AUGUST 27, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11
Traffi c Safety Committee discusses
possible solutions for red-light runners
grassroots gov't
BY JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Of the KEIZERTIMES
The Traffi c Safety Bikeways
Pedestrian Committee discussed at
their Aug. 19 meeting the possibility of
installing red light cameras in Keizer to
address complaints of drivers running
red lights, especially along River Road.
“I came tonight to fully support red
light cameras,” said Carolyn Holman,
the president of the West Keizer
Neighborhood Association. “I’ve seen
many instances of people running red
lights and last fall I was a victim of a
driver ignoring a red light at Sunset
and River Road.”
The discussion of red lights fol-
lowed a July 15 meeting, where another
Keizer resident requested that the city
install red light cameras at intersec-
tions on River Road to “curb the ongo-
ing problem of drivers running red
lights.” At that meeting, the estimated
cost for red light cameras was between
$15,000 and $30,000.
Sgt. David LeDay,
police liaison to the
committee, said that
he dove into statis-
tics since he’s a “data
driven kind of person
instead of an emo-
tional person,” follow-
ing the July meeting.
Sgt. LeDay said
what he found was
that there have been
only 22 crashes at red light intersec-
tions in Keizer the past fi ve years. Of
those 22, injuries occurred in only fi ve
of the accidents. With numbers that
low, LeDay said violations most likely
wouldn’t cover the cost of installing the
cameras and monitoring them.
One less costly solution city council
liaison Ross Day suggested was install-
ing signs before intersections that dis-
played fi nes associated with running
red lights. The hope would be that by
listing the consequences, drivers may
be more alert when approaching the
intersection.
Ross mentioned that he’d recently
been to a town where the city had
installed similar signs.
“The city believes that just putting
those signs up helped dramatically
decrease the number of red light run-
ners,” said Ross.
The committee decided to look into
the costs of installing either metal
signs or reader boards before making a
recommendation to the city council at
their meeting in September
In attendance at Aug. 19 meeting:
• Michael DeBlasi
• Hersch Sangster
• David Dempster
• Rick Kuehn
• Wayne Frey
• Ross Day, council liaison
• Sgt. David LeDay, police liaison
Not in attendance:
•Steven Wolf
• Jamie Davis
OFFICIALS,
our communities of Salem and Keizer
are better than this, and board leader-
ship does not want any person to be
in an environment where they will not
feel safe or welcome,” read a statement
released by school board leadership on
Aug. 18.
Danielle Bethell, the Salem-Keizer
School Board Director for Zone 6, was
more optimistic about the Aug. 10
school board meeting.
“I thought it went better than
expected,” Bethell said in an email to
the Keizertimes. “Leading up to the
meeting, days before and hours before,
there was much community unrest
about the governor's mask mandate for
schools. I felt those who attended the
meeting delivered their emotional mes-
sages as best they could considering
the climate.”
Bethell added that she doesn’t agree
with the governor’s mask mandate and
said that while case rates among chil-
dren are increasing, “hospitalizations
continue to remain rare.”
Bethell also doesn’t agree with the
governor’s most recent decision to man-
date vaccines for school employees.
“Vaccines are an important tool that
protect the health of our community,
but it's wrong to force someone to get
an injection against their will,” Bethell
wrote.
McNary High School is preparing
for school to start Wednesday, Sept. 8
and Principal Erik Jespersen said he is
still waiting on more guidance from the
state before fi guring out how to enforce
the new vaccination mandate.
“There’s 164 (staff members) at
McNary and we have people that I’m
sure represent all levels of the spec-
trum in terms of their feelings about
COVID,” Jespersen said in an interview
on Friday, Aug. 20. “The reality is, we are
in a wait and see. Staff members have
reached out and I’ve said let’s wait and
see what our guidelines are.”
Continued from page A1
signifi cant pushback to an announce-
ment that masks will be required to be
worn inside all K-12 schools.
This Aug. 24 Salem-Keizer School
Board meeting was cancelled over con-
cerns of clashes between anti-mask
protesters and counter protesters. The
cancellation followed a contentious
Aug. 10 school board meeting that was
stopped multiple times to address out-
bursts between anti-mask and pro-mask
attendees.
“At our last board meeting, we wit-
nessed disrespect, racial and trans-
phobic comments, and a disregard for
health and safety protocols. We believe
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Enter digits 1-9 into blank spaces. Every row must contain
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maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer