Government

Request to lower speed limit in village will go to state

Greenport Village will officially ask New York State to lower the speed limit on the sections of Front Street and Main Street that are located within the village boundaries, but the vote to do so was not unanimous.

At Thursday’s village board meeting, Mayor George Hubbard Jr. and Trustees Doug Roberts and Jack Martilotta voted in favor of asking for the lower limits, but Trustee Julia Robins was opposed. Trustee Mary Bess Phillips abstained, saying she didn’t have enough information.

Ms. Phillips had asked the board to postpone the vote to the fall, and instead install “traffic calming” measures to reduce speeds. She said straight, wide roads encourage drivers to speed.

The request to lower the limit came from residents, and has been discussed many times at village board meetings this year.

Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley did not support the change.

“I see no need for changing the limit from 30 mph,” he said in an email to The Suffolk Times. “I don’t think the effort to change all of the speed signs 5 mph will have any effect on traffic.”

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