The issues of speeding and ignoring signs on Bodine, Ellis, and Sears streets has become a bigger problem recently. Additionally, the deepened ditch line on Ellis Street has made an already dangerous area worse and consequently poses a real safety concern to people and cars alike as they try to pass through this area of Wellsboro. The first area of concern is the rampant and constant speeding that takes place on all three of these streets. This raises a significant safety concern for both adults and kids who walk up and down the street, not to mention the people who live along these streets. The boro has tried to address this issue by putting up speed lines and saying they would try to have someone monitor Bodine Street, but these lines are not respected at all and are constantly ignored as well as there being almost no one monitoring the street. Dawn Carl, a resident of an adjoining street, voiced her concern about the speeding and how the boro has handled it: “They do not do enough to prevent speeding and it makes me worry about all the kids that walk to/from school, downtown, etc. These streets don’t seem to be monitored much at all. Nichols Street is the worst, but Bodine is bad also!” The speeding issue is compounded with the issue of people ignoring the stop signs at the intersection of Bodine, Ellis, and English streets. This intersection is a very dangerous spot, where cars are supposed to stop when going from Ellis to Bodine or English, from English to Bodine or Ellis, and from Bodine to Ellis or English, but you don’t have to stop if you are continuing onto Bodine. This area is a big concern because people constantly fly through this area with no intent to stop, even when they are not continuing onto Bodine. This becomes a heightened concern when children are walking up these roads to get home from school, especially since there is no side walk the full way up Bodine Street. The issue is compounded with an active day care on Ellis Street, where kids play outside and could be in danger of reckless drivers. Dawn Carl again voiced concern to this issue: “Cars coming down Bodine have a stop sign unless continuing on Bodine, but I cannot tell you how many times I have been coming home or leaving that a car flies down the hill and goes straight through the stop sign onto Ellis without stopping. There are many times where we have had near misses and it scares me, especially when I think about my kids starting to drive next year. The corner on Bodine where there is the driveway that goes up to three houses is also a very bad corner. That’s where the sidewalk ends and there is no safe place for the kids to walk the next section.” This brings us to the last major concern with this area, the ditch line that the boro dug along side Ellis and Sears streets. This ditch line was meant to help carry away runoff water from the hill, but it was dug too deep and has now become a safety concern for drivers, especially with the winter bringing icy roads. This ditch line is a major concern because drivers could go in the ditch and do damage to their car or injury to themselves. The ditch is so deep, drivers aren’t going to be able to get out by themselves. This deep ditch adds to the concern because Ellis St. is already a narrow street that can barely fit two cars without having one go onto the shoulder. But now since they added the ditch, if the car going to Sears doesn’t get over on the shoulder with the smaller ditch, the car going to Bodine might be forced into the ditch. Residents witness these near-accidents with the speeding of cars flying down Ellis Street, forcing another car into the newer, deeper ditch. Dawn Carl had to say on the issue, “you cannot safely have two cars pass on this street! The ditch is awful. I often go into the grass on the other side to allow cars I meet to safely pass me. In the winter, I have slipped into that ditch. Thank goodness I had 4-wheel drive and could back out, but if it hadn’t been for a ton of snow and not going in deep, I would have been stuck. That ditch is dangerous, and needs addressed!” As a new driver, I am especially careful on these streets, but the boro could work on widening Ellis Street to make it safer for two cars to pass each other. Monitoring the disregarded stop signs at the intersection should be an increased concern for our local police before something happens that could have been prevented.