic study conducted? How did the Board decide how many were needed and where would they be located?
• Has the administration considered the emissions being released into the community from the constant stop and go? Also, the noise depending on how close you are to the street?
• If a new administration comes in after our next election, are the speed bumps going to be removed like the previous administration’s stop signs?
“Potholes are all around the city and nothing is being done,” Williams said, during the city council meeting. “With the large number of potholes in the city, speed bumps are not needed. A lot of seniors were not consulted because I wasn’t.”
Williams added that the emissions from the vehicles stopping or slowing down for the speed bumps poses a health risk. She also said the speed bumps cause physical and vehicle damage.
“The vehicles’ emissions are bad for the people with my condition,” she said. “My condition has flared up because of the fumes from the stop and go of the traffic bumps. The kind of bumps that are placed are detrimental to the body, causing back problems and bad for your car because they are too heavy and too hard. I need them removed immediately.”
Some residents in the area, however, said the speed bumps are the “best thing to happen.” Several residents said speed bumps are necessary with the number of small children in the area and the presence of speeding vehicles.
“I have been here for about 35 years, and this is the first year that we have had a school bus come down our street,” a Willow Drive resident said. “Prior to the children, it was just us senior citizens. But now we have small children, elementary-aged, coming to stand on Eighth Street to catch the bus. One of those children has special needs and likes to run. The speed bumps help slow down traffic for our children.”
A resident also said it had become a problem in the area with excessive speeding.
“People were coming down Eighth Street like they were on the Autobahn in Germany,” one said. “We wanted those speed bumps in our area because of the children and the fast vehicles.”
One neighbor even asked if the city council would consider adding even more speed bumps.
“I implore the city to not let anybody take these speed bumps away,” a resident said. “They are the best thing that has happened in this area.”
The city council took no action on Williams’ recent request. As of press time, the speed bumps remained in the area.
