Ironton drivers will be seeing a couple more stop signs.

In October, city council approved making both the intersection of S. 10th and McGovney streets and S. 10th and Vine streets four-way stops.

The signs should be up by Friday.

Rich Blankenship sponsored the ordinance after a resident approached him in late summer with the idea of putting stop signs at the intersections.

“I gave him a petition and told him to go around the neighborhood to see how many people in the neighborhood were interested,” he said. “They got about 25 names and brought the petitions to council.”

It was brought before council and. after three readings, it passed unanimously.

“No one came in and spoke against it,” said Blankenship, who was voted in as the new city mayor on Nov. 6. “Really, I just see this as a safety issue.”

This year has seen quite a few of the red octagons and one-way signs pop up in Ironton.

In June, Pine Street between 10th and 11th streets was made a one-way going east and 11th Street between Pine and Maple streets was made a one-way going south. School officials had asked the city council for the change to help to make it safer for students.

“With the increase of bus and construction traffic, it has been congested,” Mike Pemberton, Ironton’s city, flood and sanitation superintendent said at the time.

In August, a new traffic signal was installed to make the intersection of North Second and Delaware streets, near the Ironton Middle School, a three-way stop.

In early October, city crews put up stop signs and a blinking red light at the intersection of S. Fourth and Adams streets, just after the Ironton Fire Department station because of the high number of accidents.

There is a citywide traffic study that will be performed in Ironton next summer and the stop signs and traffic patterns may be changed.

The city has applied for grants from the KYOVA Interstate Planning Commission to have a $20,000 traffic safety study done. The grant application is being reviewed to see who it wants to do the study.

Current Ironton Mayor John Elam said he thinks the council should stop putting up stop signs until the study is completed.

He vetoed the ordinance that made Pine Street between 10th and 11th streets a one-way going east and 11th Street between Pine and Maple streets a one-way going south, but the council voted to override his veto.

Elam said he vetoed it because he never saw the petitions that were presented to council.

“I think it’s kind of silly to be changing a whole lot of the traffic direction until the safety study is completed by engineers,” he said.