5/6/14 - The Howell City Council last night discussed its controversial decision to remove the cityâs mini-circles. A total of 16 mini-circles were installed in recent years as part of the cityâs street improvement project as a way to slow down and manage traffic on Howellâs side-streets. In a split vote, the council voted two weeks ago to spend up to $35,000 to remove the features in the next 150 days. One of the dissenting voices was Councilman Scott Niblock. He says the city council should have taken the time to examine the issue and give city staff much greater input, including how the mini-circles are to be removed, what will be used to replace them, the materials that will be used in the new intersections, how speed will be mitigated in their absence, and how the project will be funded. Last night, the city council discussed the project and how they would like to proceed. City Manager Shea Charles presented a plan to couple the removal of the mini-circles with another, smaller project identified by an ad-hoc committee to save on costs. The consensus of the council was to go ahead with that plan, and the results will be presented to the council at its May 19th meeting. Charles expects the projects to be let to bid in about three weeks. Without direction to the contrary, the project will involve removing the mini-circles but not installing any kind of speed-reducing features to replace them. Niblock still was not satisfied with the limited amount of direction offered to city staff last night, saying the council should be much more specific about the details of the project. (TD)
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