Back in May, residents in the Academy and Ballard Avenue area, along with their Mill Street neighbors, packed the Village Hall with a petition to stop speeding through the narrow streets of their neighborhoods.
“It’s dangerous,” said Sloatsburg Village Trustee Peter Akey about traffic along several village back roads. “On Mill Street alone it’s a right angle, and if you did 25 mph, you’d go right into a tree.”
The neighborhood group gathered before the board with stories about cars repeatedly running stop signs and speeding past playing children. Some 45 signatures were collected in the petition, which requested village action “to prevent the death, injury and further property damage to any person, due to the reckless and dangerous manner vehicles are operated on these streets.”
The Village Board took notice. A new stop sign was immediately erected at Academy and Ballard. But the neighborhoods won’t be seeing many additional adjustments, such as 15mph signs, because the village is hamstrung by state laws governing local speed limits.
“I thought we had complete juristcation over our local roads, which was a complete shock to me,” said Sloatsburg Village Trustee Peter Akey. “It turns out, we only have partial control over our own local roads.”
According to Akey, the village wrote a law for reduced speeds through the contested neighborhoods but the state legislature in Albany denied the action.
“Albany is telling us unless it is in a school zone, the minimum speed limit is 25,” said Akey, who recently responded about village actions to a Mill Street resident on village Facebook site. “I am appealing their decision,” he wrote. “In the mean time at the next board meeting, we are having a public hearing to change your section of Mill St to be one way.”
That board meeting to discuss making Mill Street a one-way street takes place Tuesday, September 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sloatsburg Village Hall.
The discussion will focus on stopping southbound traffic from entering Mill St. at the Sloatsburg commuter lot, where the residential neighborhood begins. But Mill St. at the Sloatsburg Railroad Station would remain two-way, allowing traffic into the village parking lot.
“It’s just in the idea phase right now,” said Akey. “I really want input from residents. They might provide other alternatives. Also, we are thinking of putting an additional stop sign on the corner of Academy and Ballard Avenues. This will also be discussed at the board meeting/public hearing Tuesday.”
The residents of Mill Street would prefer their narrow stretch of road — which runs parallel to Rt. 17 directly in the village center along the railroad tracks — be turned into a no traffic zone.
Akey said that, ideally, the village board would like to convert speed signs along the stretch of road in the 
Academy/Ballard/Mill St. neighborhoods to 15mph. In addition, a Do Not Enter/One Way sign would be placed at the entrance to Mill St. at the commuter lot. Currently, a No Right Turn sign directs traffic at that corner, but traffic can continue down through the neighborhood and exit at Orange Turnpike.
Akey said all interested residents should attend Tuesday’s Village Board meeting to discuss the topic.
“I really want them to come down because when we last met with them, we thought we had the answer — lowering the speed limit,” Akey said. “It’s dangerous, really dangerous. On Mill St. alone it’s a right angle, and if you did 25 mph, you’d go right into a tree.”
“We have subpar roads in Sloatsburg that don’t conform to any DOT standards,” he continued. “We should make it slower to make it safer. I feel that lowering the speed limit would have made the difference. Now that that option is legally out, I need them (neighborhood residents) to come back and give more input.”
The Sloatsburg Village Board meets Tuesday, September 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall to discuss street signage and other actions related to Mill Street. For more information, contact the Village Hall at 845-753-2727.
