MOULTRIE, Ga. ― In less than five minutes, the Moultrie City Council approved six items on the Nov. 19 agenda. Discussion on the seventh item was tabled, and an executive session followed.

At No. 7 on the agenda, the council would consider an ordinance amending traffic codes for speed limits and speed zones. Neighborhoods with a speed limit of 35 would become 30 as a result.

The ordinance was brought up by City Manager Pete Dillard, but the council asked, “Is there a significant need?” According the calls Dillard has received about the speed limit, he said yes.

Dillard said he was recently approached by three residents of Carlton Woods, a Moultrie subdivision, saying there were no speed limits there. He said the city responded immediately.

“We aim to please [so] in 48 hours, (city workers) had speed limit signs in Carlton Woods,” Dillard said.

Aligning with the current ordinance, these signs were marked 35 miles per hour. Residents still weren’t satisfied. They wanted 25 miles per hour.

Carlton Woods wasn’t the only neighborhood that wanted the change. Communities near Wiregrass, Third Street S.W. from Seventh to 11th Streets, Clubview Drive and Countryside want a change too.

The issue with the change is exactly what City Attorney Mickey Waller found out from the Department of Transportation in Tifton.

“You can change it anywhere, but you have to have radar to enforce it,” he said.

To enforce a street with radar after changing the speed limit higher or lower than 30 miles per hour, an engineering firm must study the requested area. Should the study find the limit change is justified and DOT approves it, radar will be enforced.

A study was done on 11th Avenue after citizens called for a speed limit change there. They reported the road for having too many speeders, but a multi-day study found the area lacking in speeders save for one person every morning.

Typically, lowering speed like the citizens want isn’t what the DOT wants as they see it as a liability. Waller recounted that there should be more efforts to pick up the pace than slowing it down.

“They generally take the view that [in] traffic flow you only choke it off if you have to,” Waller said. “They’d rather use other traffic calming solutions. They call it a road diet.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration describes a road diet as “removing travel lanes from a roadway and utilizing the space for other uses and travel modes.”

A call for more information on the matter overall led to the matter being tabled for the next meeting.

Dillard said the council will wait for more public opinion before moving to vote on it at the next council meeting on Dec. 2. The council asks that their constituents call them to give their opinion on the matter.

The items approved from the agenda include:

• The appointments to the Moultrie-Colquitt County Development Authority of Ross Dekle for term Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020, and Greg Yarborough and Susie Magwood Thomas for term Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2021.

• The appointment of Darrell Griner, Cecil Barber and Mike McLean to the Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority for term Jan. 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2023.

• The consideration of a bid in the amount of $11/ton for grinding, storing and processing yard trimming materials by Southern Environmental Grinding in Moultrie.

• The consideration of supplemental agreement #2 with the Georgia DOT to construct phase two runway 4-22’s outer rehabilitation 60 and its taxiway lighting at the Moultrie Municipal Airport.

• The consideration of supplemental agreement #3 with the Georgia DOT to construct a 500 feet extension runway 22 and a taxiway at the Moultrie Municipal Airport.

• The consideration of the agreement with New South Advertising.

The city council will be addressing the latter on Friday at a called meeting as the moratorium on signs will expire soon. It will also address an attempt to buy two to three more police vehicles at the same price of the two approved for purchase at the Sept. 3 meeting.

The called meeting will be at noon.

An executive session Tuesday night was called to address potential litigation related to the sign ordinance.