Lead foot motorists traveling through Nesquehoning need to watch their speed.

Last week, a resident asked council if anything could be done regarding speeding along Catawissa Street now that the road has been paved, referring to the state-owned road as a new autobahn.

Catawissa Street, or State Route 209, has a 25 mph speed limit from the intersection of Route 54 on the west end of town to approximately the 500 block of East Catawissa, where it increases to 40 mph.

Joe McKenzie, who lives in the 600 block, said that it is “imperative that the Nesquehoning autobahn be shut down.”

“There’s 1.2 miles of pure, reckless 60 to 80 mph speed out there,” he said.

Mayor Tom Kattner agreed with McKenzie, but noted it is hard for police to sit and patrol that area 24 hours a day.

“I wish we had more manpower so we could have a cop posted there,” Kattner said.

Nesquehoning currently has six full-time officers and three part-time officers on its police force.

McKenzie suggested looking into purchasing cameras or radar detectors using money from tickets issued to motorists for speeding.

Police Chief Bradley Hess said that the borough can ask the state, since it is a state route, for additional signs or the electronic signs that show your speed.

“We could look into that,” he said. “The ones that show your speed are effective. We’ll see what the options are because it’s just we’ll never have somebody out there 24/7 catching every speeder. We do our best to slow them down.”

Council said that when a police officer is posted in that area, there is a noticeable reduction in speeding; however, when they leave, speeding resumes.

“You’re not wrong,” Hess said. “The statistics we have show that speeders we get are going 50 or above.”

“It’s gotta get taken care of before somebody is killed,” McKenzie said.

Council agreed that it would reach out to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation requesting a speed study be done to see if the 40 mph zone on the east end of town can be lowered to the 25 mph zone because it is residential area.