Folks driving through Oxford Village will soon be required to hit the brakes at two more spots.

Last week, the village council approved the placement of stop signs at the intersections of East and Division streets and Pontiac and Dennison streets.

A total of four stop signs will added.

Two will be installed on East St. to regulate eastbound and westbound traffic. There’s already a stop sign on Division, so the intersection will become a three-way stop.

Two signs will be added to Pontiac St. to regulate northbound and southbound traffic. There are already two stop signs on Dennison St., so the intersection will become a four-way stop.

Although Police Chief Mike Solwold brought the issue to council, he said both were based on resident requests.

With regard to East St., the chief said it’s a “major cut-through” route that’s been used by eastbound and westbound traffic “to avoid the light downtown” and “get to the schools quicker.”

Solwold said East St. residents have “complained” for years about “speeders” and expressed concerns because “most homes have children at play.”

Things came to a head on May 15, when a vehicle flipped upside down on East St. after crashing into a parked car.

“As I was assisting my officer (at) the scene, residents came out pleading for change and suggested a stop sign at Division and East,” Solwold told council. “Although we know that stop signs are not always the cure for all traffic behavior, this will certainly break traffic up and slow people down.”

As for the Pontiac/Dennison intersection, Solwold said residents informed him the addition of stop signs at the Pontiac/Moyer intersection last month is “confusing commuters” because now they have to stop at two of the intersections before reaching W. Burdick St., but not all three of them.

Solwold believes it’s also a good idea to add stops signs at Pontiac and Dennison because there’s a lot of traffic that travels through there to the two elementary schools and there’s “quite a bit” of flow generated by motorists using Dennison St. as a cut-through to get from M-24 to West St.

“Now, you’re going to stop traffic (at) every block. You don’t think that’s a problem?” asked Councilwoman Maureen Helmuth.

Given the high volume of school traffic and other traffic in that area, Solwold indicated he does not see it as a problem.

“I would rather slow traffic down with a stop sign,” he said.

Helmuth asked the chief if he’d considered, as an alternative, moving the existing stop signs at Pontiac and Park to Pontiac and Dennison.

He replied that he had not, “but that’s not the first time I’ve heard that.”

Councilwoman Allison Kemp asked Solwold if he saw any benefit to moving those signs.

Solwold indicated he would rather see stop signs at every intersection as opposed to skipping around because it creates less confusion for drivers as to when and where they’re supposed to stop.

“If we put stop signs at every intersection in the village, we’d never get anywhere,” Helmuth remarked.

She voted against placing stop signs at Pontiac and Dennison.

Village President Joe Frost believes “putting these traffic control mechanisms in place now makes sense” because next year, residential streets “should anticipate” a higher volume of cut-through traffic as drivers avoid the M-24 reconstruction between Drahner Rd. and Gateway Dr.

“(This) way, people have a whole year to get used to them,” he said.

Adding stop signs “may back up the traffic and slow it down, but that’s exactly what we want to do,” Frost noted.