Flashing beacons and new speed limit signs are going up near Eudora’s new high school, but don’t expect Douglas County commissioners to be happy about it.

“It’s a testimonial to bad planning, but, nevertheless, what are you going to do?” Commissioner Charles Jones said.

Commissioners agreed Monday to allow installation of 20-mph “school zone” signs and beacons near the high school along County Road 1061, across from the Meadowlark subdivision.

Such zones typically are reserved only for areas around elementary schools, but the high school is different, officials said. The high school’s parking lot also will serve as a collection point for younger students waiting for bus rides to elementary school.

Eudora officials long have worried about high speeds of vehicles on 1061, which has a posted speed limit of 45 mph. As the school, south of Kansas Highway 10, was being built, commissioners agreed with city officials and approved a temporary 30 mph speed limit.

Richard Rodewald, who lives in the area and uses 1061 to get to K-10, said the temporary speed limit already created a “traffic jam” in the area.

“That traffic will not flow,” he told commissioners. “It will jam up. It will jam up tighter than heck. It’s not fair to the rest of us out there in the county, having us jam up because they didn’t plan to widen the road.

“This is damn poor planning.”

Commissioners couldn’t disagree. They knew the request for a school zone would come, leaving them little choice.

“What else are we going to do: ‘No? Run over kids?'” Jones said. “When you have traffic efficiency and safety, you have to go with safety.”

Keith Browning, county engineer and director of public works, said the school zone signs likely would be installed sometime this week, with the beacons to be installed within a few weeks.

The 20-mph speed limit will be in effect on days when school is in session, from:

• 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
• 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.