MILTON, Del. - A Milton couple has taken matters into their own hands to highlight what they feel is an issue on Atlantic Street - speeding, trucks and noise.
A website called miltonspeeders.com was created by Joel DeMott. He and his wife, Kelly DeMott have transitioned from painting speeding signs that hung from their porch, to setting up cameras on their property and recording people they feel are speeding. The speed limit on Atlantic St. is 25 mph.
Before creating the website, the couple began parking their cars in front of their two properties, causing drivers to slow down and carefully move around their cars.
Joel DeMott says his love for Historic Milton is part of what drove him to create the website, stating he just wants Milton "to be a safer place." While his love for Milton did play a part in his decision, a recent loss he suffered was his breaking point.
"I guess it was about a month ago, we came out and our kitten had got out," DeMott explained. "The cat got out and the next morning we found her with her head smashed in right here. That was pretty much it for me."
Videos are shared on the website of what they believe to be people speeding. Cameras can be seen on their home, their rental property and on a tree at the corner of Atlantic St. and Walnut St.
These attempts to get people to honor the speed limit has sparked conversations on social media, specifically in a Facebook group called Simply Milton Delaware, with some feeling their approach is harassment and a violation of privacy for those who live within direct sight of their livestreams, and others agreeing that people need to respect the 25mph speed limit in Historic Milton.
Some members of the community drive passed their home honking their horns to get their own message across.
From time to time, a Milton police officer can be spotted sitting in a speed trap on the same street.
Five cameras can be seen on Joel DeMott's House on Atlantic Street.
Milton Speeders cameras one and two attached to the DeMott home in Milton.
Milton speeders home page.
Milton Speeders camera four attached to the DeMott rental property in Milton.
DeMott has lived in town for three years and says over time, the speeding has gotten worse. This led to him parking his cars on both ends of the street in front of his two properties to slow people down.
"People started honking, people started getting really mad. So we decided 'hey, we made our point, we're going to go ahead and move this stuff' and at that point, it had already blown up on the Simply Milton page. So I decided to start filming it in an effort to just show people legitimately kind of honestly what was going on," said DeMott.
Thus miltonspeeders.com was born. The website has videos of people Demott believes to be speeding down Atlantic Street. He also shares clips of people making what he believes to be excessive noise such as honking their horn or revving up their engines.
The website even has a Twitch livestream running throughout the day. DeMott says he initially spoke with Vice Mayor Lee Revis-Plank about his concerns before he took this approach. He says she spoke with the Mayor and the Milton Chief of Police and he says nothing was done.
However, neighbors CoastTV spoke with say they feel uneasy about the cameras. One woman ,whose home is in clear view of their livestream, did not want to be on camera for her interview.
"Well personally I feel like it's kind of an invasion of my privacy 24/7 for anybody who is on the livestream at any given time to just even zoom in on me. I just feel violated."
She acknowledged heavy traffic on the street but doesn't share the same belief about speeding.
"Well they're coming to a stop sign, so they're not speeding, It's mainly busy in the mornings. It's traffic, people coming and going to work. Then also in the evening, people are coming and going," she shared.
"Now, in the summer time, you'll have your occasional cars that are kind of revving up, coming and going but in the morning, they're just coming and going," she continued.
The woman continued, "yes, it is a lot of traffic. There's truck traffic, there's regular traffic. There's not so much speeding, but the traffic is heavy."
DeMott acknowledges the discontent Milton Speeders has caused and says all he wants is for people to slow down and be careful.
"I'd like to apologize to everybody. I didn't realize that parking two cars there would screw things up and piss everybody off the way that it did. So I'd like to do that first. The second thing is try to come up with some kind of solution," DeMott shared.
CoastTV asked DeMott how long he'll keep the cameras up.
"I don't know," said DeMott. "Honestly after the meeting, if there is some type of resolution and we can get an actual radar detector out here, I think that would be fantastic."
DeMott says he's a "big data guy" and likes to base his decisions on data. A possible speed reduction and a speed radar detector sound like a good resolution to DeMott.
He says he will be present at Milton's Town Council Meeting on Monday, Feb 3. and hopes there will be a resolution that benefits him and his community.