Centralia City Hall is located at 118 W. Maple St. in Centralia.
Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham gave the city council an update on traffic safety at the Tuesday evening city council meeting since the police department has been receiving complaints from citizens about unsafe conditions for drivers and pedestrians.
“Over the past several months, I have received complaints, not only from council members but others who were having traffic issues as well,” Denham said.
The complaints were on the topics of speeding, collisions, cars not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks and people involved with car group Cruise Centralia not following the rules of the road, Denham said.
“Officers have been out there working in areas of the city where we are receiving most of the complaints,” he said.
Denham said he reached out to Steve Kopa who is in charge of the Cruise Centralia group who said he is doing everything he can to have his members follow the rules of the road.
From July through the time of the meeting, Sept. 22, 2020, the Centralia Police Department recorded 143 traffic infractions, 51 criminal driving arrests, 14 DUI arrests, 18 cell phone usage infractions, 30 speeding tickets and 125 warnings given to citizens for minor infractions.
At the time of the council meeting, Centralia police officers had worked 72 hours of overtime that will be reimbursed by the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission.
“Since we have minimum staff, this overtime has been really helpful for us,” said Denham.
Councilor Max Vogt said that he would like to see some sort of education for citizens on how to be a good pedestrian such as not wearing dark clothes while walking around the city at night.
