The city of Ceres has pledged to seek public input on a proposal to install a center median on Mitchell Road between Whitmore Avenue and Garrison Street.

The city has received federal funding through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) to install medians on the 0.25-mile stretch to improve safety by reducing head-on collisions and limiting conflict points.

Improvements would also include curb return reconstruction and realignments, installing medians, slurry seal, pavement striping, markings, signage and signal modifications.

At Monday’s council meeting members were asked for an appropriation of $50,000 to complete the design work. But Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez voiced concerns that the project was proceeding without public input.

“I believe that the community needs to be notified that we’re putting an island in the middle of the road to prevent left-hand turns but we’re going to put left-hand turns in it and we’re putting it in there because we’re concerned of the number of accidents we’ve had when we’ve had an average of one every 365 days,” a cynical Martinez said. “I feel like this is a waste of money. We’re only doing this because we’re concerned looking at a black eye and lose grant money in the future, so we’re willing to waste money and put an island that’s not necessary on that road.”

Public Works Director Michael Beltran said an effort to educate residents and businesses in that area will take hours of door knocking.

After Martinez's motion to kill the project failed, shot down by Rosalinda Vierra, James Casey and Mayor Javier Lopez, the council was in complete agreement to table the appropriation pending the city’s community outreach efforts.