ABOVE: Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr (far right) and Police Chief Christopher Yates (middle) are both glad about the work beginning Monday Aug 31st that will change the non-signal Meijer entrance at Tractor Supply to “right in – right out only.”
This past Friday, the announcement came from the City of Danville that starting Monday, August 31st work will begin on a “right in – right out only” enter and exit situation at the non-traffic light entrance to Meijer at Tractor Supply. Simply put, south bound traffic on Route 1 will no longer be able to turn in or out of that entrance, and will need to use the nearby traffic light instead.
When CIMG focused on the accidents at this location a couple winters ago, we were told that a three-way agreement was needed between Meijer, the city, and the Illinois Department of Transportation to make a change. But Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr told us after last night’s Public Services Committee meeting that it was IDOT alone that needed to make the call.
AUDIO: At the time it was my understanding that it had to be a three way agreement, but I’ve since learned that IDOT can make that decision, and that’s actually what has happened in this case. Somehow, the state was missing some of our crash data; so once Chief Yates provided that updated crash data to them, they realized that we do indeed have a problem.
Danville’s Police Chief Christopher Yates says this project is for safety, and simply makes sense.
AUDIO: You know we’ve had a lot of close calls, and then other accidents where people were severely injured or worse. And if it was one of my loved ones, or somebody I care about dearly, and they were injured there; I would think that any perceived inconvenience would be well worth it.
During the Public Services Committee meeting the Police Department’s agreement with District 118 for school resource officers was updated and renewed. District 118 approval is still pending, but Chief Yates says the resource officer set up will continue with one officer at the high school, one officer at North Ridge, and a floater officer that works at Kenneth D. Bailey Academy, as well as other schools when needed.
