A serious problem in Northwest Leoti

I hate to complain but sometimes there is just no way around it.

We live at 703 N. Second Street. Of course, it is a residential area and has the same traffic laws as any other residential section of town. As I understand, that means that it is okay to drive 25-30 mph down our streets. Ever since I became a mother, I have decided that that speed is simply too fast! Children are oftimes in the street walking, riding bikes, walking, PLAYING, etc. Where we live, quite a few drivers think it is perfectly acceptable to exceed the speed limit. Some of our neighbors are probably about the worst for having heavy feet.

Several years ago, the City erected a warning sign at the corner of "E" and Second Street that warns drivers that they need to drive slowly because of the very real possibility that children will be in the street. For a short time, the sign seemed to help but eventually, it might have well been taken down. Few people seemed to heed it's intent.

Late last summer, several new families moved into our neighborhood. They all seemed to have children who range in age from 2nd grade down to birth. Many of their parents pay very little attention to the dangers of allowing their offspring to play in the street. Still...the vehicles travel down our street at very high rates of speed. They are driving too fast to be able to stop in time to avoid striking a child. This past week, the danger has gotten worse. Some of those families do not have any kind of air conditioning in their houses. So, somewhere between 8:30 and 10:00 every morning, the kids come outside to play. They normally do not go back into their houses until almost dark. A good portion of the day is filled with children spending as much time playing in the street as they do in their own yards. Two different days this week, I have had to honk my horn so that I could back our van out of our parking lot. We have never had to do that before! I would speak to the parents of these children about this problem but most of them do not understand English very well.

I am quite positive that our neighborhood is not the only one in town that has this problem. I would just like to ask all drivers to slow down while they are driving in town.

VLE-B