Call 4 Action: Residents embroiled in speed hump controversy, former lawmaker involved

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Residents in Buffalo’s Kaisertown neighborhood have been trying to get speed humps on their street, but when their efforts hit a roadblock they made a call to Call 4 Action.

The issue over the speed hump has pitted some residents against others, with a former elected official involved in the controversy.

For years, the Suchocki family of Fenton Street has wanted a speed hump near their home. There are other speed humps on Fenton, but farther up and down the street.

“We have seen school buses speeding on this street, trucks, cars, they like to cut down this street very often, ATV’s, we do need the speed humps, we believe in it,” said Linda Suchocki, “Our dog was hit by a car years ago, somebody came around really fast, our dog had seen our neighbor and she just called him and he ran over and got hit by that car.”

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After doing a survey, Buffalo’s Department of Public Works identified the speed hump would go on Fenton Street, right outside the home of former Common Council President Rich Fontana. News 4 contacted Fontana — he said he would not do an on-camera interview, but Fontana tells us that as a realtor, he has concerns on how the speed hump would look and that it could possibly devalue his home.

He also points out that according to information circulated by the City of Buffalo, speed humps are typically installed 200 feet from an intersection. Fontana says the speed hump that would go outside his home, would be about 100 feet from an intersection.

Buffalo DPW Commissioner Nate Marton says there’s no specific distance that crews have to follow and that overall reaction to the speed hump has been mixed.

“When we run into that we actually have some interaction and some back and forth conversation with those residents and we try to a spot slightly moved north or south, east or west depending on what the street is,” Marton said.

The Suchocki’s want the speed hump where it initially was planned for.

Since we began taking a look into the issue, Fontana says he wants to be a good neighbor and will let engineers decide where it goes.

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“The residents on that street, that portion of the street, are not opposing where we marked it at this point in time, so we’ll do that install kind of where our consultant thought it was best for that street,” Marton said.

Marton says with less opposition to this speed hump, it will in fact go in this location. News 4 has not received an exact date on when that’s going to happen, it will happen soon and installation takes several days to do. Marton says the cost of installing a speed hump is about $2,000.

Here is more information about the City of Buffalo’s Slow Streets program.