Bond Road traffic light to signal hearing in Olympia

OLYMPIA — Since Suquamish resident Arlone Elaine Turner was killed in a car accident at the Bond Road and Gunderson Road intersection in December 2004, her family has promised the community it would push to get a traffic light installed there as soon as possible.

Next Monday, the family members will continue to keep their pledge.

Turner’s widower, Jim, and granddaughter, Dominique Turner-Herrin, plus family and friends, will attend the Senate Transportation Committee budget hearing at 1:30 p.m. April 4 in the Cherberg Building State Hearing, Room 1, in Olympia. They want to make sure funding is slated in the 2005-2007 budget for a traffic light to be installed this year, as well as submit more than 1,500 signatures in support of the effort. The duo will also testify in favor of the safety measure and are strongly encouraging residents who have an interest in the issue to join them at the hearing.

“We’ve gotten some positive news that it will be installed hopefully before 2006,” Turner-Herrin said. “All the people who have supported us, we’d like to welcome them. Please feel free.”

Money for the traffic light is indeed earmarked in the transportation budget and it appears the project will be completed before the end of the year, said Mary Bowen, legislative assistant to Sen. Phil Rockefeller (D-Bainbridge Island).

Since December, the family has been campaigning for the safety measure at Bond and Gunderson and since Turner’s death, two more North Kitsap residents have died near the intersection, North Kitsap High School senior Miles Pendergraft and Hansville resident Robert Butler, both in February.

During the past several months, legislators, such as House Rep. Beverly Woods (R-Kingston), have instructed Washington State Department of Transportation to restripe the intersection to allow for better turning visibility from Gunderson Road to Bond Road. Signage was also installed on Bond Road, warning drivers of the upcoming dangerous intersection.

WSDOT officials had been saying a light wouldn’t be installed until October 2006, but as word of the Turner’s efforts reached Olympia, the installation date was moved up.

For more information about the family’s efforts, go to http://gundersonbond.home.comcast.net.

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