By Dan Richman

Staff Reporter

A group of 14 Coupeville residents, several of them farmers, last week persuaded the Board of Island County Commissioners to reconsider decreasing the speed limit to 35 mph, from 50, on only a portion of Engle Road. They favor decreasing the limit over the road’s entire length, ideally also making it all a no-passing zone.

“This is a pretty serious issue for residents of the road,” said Wilbur Purdue at the Aug. 18 commissioners’ meeting. Traffic from the Coupeville ferry terminal rushes northward toward town along the road, sometimes passing semi-trailer trucks en masse, he said. Slow, cumbersome equipment from the several farms on either side of the road is put at risk, he said. “I try to run a farm stand in the middle of this mess,” he added.

“No signs say this is a dangerous area of mixed use,” noted Karen Bishop, who said she farms land on either side of Engle Road.

County engineer Bill Oakes defended the proposal to cut the limit to 35, from 50, along only the 2/10s of a mile south of town. The limit there would have dropped to 25 as the road enters town, if the ordinance had been approved.

“The data does not support lowering the limit to 35 mph over a greater length,” he said. “That 2/10s of a mile is enough to decelerate in the transition from 50 mph to 25. It’s an engineering evaluation.”

A hearing to consider the matter further is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Also on Terry Road the limit will be dropped to 25 mph, from 35, from 0.2 miles east of Coupeville’s town limits to the town limits. Lights will flash on a sign in the school zone during set times when school is in session.