David Krcha, a Oak Hills Drive resident, said speed humps went up on his street about a month ago and he did not have a voice in the decision.
In fact, he said a census he said was taken by a city employee, indicated that someone at his address had taken part in the survey and indicated the household was in favor, but that was not the case.
“They said I said ‘yes’ on this thing and I didn’t,” he said. “Ain’t nobody come talk to me.
“A lot of people who live in these neighborhoods don’t like them,” he said. “We didn’t even know they were coming in.”
Shannon Gowan, city communications director, said officials will have to review paperwork involved in the placement of the speed humps before commenting in depth on concerns based on Krcha’s letter.
A prepared statement from the city said: “We have received an inquiry regarding the process and placement of speed humps on Oak Hills Drive in the city of Temple. We are actively looking into the inquiry. If there is corrective action that needs to be taken, either administratively, or on the construction side, for this issue to be in compliance with city ordinances, we will respond appropriately.”
Krcha said he and another neighbor had talked to others on the street who said they also had not been contacted about possible speed humps. Four humps are on the street.
“We’ve been going up and down the street and letting everybody say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if they like them or don’t like them,” he said. “I think we got like 40 houses right now saying they do not like the speed bumps being put in our addition out there.”
In a letter Krcha sent to city officials and the Telegram, he said the humps are also too big.
“These humps are too wide, too high and very uncomfortable to travel over, even at 10 miles per hour,” he wrote.
Concepcion Cruz Jr., who has lived in his Oak Hills house for 30 years, said he was very much in favor of the humps and assisted circulating a petition to get them.
“It took about two years to get them,” he said. “We have a lot of speeders through here. Kids as well as adults. My grandson was playing out here one day and he was just on the corner and (a man) just up the street here, he almost ran into him.”
Cruz estimates that drivers have hit 50 miles per hour on the residential street.
“There’s one girl here in a red Mustang - she speeds real fast,” Cruz said.
“I love them,” he said of the humps. “In fact, I wish we would have got one more right here,” he said, pointing at the street running in front of his house.
Bill Henninger, a resident living on Canyon Cliffs in the Canyon Creek area, said he is also opposed to speed humps.
“They take a perfectly good street taxpayers paid for and put humps there,” he said. “I can see where they’re doing damage to people’s cars. I can imagine being on a gurney in the back of an ambulance or riding on a fire truck or any emergency vehicle riding over them.”
He said he understood the humps’ role in public safety.
“I’m sure it’s to slow people down, but I thought that’s what we had the police department for,” he said.
He said he does not have any speed bumps on his street, but crosses paths with them on other streets when he goes home.
