ANAHEIM : Residents to Get Stop Sign Hearing

Many people fight City Hall, but most give up at the first “no.”

Until Tuesday night, Rene Rey Serrano and several of his neighbors had heard nothing but “nos” from city officials for four months to their request to add two stop signs to an intersection, but they refused to surrender. They have been saying that the intersection is unsafe for both motorists and pedestrians, particularly children heading to a nearby elementary school.

After failing at three previous City Council meetings, the group was finally rewarded Tuesday night when the council agreed to consider their plea next month for a four-way stop to replace the two-way stop now at the intersection of Iris Street and Winston Road.

“I just hope (the council’s future action) doesn’t come too late,” said Serrano, 24, an Orange Coast College student. He lives one block from the intersection and has collected signatures from 200 of his neighbors asking that the stop signs be installed. “I’m afraid a kid is going to get hit.”

City traffic officials said Tuesday that there is not enough traffic at the intersection to meet state guidelines for installing a four-way stop.

“We are concerned that the signs may be disregarded and possibly lead to more rear-end collisions,” said John Lower, the city’s chief traffic engineer.

The intersection is one block north of Paul Revere Elementary School. Northbound and southbound traffic on Iris is controlled by stop signs, but Winston does not have signs. Particularly worrisome to the neighbors is the westbound traffic on Winston, which enters the neighborhood from Anaheim Boulevard. Children from the neighborhood reach Revere by crossing Winston at the intersection and must dodge speeding cars, Rey said.

Rey said that the intersection has been a neighborhood concern for years but that residents only banded together last January after a woman was seriously hurt when her car was hit broadside at the intersection. Rey witnessed the collision and began talking to his neighbors.