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By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN, Reformer Staff
Brattleboro Reformer

Article Launched:04/11/2007 03:20:08 AM EDT

The move passed on a 3-2 vote, with Gary DeRosia, Stefan Golec and Luise Light supporting the change.

Village President Clark Barber and Roger Riccio opposed moving the speed limit up from 15 mph.

The decision came after the trustees said they received countless calls, e-mails and comments on the street calling for the higher speed limit.

The change will go into effect on May 1.

All of the trustees who voted for the change said they actually thought the lower speed limit was safer and worked better for the downtown area.

But they said they could not ignore the call from residents and downtown merchants who said they wanted the speed limit raised.

"I would like it to stay, but there has been an overwhelming expression to restore it," Light said. "There are very strong opinions on both sides, but when you see 1,000 names, it makes you say, 'What's going on here?'"

A petition with 1,100 signatures was presented to the trustees late last year demanding that the limit be restored to 25.

"I feel that 15 miles per hour is safer," Golec said. "But I am hearing that people basically are not coming to Bellows Falls because they don't want to be pinched for speeding."

The Bellows Falls trustees voted to change the speed limit from 25 to 15 mph in June 2004.

Business owners said they heard from customers that the lower speed limit appeared to be a speed trap and the merchants wanted the speed limit raised.

But there was also a fair amount of support for the lower speed limit.

Bullseye Music Store owner Matt Sharff gave the board a signed petition from eight business owners Tuesday who wanted to keep the lower speed limit where it was.

"There has been the impression that the business owners are in favor of changing it, but that is not true," Sharff told the trustees. "It is adequate. It is appropriate. I worry about my customers crossing the street everyday. It is a serious concern. It would hurt my business to raise the speed limit."

And in a memo from Municipal Manager John Schempf to the trustees, Schempf wrote, "Your professional staff remains unconvinced that a change is necessary or in the best interest of vehicle and pedestrian safety."

The trustees talked about it at months of meetings and then held a special hearing on the subject.

At the meeting Tuesday, there was some debate over whether or not the lower speed limit did in fact improve pedestrian safety.

At the beginning of the meeting, Schempf said a consultant could do a traffic study for $1,500 to determine what the ideal speed limit might be, but the trustees were determined to settle the issue.

In the end, a majority of the board said it was enough that there seemed to be a vocal majority that wanted to see the speed limit increased.

Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at hwtisman@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 279.