Thursday, October 7, 1999 Older Editions

Signing up Ballardvale

By Neil Fater

Those looking for signs that Andover is doing something about the Ballardvale traffic problem won't have trouble finding them -- literally.

The town is installing bright yellow-green reflective signs on Clark Road and River Street.

Selectmen and state officials joked about the color of the signs at the board's meeting Monday.

"You can see them clear across town," says Lori Becker.

But officials hope the signs and some police presence in the area will encourage commuters to stop using Andover's side streets as short cuts.

Two diamond-shaped signs will be installed at each location. The top sign will warn, "Residential neighborhood," and the bottom sign will encourage commuters to seek an alternate route. The police department paid $1,000 for this batch of signs.

The signs come in the wake of continuing controversy over traffic in the area and, bright and visible as they are, they are not what most neighbors wanted. Some Ballardvale residents had filed a lawsuit to try to block a proposed expansion of Genetics Institute, arguing that the increased traffic it would generate would make an already intolerable situation even worse.

The neighborhood group dropped the suit in August, after selectmen voted to install limited, peak-hour no-turn signs on Andover and River streets.

But the board later reversed itself after business owners, industrial employees and other residents complained that it would either ruin other neighborhoods or drastically cut the patronage of businesses that depend on commuter traffic.

The signs presented Monday night are part of a compromise board members hope will resolve at least some of the problem.

"We've also started the detail that Genetics has provided funding for," says Police Chief Brian Pattullo. "We've slowed traffic down immensely on those side streets, just on the first day of the detail."

But Pattullo notes Clark Road and River Street in Ballardvale are not the only roads in town where such signs are appropriate.

"You'll see them on other streets as well," says Pattullo.

Then, thinking about the color of the signs Pattullo adds, "You'll see them, that's for sure."