Taylor Road speed limit to increase

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

June 20, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

If everything goes as Chief of Police Laurence Wright plans, users of County Road #74 will arrive at their destinations about 40 seconds sooner.

Currently, there is an initiative underway to increase the speed limit on County Road #74, also known as the Taylor Road, from 35 miles per hour to 45 MPH.

County Engineer Russel Larson is seeking permission from the Minnesota Department of Transportation Traffic Division to raise the speed limit. The new speed limit would be limited to the the railroad tracks on the west end of the road and the bridge on the east end of the road.

Wright said that after receiving complaints from people that the speed limit was too slow, he contacted the Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety to determine how to raise the road's speed limit.

The Commissioner's office told him that even though the road is inside the city limits, permission to raise the speed limit would have to be sought through the Roseau County Commissioners because it is a county road.

On May 31, Wright presented the City Council with a letter requesting approval from the Council to bring the issue to the county commissioners.

The letter stated, "So as Chief of Police for the City of Warroad, and with approval of the Warroad City Council, I am making a formal request to increase the speed limit on County Road #74, also known as Taylor Road, to the speed of 45 miles per hour."

Validating his request, the letter also stated, "This speed is felt to be still safe for persons who are walking and bicycling on the road, and yet make traffic enforcement more reasonable."

"They thought it was a good idea," Wright said about the Council's reaction.

" The road is not exposed to that many pedestrians," Mayor Bob Marvin said, "so we (the Council) feel that 45 is not an unreasonable speed." He said that the Council approved of the idea as long as the speed limit was 30 MPH by the Public Swimming Pool area.

The matter was then brought to Larson who drove the road Friday, June 9, and according to Wright, "He didn't see a problem with raising the speed limit."

Larson presented the proposal to the Roseau County Commissioners at their June 14 meeting.

The Commissioners all agreed that "there should be no problem" with letting Larson pursue the approval of MnDOT.

Commissioner Doran Horner said that he did worry about the road becoming a speed trap though.

When traveling from west to east on the road there is a slight uphill grade that obstructs drivers' views past the bridge.

Horner felt that without posting a warning sign of an upcoming speed change from 45 MPH to 30 MPH, too many people would be caught for speeding in the Swimming Pool area.

On the condition that the speed change was posted ahead of time, Horner was also in favor of the idea. However, he did ask Marvin, who was present, to make sure that the speed change would be posted well ahead of time. Marvin said that he would take care of it.

Larson said he spoke with MnDOT Friday, June 16, about the speed increase. He was told that they might be booked for the summer, but Larson said he thinks that MnDOT will have a chance to look at it before summer's end.

He said that there shouldn't be any problems with raising the speed. "It's just got to go through the process now," he said.