Rogers City officials say they have a serious problem at the intersection of U.S.-23 and M-68.

The intersection, where several business driveways meet the highway, motorists turn into and out of the downtown Rogers City area, and the speed limit on U.S.-23 slows to 50 mph, has been a dangerous one. Several serious crashes have happened there, some of them fatal.

To combat the issue, the Michigan Department of Transportation now is considering making the intersection a four-way stop and designing some lane changes to make the area safer.

Other potential fixes discussed include further slowing the speed limit through that intersection and building a roundabout there.

The roundabout idea has been shelved, News staff writer Steve Schulwitz reported recently, because it would cost $3 million to build and the city could have to wait years for state funds to pay for it.

The speed limit changes, too, have been sidelined because going that route would require a traffic study and, if that study shows people on average drive faster than the posted limit, state guidelines could call for a speed limit increase, not a decrease.

Which leaves the four-way intersection idea.

But studies and finances alone shouldn’t decide what happens at that intersection. The voices of Rogers City residents and that of other motorists who regularly pass through that intersection should matter, too.

We encourage such people to reach out to Rogers City City Hall and to MDOT to let them know what you’d like to see happen at that intersection.

And we encourage officials to listen to residents and take that feedback into consideration when formulating a plan.