RUMFORD — In an effort to better control foot traffic at the intersection of Rumford Avenue and Hancock Street, the Select Board wants new signs.

More foot traffic is expected as tenants move into Rumford Senior Living, which is opening this week at that corner. The new multifamily housing development has 33 units of affordable senior rental housing for ages 55 and older.

The Select Board has directed Public Works Superintendent Dale Roberts to place the new signs that read “Slow. Crosswalk Ahead” before the crosswalk so cars have a chance to slow down.

“I’ve seen at that crosswalk … people not stopping, and a couple of near misses (have happened) there,” Selectman Frank DiConzo said.

At the board’s recent meeting, Town Manager George O’Keefe first suggested that a stop sign might be needed for vehicles traveling up from the Eagles Club on Rumford Avenue heading toward the rotary, at the intersection right by Sissy’s Stay n Play & Spa at 114 Hancock St.

Roberts said he was on board with a stop sign at first, but after investigating the intersection, he had a change of heart.

“I’d leave it the way it is, because when you come up and stop and look up Hancock Street, you don’t see anything except the building. Or put a sign up to slow before the intersection,” he said.

O’Keefe said there’s probably around a hundred people a day going across that crosswalk.

Roberts suggested a set of blinking lights from the Maine Department of Transportation, like those at the bottom of Lincoln Avenue, at Hannaford, Hancock Street and Falls Hill.

“I think that might be the route to go,” Chairman Chris Brennick said.

Select Board member John Pepin added that when elderly people from the new housing there start using that crosswalk, that may be the time to look into putting blinking lights there, even if the town has to purchase them.