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Back in November, Charlotte County supervisors signed off on a plan to help crack down on speeding around two schools. During their Thursday, Nov. 14 meeting, the group unanimously adopted a contract with Blue Line Solutions to install their speed cameras in the area around both Phenix Elementary and Randolph-Henry High.

Residents raised some questions after the vote, asking how the project would work and when it would be in service. Would this be a 24-hour a day system? Or would it be during specific parts of the day? The Gazette took all of those questions and have answers for each. 

First off, as far as when the speed cameras will be in service, the answer is when you see a flashing school beacon. If the light’s not flashing, the cameras won’t be on. 

“The photo speed enforcement is only conducted during the flashing school beacon times,” said Charlotte County Administrator Dan Witt. “During these times, drivers are given a 9 mph speed tolerance. Speeds of 10 mph or greater in the school zone will receive a summons.” 

To be clear, that means you can be traveling up to 9 miles per hour over the posted speed limit around both of those schools and be in the “grace period”. But anything higher than that and you will get a ticket. 

Residents also asked if this would be operating at all schools. The answer to that is no. The contract with Blue Line is just for the area around Phenix and Randolph-Henry. If supervisors want to add the other schools in the county, then they’ll have to develop another contract with the company. 

What about other days? 

Another question raised about the speed cameras involves holidays and times school is out. What about summer, when there’s no classes? How about during Christmas break? Sometimes the lights still operate during those periods, even when nobody is at the school. Will tickets still be issued during those times? The answer to that is no. Per the contract, the county is solely responsible for setting the dates and times when those cameras will be working. And county officials say that will only be during the actual school year. 

“The (camera) provider works closely with Charlotte County to ensure dates/times are synchronized properly while schools are in session, as defined by the Code of Virginia,” Witt said. 

As for how the money is divided up from speeding tickets, the majority goes to Charlotte County. If you’re busted speeding in one of the two school zones, you’ll get a $100 ticket. Under terms of the contract, $75 goes to Charlotte County and $25 goes to Blue Line. But what if someone doesn’t pay their fine? The county is still responsible to give Blue Line its $25 from that ticket. At the end of every month, the money from speeding tickets will be pooled together and given to the county. If one or two tickets weren’t paid, then that $25 for each will be deducted from the amount given to the county that month. Let’s say one month, there were $700 in fines given out, but one person refused to pay. Blue Line’s portion of that $700 would be $175 and so they just take that out before giving it to Charlotte. It just means Charlotte gets $25 less than the county would have, otherwise. 

Is there a speed cameras problem? 

The vote to do this came after support from both town councils in Charlotte Court House and Phenix. Each group unanimously supported the idea, even voting during their own meetings earlier this month to look into hiring the company themselves if the county refused. Charlotte Sheriff Randy Grissom was also in favor of the plan, as he previously told supervisors his office gets flooded with requests on a regular basis from people to crack down on speeding in school zones. 

And it is a problem in at least one of these two areas. Blue Line was given permission earlier this year to do a speed study. On a given 5-day work week, 3,849 people drive by Phenix Elementary. Out of that number, during the first week of May, 2,021 committed speeding violations, according to Blue Line’s data. At Randolph-Henry High, Blue Line found 10,789 people drove by the school during that first week of May. Out of that number, 736 were caught speeding. 

When will it take effect? 

So now comes the biggest question. When will it take effect? Well, first the contract has to be finalized and announced. Supervisors authorized Witt to negotiate a deal for “as short a term as Blue Line is willing to do.” When that is finalized, a start date will be announced. Even then, there will be a grace period of sorts. When this gets started, there will be a 60-day grace period for residents caught speeding in one of the zones. During that time, if you get busted for one ticket, it will be forgiven. However, if you get two tickets during that period, you have to pay.