Warren traffic-camera idea again fails to garner support

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Photo

Councilman Dan Sferra

Responses from the business community and members of the city’s traffic and safety committee remain the same: Don’t bring up the possibility of traffic cameras again — even if it is just in a school zone.

Police Capt. Joseph Marhulik recently asked Councilwoman Marti Morn, chairman of the committee, if she would have a meeting to discuss a limited use of traffic cameras in the city, and she agreed. But Morn also said she’s against the idea.

After less than 30 minutes of discussion Wednesday, Dan Sferra, another member of the committee, was ready to proclaim the idea dead.

“There is absolutely no support for this. I cannot imagine any committee member who would sponsor this legislation. I think this is a waste of time,” he said.

The third member of the committee is Councilman Bob Dean, who proposed traffic cameras last year but was unable to get enough support from fellow council members. Dean did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. Traffic-camera legislation has been proposed three times and failed each time to get support.

Marhulik said he asked for the discussion of traffic cameras in school zones because he believed it could improve safety and because the technology in the traffic-camera field has changed immensely in a year.

“It’s like medicine. If I go to the emergency room, I want the best technology. I wouldn’t want 20-year-old technology,” he said in an interview before the meeting.

There are a variety of ways that technology can be used to make school zones safer, from using stationary traffic cameras to putting cameras in cruisers, to putting them in school buses, Marhulik said.

One of the reasons why traffic should be slowed down in school zones is that two of the schools in Warren are on busy routes: Harding High School is on Elm Road, and the Lincoln K-8 building is on Atlantic Street.

“More people die each day from accidents than anything else,” Marhulik said.

Dino Haidaris, one of the owners of the Sunrise Inn on Elm Road, however, said he didn’t understand why Marhulik would deem it necessary to suggest traffic cameras again when he has not cited any specific problems.

Marty Cohen, owner of Mickey’s Army and Navy on Main Avenue, and Ken Haidaris, another Sunrise owner, said that even if traffic cameras were established only in school zones, the public perception would drive business away from the city.

“People say they won’t come downtown. Our customer is our judge. When they tell us they don’t want something, we listen,” Ken Haidaris said.

“The perception is going to hurt us,” Cohen said, adding that Warren business owners are “in a fight for our life.”