LEWISTON — A question about removing a College Street speed table could lead to a new policy about using them elsewhere in the city.

Phil Nadeau, deputy city administrator, said the city plans to repave part of College Street in front of the former Pettingill School at 410 College St.

“So, the question becomes, do we pave up to the old speed table, the raised crosswalk there, or do we remove it?” Nadeau said.

The table has been there since 2005 to slow traffic in front of the school.

“It was there to give safer passage for the kids,” Nadeau said.

The table is one of three in Lewiston. Two more are farther south, where College Street and Central Avenue pass through the Bates College campus.

Pettingill School closed in 2009, but the speed bump remained.

“We’d talked with people in the neighborhood, and the decision about whether it remained or not depended on what happened to that building,” Nadeau. “And here we are, three years later and the building still awaits a final disposition.”

Removing the bump would let the city crews repave the street past the old school.

“But there are people in that neighborhood who have no problem with that raised table and want to preserve it,” Nadeau said. “We’ve heard from those people, and we’ve heard from people that want to see it removed.”

City councilors are scheduled to discuss the fate of the bump at a special workshop meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 24.

Nadeau said he hopes the discussion moves beyond College Street.

“I think we need to consider these at a policy level,” Nadeau said. “If you introduce these things into your community, you should at least put them in your ordinance and support their use as policy.”

A policy could include how to use them and where they should be used and not used, he said.

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