Two weeks after moving forward with a plan to add side striping to golf cart paths for improved visibility in The Villages, an advisory committee put on hold those safety improvements amid concerns over cost.
The debate has been going on for more than a year in The Villages, after one of the districts decided to add stripes. Aging drivers said they couldn't drive at night.
“It's very frustrating we as public officials had various meetings and we listened to the public on the sideline striping and based on that we took an action,” said Ron Ruggieri, the District 7 Supervisor.
The Project Wide Advisory Committee voted to debate the issue at their individual boards after receiving public feedback for the third time in a little over a month. The Villages spent $7,000 on an engineering study, which said side striping wasn’t needed.
After 65 accidents in the past five years, the board voted on July 6 to find out how much it would cost to fix the problem. Two weeks later the advisory committee noticed public concern at the potential price for the safety improvements, which is as much as $300,000.
Some committee members said they don’t know why the accidents are happening. At Monday's meeting, they considered whether striping alongside these paths would actually lessen the impact. The committee decided to hold the striping on golf cart paths and add striping to center landscape medians.
“I think it’s appropriate for us to take that back to our boards before making a final decision on it,” Peter Moeller, District 6 Supervisor, said.
“We all agreed 100 percent and now because of outside influences and what have you, they changed their minds,” said Ruggieri.
The Project Wide Advisory Committee will hear the issue again in September.