Guyton City Council members say they are determined to get a traffic light for the city’s most notorious intersection.

In discussing which stop signs to remove around town, council members expressed their desire to remove the stop signs at the junctions of Highway 119 and 17 — and put in a stoplight instead. But a traffic light at that intersection isn’t up to the city. That’s the state Department of Transportation’s call.

“I stood on the corner and ran out of fingers and toes to count the number of near misses,” Mayor Michael Garvin said of a brief period he spent observing the intersection recently. “It’s just a timebomb waiting for the big one (accident) to happen again.”

Said Council member Dr. Brenda Lovett: “We don’t need to lose another life just to get a light.”

The city has asked before for a traffic light but has been rebuffed.

“Just because we’ve been turned down one, two, three times, let’s continue to push forward,” Garvin said.

The cost of a signal may be prohibitive, should the city consider paying for the light itself and asking DOT permission to put it in. But Garvin doesn’t want to eliminate the city’s options.

“There’s got to be something out there,” he said of possible funding help.

Les Pevey said he asked Guyton Police Chief Randy Alexander to look into removing redundant stop signs around the city that impede traffic flow.

“There are stop signs that don’t make any sense,” Pevey said. “I’ve had a lot of citizens ask me, ‘when are you going to do something about these ridiculous stop signs?’”