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Council wants P&G trucks cited
by Rick DeClue · News · December 18, 2014
Mayor Mark Worrell said a study completed prior to the opening of Procter & Gamble’s distribution center in West Branch anticipated receiving 500 trucks per day.
That number rose to about 700 trucks per day, he said.
These numbers may factor into the problem of trucks parked on Fawcett Drive waiting to enter the plant’s north-side entrance, he said.
On Monday, the West Branch City Council directed the police department to start issuing tickets soon.
Police Chief Mike Horihan will monitor the trucks for about a week, then Worrell will report the findings to the council individually. He will then poll the council members on whether the police department should begin issuing tickets before the first council meeting in January.
The council first approved issuing citations in August.
Council member Jordan Ellyson asked what communication the city has had with P&G, and whether the police department had been issuing citations. She was told no tickets have been issued.
City administrator Matt Muckler said he met with P&G officials on Sept. 2 and again in November. The police chief also attended the second meeting.
Muckler said P&G realizes the problem and took several steps to try to improve the situation.
Council member Tim Shields said the truck problem was raised in conversation with a resident last week. The council agreed enforcement is needed now because the safety issues are getting worse with recent fog and the coming winter weather.
Cars and trucks traveling east on Fawcett are forced to pull into the north (westbound) lane when trucks are parked on the side of the road. If trucks are double-parked, they block the road for those wishing to pass.
Worrell said he was recently forced to go around six or seven trucks on his way to a job site east of the plant. He said he was very nervous about traffic coming from the east because of a hill in the road just past the plant entrance.
The mayor said he could not move right into his lane until he was almost at the hill. At the least, he said, there is a turn lane at the plant entrance that the waiting trucks do not use. Though this space would only allow two trucks to get off of the through lanes, it would add that much space for an eastbound vehicle to return to its lane before the hill.
Muckler said P&G has taken four steps to address the problem:
• Added four additional security personnel in September through its contractor, Per Mar Security, to speed up check-in procedures,
• Installed cameras to monitor trucks parked outside the entrance, to gather data to measure the extent of the problem,
• Periodically sends P&G staff out to direct the driver’s to make adjustments, and
• Instructed trucks arriving more than five hours before their scheduled time to find someplace else to park.
“P&G seems to be open to where to go next,” he said.
Muckler suggested starting to issue tickets Feb. 1, a date he also shared with P&G.
Council member Mary Beth Stevenson said waiting until Feb. 1 is too lenient, and suggested the city inform P&G that enforcement should begin Jan. 1.
She was supported by the entire council. The consensus was that the truck drivers are simply violating the law and that enforcement is needed now. They said any consequences to truck drivers or in P&G’s operations are the company’s problems.
Muckler questioned whether it made sense to start ticketing the truck drivers while P&G is trying to improve the situation.
He said P&G is looking at larger structural improvements to move traffic in and out of the plant that require time for engineering and corporate involvement.
Worrell said that whether the trucks are a problem three times a day or three times a month, “if it is one time and there is an accident or somebody gets killed, then it will be the city’s problem.”
P&G did not respond to a request for comment at the time this story went to press.
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