Roundabout becomes top priority

The City Commission voted Monday, May 18 to take funds originally slated for traffic-message signs and put them toward the construction of a roundabout at Ringling Boulevard and Pineapple Avenue.

The message signs were the top transportation priority for the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. They were to be placed on U.S. 41, Fruitville Road and at St. Armands Circle to inform drivers of any traffic changes.

But Susan Montgomery, the city’s transportation planner, recommended re-appropriating the $800,000 assigned to that project.

“It’s not a wise time to do the sign project,” she said. “It would require a staff person to monitor the signs, and we are short-staffed.”

The money was assigned to the roundabout, because it was listed second on the priority list.

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].