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Read comments (4)Dyersburg Police Chief Terry Ledbetter recently studied traffic patterns and street conditions in the vicinity of Dyersburg Fabrics after a suggestion to change the route was made and announced at the city board meeting. Ledbetter presented his opinion of the current route and the proposed new route to members of the city safety committee last Thursday in the conference room at City Hall.
The proposed change will eliminate Harrell Avenue from the current truck route and extend the route down Phillips Street Extended toward the industrial park.
Alderman Lewis Norman expressed concerns over the narrowness of Phillips Street Extended, conflicts with school traffic coming off of Frank Maynard Road and possible flooding problems on the proposed route.
"(The current route) is eating up Harrell Avenue," said alderman Dennis Moody. "We are having to repair it every other year."
Dyersburg Mayor John Holden reminded members of the committee that a trucking company, 24/7 Express on Forrest Street, uses the old Dyersburg Fabrics parking lot as a drop lot for equipment. Warehouses on the back of the old Dyersburg Fabrics lot are also still in use.
"You can get off the truck route to go to your destination," said committee chairman Bob Kirk.
Changing the route will require a public hearing.
After much discussion, Norman made the motion to begin the steps to change the route, with alderman Shannon Walker adding a second. The motion passed unanimously.
Also at the meeting, Holden presented the committee with a letter from District Public Defender James Lanier requesting a new appropriation of city funds to pay a portion of salaries and expenses in the public defender's office. The letter cites TCA code 16-2-518, which states that "any increase in local funding for positions or office expense for the District Attorney General shall be accompanied by an increase in funding of 75 percent of the increase in funding to the office of the public defender in such district for the purpose of indigent criminal defense."
The new funds will cost the city approximately $13,500 per year.
The letter has been sent to the city attorney's office before any action is taken.
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It would make a heck of a lot more sense for the trucks coming in and out of Unico (Old D'burg Fabrics Warehouse) to come in off of 104 (East Court), North on Frank Maynard past the Middle School, and then left onto Phillips Street. Granted it would take a little widening of the Phillips/Maynard intersection, but it would be a whole lot safer than the current route. If you try to bring them through the industrial park, you have first the train that blocks the road in front of Quebecor for sometimes thirty minutes at a time, and secondly, the drop off when trying to turn right off of Sylvan onto Phillips Extended, especially at night. All these things need to be carefully considered before any action is taken.
If they are going to make Phillips Extd. a truck route they need to do something about that sharp, blind hill just west of Shaw Avenue....... It is very dangerous....... I have seen trucks coming over it like a bat out of Hades....... and there is no way that they could stop quick enough if someone was backing out of a driveway on either side of the hill or turning east onto Phillips from Shaw. The city leveled out a hill on Parr in order to alleviate a dangerous situation at Wilkinson Street...... They need to do the same thing on Phillips at Shaw. Spend some street money in Milltown........ we pay a lot more gasoline taxes than Pill Hill does...... and some of our streets haven't been resurfaced in forty years...... They resurface Westlake everytime they make a street cut there............
How about looking at the intersection of South Main and Cedar St. I drove a truck for a while and that corner is not trucker friendly when coming into town. The guard rails that have been put in place look like they have taken a beating. Just a thought.
The truck route from Reynolds onto East Court should be studied. The way Reynolds angles into E. Court it's almost impossible for a trucker to turn left onto East Court plus they are in a blind spot for motorists traveling west coming off the railroad bridge.