ST. ALBANS, WV (WOWK) – Alan Moss, a husband and father of two, wants what so many parents can relate to – safety for his family.

“We moved here almost two years ago in September,” he said sitting on his brick steps in front of his home on Highland Drive.

However, when he moved to this home, he noticed a decades-long issue in front of his house: speeding.

“They would send patrol cars up here on occasion and write five, six, seven speeding tickets in the span of an hour. Then, we wouldn’t see them again for a week, two weeks, three weeks,” Moss said.

He continued, “We have a security camera on the front of our house, so I can see, and every once in a while, I count how many cars are speeding.”

Moss said he sees cars speed every day in front of his home. St. Albans Police Chief Marc Gilbert said Moss wasn’t the only resident complaining about the speeding. That’s why St. Albans Police and the Division of Highways put up two stop signs last fall on Highland Drive, focusing on trying to help families feel safe.

However, the problem has only escalated.

“We also have people who purposely accelerate as fast as they can and somehow, they’ve gotten the impression that we were the ones who asked for the stop signs when I didn’t. I asked for them to do something about speeding,” Moss said. “So to show their irritations, they blow their horns all the way past our house. At least four cars I know of do it every single time they come past our house. Occasionally they throw trash in our yard.”

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For these reasons, Moss placed signs in his yard to let the neighborhood know that he was not the one responsible for placing stop signs on Highland Drive. The three signs say “We did not ask for,” “The stupid stop signs,” and “Complain to the Mayor” with a cell phone listed.

However, it’s not only the increased speeding and ‘actions of irritation’ that are concerning Moss and his family.

“Then, we got a threatening letter from an anonymous neighbor saying that now they know we’re the ones who got the stop sign up, when we’re not, and that I better not ever take a picture of their car while they’re speeding or I better ‘run for the hills,’” Moss said, referring to the letter.

The letter, which is from an anonymous sender, calls Moss and his wife profane names and blames them for the implementation of the stop signs.

“Everybody is very irritated at us, and we didn’t get the stop signs put up. We’re irritated at the stop signs because of the noise and the people running it. I’ve complained to my city council who’s complained to the mayor, and I’ve done this this repeatedly since October of last year, and they’ve done nothing,” Moss said.

13 News reached out to the Mayor of St. Albans, Mayor Scott James, about this story. He replied “no comment” to the request for a statement.

St. Albans Police Chief Gilbert told 13 News that his staff is under capacity in terms of policing Highland Drive in addition to other areas they are already monitoring, however, Gilbert said there have been no accidents on Highland Drive since the stop signs were put into place.

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