Complaints from Waldo businesses prompts city to move 'confusing' street sign

At the intersection of West 74 Terrace and Wornall Road in Kansas City, Missouri's Waldo neighborhood, business owners said a recently installed street marker was ill-placed and confusing.

KSHB 41/Jake Weller

In recent months, the area between 72nd and 76th Streets on Wornall Road has seen major construction.

Business owners in the area said sign added to a list of challenges the construction has brought.

On Friday, KSHB 41 spoke with Becky Hamrick, the owner of Bobby Baker’s Lounge.

Hamrick said she and her customers watched construction crews install the street sign that she estimates is 15 feet away from the road and not visible to drivers.

“My customers were laughing so hard the whole time they saw [the construction crews] install it on the cameras outside," Hamrick said on Friday. "They were laughing; they couldn’t believe what they were seeing — I’m not shocked that that happened."

KSHB 41/Jake Weller

Hamrick says the one-way sign and the street names aren’t visible to drivers at any vantage point for drivers.

"They were putting it up [Thursday], and I walked out and asked the [construction crew] what they were doing," she said. "They were putting up the street sign in the middle of the block. I saw the blueprints from it, and it came from the city, and that's where they wanted to put it."

Lynnie Schumacher works at Bobby Baker’s Lounge. She said the street sign wasn't clearly visible.

"All day, people have been coming down the wrong way onto a one-way street because they can’t see the sign," Schumacher said on Friday. "There’s also no one-way sign on Pennsylvania, so people are coming east — the opposite direction of a one-way street."

Hamrick had previously expressed concern the sign would confuse customers.

"It doesn’t make sense; make it make sense," Hamrick said. “Nobody can see it coming either way, so they aren’t going to know where to drive. Our businesses are already suffering around here, so how are people supposed to know to go down 74th Terrace to get to any of these businesses?"

Hamrick reported the sign by the city of KCMO's 311 line.

"Hopefully, eventually, it will get moved sooner than later, for everyone traveling down Wornall," she said. "It’s definitely picture-worthy."

In a statement to KSHB 41, a spokesperson for the KCMO City Manager's Office said the sign will be uninstalled and reinstalled at a different location.

"The sign will be removed this week and reinstalled in a new location before construction is completed later this year," the statement read.

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