MONTICELLO – If you are driving the side streets of the Village of Monticello anytime soon – the village board wants you to ‘Slow Down!’

Last Wednesday, the board adopted a local law that would reduce the speed limit on many sides streets to 10 mph and also post reduced speed limit signs.

The only problem is that the New York State Dept. of Transportation may not allow such a low posted speed limit.

Village resident Joel Kohn said, “While I understand the importance of reducing the speed limit, I believe New York State Law does not allow Villages to reduce the speed limit to 10 miles per hour.”

Village Attorney Michael Sussman responded that it allows municipalities to pass a Local Law and then to make an Application for Approval to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT).

Several of the streets involved in the speed limit issue include Terry Lane, Shaker Heights Drive, and other side streets.

In addition to the reduced speed, Monticello was comtemplating putting in speed bumps to slow down fast moving traffic.

Monticello Highway Superintendent Jay Sherb spoke at the Public Hearing, saying, “When we do major paving jobs in the Village, we use CHIPS money. Any Federal money used on roads in the Village you cannot put speed bumps on because the Federal Government determines that that reduces the longevity of the life of the blacktop.”

He stated that the village would be on the hook to pay back any money that they used in the last 10 years to pave Shaker Heights Drive.

As for Sleepy Hollow and Terry Lane, they were done “just about three-and-a-half years ago”.

“So that’s a considerable amount of money,” explained Sherb. “We had another issue on Cottage Street three years ago where a… Trustee wanted speed bumps put in and we did the homework on that. We’re just not allowed to do it.”

He also alluded to the wintertime with speed bumps. There would be ice problems, trip-and-fall problems and people skidding along because the road cannot be plowed.

Sussman re-affirmed that, and stated that because it wasn’t in the Notice of Public Hearing, the Local Law does not include speed bumps and it only relates to the reduction in speed limit and of signage.