LAWTON – The speed limit around the intersection of Southwest Lee Boulevard and Deyo Mission Drive will stay at 35 miles per hour.
The Comanche County Commission voted unanimously on June 2 to leave the speed limit near the intersection unchanged.
About a year ago, Commission Chairman Josh Powers lowered the speed limit around the intersection from 45 mph to 35 mph so he could conduct traffic counts and other types of research, he said. But several of his constit uents asked him to restore the higher speed limit, so he proposed increasing it to 45 mph around the intersection and to 55 mph beginning 200 feet on either end of the 45-mph zone.
“I’ve been contacted now, when this agenda item first got raised, by several other constituents who felt the opposite as the original ones,” Powers said. “There’s apparently been quite a few that are happy with the lowering of the speed limit to 35. They also agree that 35 miles a n hour is much safer.”
He said the intersection is already marked by a stop sign and other traffic control devices, but drivers on Lee tend to roll through the stop sign and encounter oncoming cars traveling at 55 mph, which increases the odds of a fatal co llision. But if the speed limit is set at 35 mph, drivers will have a longer response time and a better chance of surviving a wreck.
Commissioner Ryan John proposed retaining the current speed limit until a later date.
“I make a motion to keep it 35 miles an hour until you can do some studies and figure out what other type of safety traffic controls can be put in place, and then go from there,” John said.
In other business, the commission delayed awarding construction bids for the Comanche County Health Department’s public health preparedness facility, which will give the board more time to review the bid packages.
The health department is planning to build the new facility south of the existing agency on South Sheridan Road, on land leased from Lawton Public Schools.
When it is f inished, the facility will allow the agency to enhance its community- based programs, provide services that are normally available in temporary or outdoor locations and coordinate emergency responses to public health crises.