By Frank DeLoache
fdeloache@salisburypost.com
FAITH ó Leaders of this east Rowan community don’t want anyone to feel it’s a “slap in the face” in coming weeks if a police officer slaps them with a speeding ticket.
The Faith Board of Aldermen is concerned that motorists are not slowing down when they pass through the town, Town Clerk Karen Fink said this week.
A sampling of traffic showed that none of the cars dropped down to the 20 mph posted on signs in the town’s small business district.
The legal speed limit previously approved by the Board of Aldermen is actually 25 mph, Fink said, and officials with the N.C. Department of Transportation have promised to change the signs from 20 to 25. Police Sgt. Todd Taylor is working with the Department of Transportation on the change.
The new signs apply to a section of about a third to a half mile from Gardner Street, on the north side of Faith Elementary School, to Lakeview Drive, at Faith Lutheran Church.
With that change, the town will have a graduated series of speed zones ó from 45 to 35 to 25 and back again, Fink said.
After those signs are changed, aldermen have asked the town’s police department to begin “cracking down” on speeders, Fink said.
Town officials don’t want the resulting speeding tickets “to be a slap in the face to anyone,” Fink added.
“It’s not that we want to give a lot of people tickets. We just don’t want a driver or pedestrian to get injured or killed. We’re worried about the well being of our citizens.”
Later meeting time
Faith aldermen have decided to delay the time of their regular meeting on Sept. 9 to 8 p.m. The board normally meets at 7 p.m., but a number of the aldermen want to attend another meeting earlier in the evening.