Craig council backs speed humps, ties removal to studded tire dates

The Craig City Council voted Thursday to keep the speed hump already installed on Tanner Crab Court and to continue its earlier authorization for Teenage Street, with the devices pulled each fall on the schedule the state sets for studded tires. The roll call followed days of phone calls for and against the humps.

The motion drops the earlier plan of removing the humps whenever it snowed. Mayor Michael Kempner said the state commissioner sets the studded tire dates by statute each year, beginning around Sept. 15 and sometimes extended to Oct. 15.

A resident who said she has lived in Craig nearly 40 years asked the council to stop before approving more. She said the humps span the full width of the road, leaving no gap for emergency vehicles or bicycles, and that she cannot get her tricycle over one after a knee replacement. She asked to see police data on speeding tickets written.

Aaron Levi Crook, who said he represents the Craig Tribal Association as second vice president, defended the humps. "We have 2 people complaining about speed bumps. I've got numerous calls about the speed bumps. To me, it's a great safety thing," he said. "There's not one sidewalk on Tanner Drive. Where are the kids walking?"

Craig's police chief said Tanner Avenue and Teenage Street are the two hardest streets in town to work radar safely, and that he has been short an officer for more than a year. "A speed hump does probably 90% of my work to get people to slow down," he said. He said a two-wheeled bicycle has room to pass on either side, though a three-wheeler does not, and that taken slowly the hump would not trouble a patient in an ambulance.

Council members questioned the placement of the installed hump. One member who said he has lived on Tanner Crab Court since 2009 said it belonged at the blind corner below, where children walk in the street. The council agreed to leave it in place and revisit the location next season.

Kempner said the two streets moved forward without broader objection because the tribe had already worked through them. "Those two locations, when I seen the CTA coming in through two streets that they're prominent on, I felt that they had done their due diligence, and that was what swayed my decision," he said. Additional streets, including Hamilton Drive, remain on hold pending a town hall and further outreach.