One of Bluff City’s two speed cameras on U.S. Highway 11E has been temporarily shut down amid concerns it might have illegally been issuing tickets for the past 2½ months.
Interim City Manager Judy Dulaney said she disabled the camera monitoring traffic on the highway’s southbound lanes Wednesday after she learned it might be in violation of the state’s new traffic camera law because the device is too close to a drop in the speed limit.
“I’m not going to take a chance on that,” Dulaney said, explaining her decision. “The city wants to do what’s right.”
Responding to complaints concerning the amount of citations issued and the revenues the cameras generate, the state legislature this spring passed a comprehensive law regulating speed and red light camera systems. One of the new law’s restrictions, which went into effect July 1, bars localities from setting up a speed camera like Bluff City’s within one mile of where the speed limit drops by 10 mph or more.
This causes problems for the city’s camera system because the device is less than a third of a mile from where the speed limit on U.S. 11E’s southbound lanes drops from 55 mph to 45 mph on the way to Piney Flats.
Dulaney said Wednesday that city officials thought the new law did not apply in their case because the city’s contract with American Traffic Solutions to operate the cameras does not expire until Jan. 1, 2015.
City officials could extend the length of the 45 mph zone to meet the regulation, which a former city manager thought about doing, but there was no hurry because they thought they had been grandfathered in under the new state law.
However, Dulaney started to question that line of thinking Wednesday when she learned about comments State Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, made regarding the cameras earlier that afternoon. In an interview with a Johnson City newspaper, Hill said the camera system violates the law and he called on the city to shut it down or move the signs and refund any tickets issued since July 1.
He further called on Sullivan County Mayor Steve Godsey to extend the length of the 45 mph zone or shut down the camera system on his own if city officials did not immediately fix the problem.
“The way I read the law when we voted on it this spring, that restriction applies to the city,” Hill said when asked Wednesday whether Bluff City had been grandfathered in because of its contract with ATS.
But Hill conceded that if the city was grandfathered in, he didn’t have any problems with the camera’s location: “If they’re abiding by the law, then they’re abiding by the law,” he said.
Not wanting to take any chances, Dulaney said the city’s southbound camera will stay off until she can get a final answer from the state attorney general’s office on whether the city was grandfathered in.
“Until I can get something in writing, then it will stay down,” Dulaney said, adding that the city is prepared to issue refunds to anyone who received an improper citation because of this situation.
gmclean@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2518
http://www2.tricities.com/news/2011/sep/15/one-bluff-citys-two-speed-cameras-shut-down-due-le-ar-1310612/
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