Image from Facebook/The Voice of Worcester 2.0 video
At the November 18, 2025 Town of Worcester meeting, the issue of rumble strips on Little Chicago Road was addressed. It was initially brought up at the prior town meeting. (See related article.)
Chairman Jim Michler said, "Do we really want to put rumble strips in there? If we do, we would need to communicate with all the people who live within listening distance of it, because we did hear testimony at the last meeting from somebody who says they are noisy. So, Russ, do you have any thoughts on that, because I'm kind of inclined to say we do not need rumble strips, so if you feel the same way, we can just vote that down and say we're not going to do it." Jim later added that Supervisor Jeremy Pesko had mentioned he talked with someone who said rumble strips can be heard from quite a distance.
Supervisor Russ Long stated it's a safety concern and there is a lot of traffic on that road. He said they do make a lot of noise on the highway, but he didn't feel there would be such a noise factor on Little Chicago Road given the speed is less on Little Chicago Road coming to a stop sign. Russ said that the corner is a big accident corner and asked how many accidents that occur there come from Little Chicago Road.
Jim said this intersection did not have enough accidents for the state to do anything, and the town would have to bear the cost of adding rumble strips. "It's just not a dangerous enough intersection," he said.
Russ asked for the cost of rumble strips. Jim said, "Well, the real cost is people, who his house rumbles every time somebody drives there. The dollar value, don't know, but it can't be that awful bad."
Russ said, "We can always put them in. Once the road's complete, we can always put in rumble strips." Russ again mentioned he was considering the safety factor. Ultimately, though, Russ made a motion to not put rumble strips on Little Chicago Road at the Hwy. 13 intersection. Chairman Jim Michler seconded it, and the motion was carried.
During public comment, Ann Patros asked if a roundabout could be implemented at Little Chicago Road. Jim said it's not on the state list as being too dangerous, so he did not feel it would qualify. Ann asked what the standard was from the state, and Jim said it has to do with the number of fatal accidents; they list all of them in the state, and they take the top number of intersections to focus on.
Anthony Sleck said, "I know in the meeting when we first discussed it, you had your deputy standing here so nobody could bring up any comments other than rumble strips. Why was that the only thing you put on the agenda instead of getting input from people that were here. That's why all them people were here. You made sure they didn't get an opportunity to talk about anything but rumble strips." There was no further discussion.
Another larger topic of the meeting was about open records. Brian Kerner asked why his open records requests, from over a year ago, have not been fulfilled. He stated that his name was placed on the town's website about requesting records and wanted to know why he hasn't seen the records. Jim responded, "Because your request was to inspect the records, that required a meeting here to do it, because you had a long list of requests." Jim said a written record of requests is kept, and phone contact does not qualify as a written record, so the town does not call. Jim said Brian did not give contact information but was sent three Certified letters, and he refused all three of them, but Brian interjected that he never received those. Jim continued, "Because you refused delivery on three Certified letters, we canceled those requests." Jim was told, "You just broke the law" and "It sounds like you need another lawsuit," and Jim replied, "Go right ahead. That's your choice."
The meeting concluded shortly thereafter.
