Meridian’s new council member has growth on his mind. What he wants to do about traffic
Thirty-three years ago, John Overton met his future wife. It was the winter of 1990, the coldest on record to that point in Idaho. A woman had been driving near Cherry Lane and Ten Mile Road in Meridian when her car slipped on the ice.
The car was stuck in an irrigation canal. Overton was one of two Meridian police officers on patrol that evening (Meridian had just 10,000 residents then, vs. 125,000 today). He helped the woman call a tow truck and let her keep warm in his police car.
Flash forward to 2023. The woman is now Nora Overton, John’s wife. Overton has just been appointed to the Meridian City Council. And one of his top priorities is to make Meridian’s roads safer.
Overton, 58, worked in the Meridian Police Department for 27 years before his retirement in 2017. Ever since, he has been interested in taking on another role with the city, he said in a phone interview.
As a police officer Overton said, he got a “10,000-foot view” of how city departments work. Now he is eager to unpack how city budgets work and how departments can better work together to solve problems.
One of those problems is growth. He hopes to put his police experience to work and focus on traffic safety as the city grows.
“Coming into the City Council position with all the knowledge and training I received, I know how to deal with the roadways, the dynamics, the crash ratios, and can help decide how we want to set our priorities with ACHD and ITD on road projects,” he said. ACHD is the Ada County Highway District, and ITD is the Idaho Transportation Department.
Those insights can help Meridian organize and understand where to develop, Overton said.
“Making sure that when we’re looking at some of these projects, we’re looking at the right project, at the right location,” he said. “So we’re really not dumping a medium- or high-density project in an area where we know the roadways can’t handle it.”
Overton said he wants to help the city tackle one of its most contentious issues of the last year: traffic safety on Eagle Road.
After a presentation to City Council in June from two families whose children were in a crash that killed one family’s daughter, the city hoped ITD could take steps to make the state highway safer. In a subsequent meeting, council members said Eagle Road had no business having a speed limit of 55 mph. But ITD said the speed limit did not need to be reduced.
“I’ve been part of a lot of those talks for several years, about the maximum speed limit coupled with the timing of the stoplights,” Overton said. “I actually got to be part of that back and forth, and we’re still working on it.”
Of his roles in the department, a patrol officer and then lieutenant, he said he believes the three years he spent as a school resource officer made the most impact on the community.
“For many youth in high school, their interactions with a law enforcement officer can be looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing the lights turn on,” Overton said. “So having the opportunity when they have disputes, when they have problems, you were really able to help people more than you did when you were responding to calls on the street.”
He said both jobs are critical, but school resource officers are the “ultimate community policing role.”
In the Meridian Police Department, Overton oversaw the Criminal Investigative Division, Patrol Division, Office of Professional Standards and Training, and the Community Services Division. He also helped with the city budget, participated in license approvals, and assisted the establishment of the Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition, the city of Meridian wrote in a news release.
Mayor Robert Simison said five people applied for the council position. In the City Council meeting on Tuesday night, Simison said Overton stood out for his previous service in the city.
“This was just the next iteration of that decision to be a servant to the residents of this community,” Simison said as he asked the council to approve Overton. “With that in mind I am happy to recommend him to continue to serve in this new and unique capacity.”
The council unanimously approved Overton.
Overton replaced Treg Bernt, who resigned after he was elected in November to the Idaho Legislature. Overton will represent District 4, which includes northeast Meridian from Cloverdale Road to Meridian Road.
He was joined at his swearing-in Tuesday night by a large group of family of all ages, including Nora Overton, who helped swear him in.
“She’s my partner through everything,” Overton told the Statesman.
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
