Dear Editor:

As residents of Main Street East in Hartselle, my neighbors and I have been through a year of road work, inconvenience, and “growing pains” in our neighborhood, due to the construction of the new Hartselle High School.

While the new school is a stunning monument to the educational values and community spirit that is The City of Southern Hospitality, we, the residents of East Main and Bethel Road have endured noise, dust, heavy equipment, torn up yards, and uncertainty regarding our properties.

As school starts and traffic increases, it would be prudent to remind our children and teens about basic courtesy and respect for the neighborhood. Sitting at a red light with loud music and altered mufflers is not respectful. Honking and speeding through the intersections is dangerous and ill-mannered. For those of us who have no choice but to continue to live in this part of town, a little courtesy for our right to have a peaceful neighborhood would go a long way toward smoothing some of the feathers that have been ruffled with all of the construction and confusion during this past year.

It would also be prudent, my neighbors and I believe, to actually enforce and alert people to the city noise ordinance. In other towns, (Huntsville, Moulton, Falkville, etc.), there are signs stating that car stereos must be turned down at intersections, “jake” brakes are not allowed, and caution signals are used to slow traffic. Why is this not the case in Hartselle? If this is an issue with the State of Alabama DOT, then why aren’t the city leaders making calls and visits to Montgomery to try and rectify this issue? While Main Street is also Highway 36, it is first and foremost a neighborhood, full of children, families, the elderly, and the people you see in your community on a daily basis.

Please, friends and neighbors, as school starts, try to impress upon your teenagers and families the importance of being respectful, not only of the new school, but of the neighborhood where the school is located.

Please, city officials, do whatever needs to be done to preserve our quality of life on this end of town. Please put up and enforce noise ordinance and no “jake” brake signs. Please stop the speeding. Please help make The City of Southern Hospitality have a beautiful and peaceful downtown and Main Street area. It’s not that difficult, it has been done successfully in other towns, and it would go a long way toward making your neighbors on the east side of town feel a little better about having a new school thrust into their neighborhood.

Thank you for your consideration,

Dallas Nicholson

Hartselle