To the Editor:
While I’m writing this from my home in North Branch please know I’m taking the liberty of writing for my neighbors and your neighbors as well, who have shared with me their own fear of cars speeding past their homes and through their neighborhoods, without regard to the legal speed limit imposed.
I wonder each time a car or truck surpasses the 30mph speed limit through our tiny hamlet of North Branch, past the people crossing the road to get to the post office, seemingly unaware of all the children that live here, who play just a few yards from the road, what it will take for them to just slow down and travel at the legal speed limit. I pray that it will not be at a funeral or next to a hospital bedside, since it would take just a moment for that kid chasing a ball or an elderly person stepping from their car for many lives to be devastated forever.
I have watched this community come together at funerals, bridge building events and I have eaten at many pancake breakfasts, so I know there is a great sense of community alive and well in Sullivan County. If we knew our streets were being taken over by drug dealers would we not come together to help keep our neighbors and children safe? Is it so much to ask our neighbors and our friends and our children who drive to please just obey the law and drive the mandated speed limit?
It has been brought to my attention that people are outraged that I have at times stood in front of The North Branch Inn, coaxing speeding cars to slow down. We’re not asking you to “crawl” through town, we’re just asking you to follow the speed limit. Outraged? Why would my wanting the streets that surround this place to be safe cause you to be outraged? In fact I invite any outraged person to come to the Inn, I will serve you a complimentary cup of coffee that you can sip while sitting on the porch, so you can know what it feels like in this narrow stretch of town, when one of the cars or trucks that have been clocked by the sign the sheriffs dept. had here for a weeks time, doing anywhere from 38 to 65 miles per hour. Come and see how frightening it feels when 10 ton trucks go by or how about a school bus filled with children doing 40mph.
Many residents here put signs on their lawns asking motorists to slow down, the response was someone removed all the signs within 24 hours of them being put up. So we have made better signs asking once again to please just drive the speed limit allowed by law, please care, please try, we’re begging you. If you actually drove the 2/3 of a mile that encompasses the speed limit of North Branch, from sign to sign it will add less than 1 minute to your travel time. Is it too much to ask knowing that the results will be safer roads for all involved, not just here in North Branch but in all the surrounding towns. I thank you for taking the time to hear our cry for help and please know that I am sincerely grateful to be a part of this community.
Victoria Lesser
North Branch
The Catskill Chronicle 
Hi,
Thank you for the great quality of your blog, every time i come here, i’m amazed.
Victoria, this is a lost cause. Where I lived (at Lake Joseph) we tried to get it posted at 15 so that people would drive 30, but the town wouldn’t permit it. Here’s a suggestion: Get a few neighbors together to block the village at both ends with cars so no traffic can pass (you’ll get quick attention from the fire department, but as I remember it North Branch has its own fire station and maybe the firefighters will go along with this). Get a photographer up from the T-HR (or ask a Catskill Chronicler to make pix of the road block and submit with story). Leave a method to back away so cars can go through one at a time (like a checkpoint in Iraq), after you’ve spoken to them about the speed limit. This won’t slow the traffic down for long, but it will bring much-needed attention to your problem, and perhaps wake a few people up.