SURPRISING STUFF

A “town without pity?”
The signals allowing for traffic control all along Main Street, Broad Street, and Center are screwed up and have been so for some time.  It’s never more evident than it is during the winter months.  Sitting through the entire cycle of a signal when there’s nobody else around is very frustrating.  It would be less so if everyone didn’t know about the nearly one million dollars the city spent to have ‘automatic’ signals.  The problem with the automatics is that the city’s contract for calling out support is too expensive, so nobody ever gets called and therefore the city signals never get synchronized or adjusted.

Poor Tom Earle is left to try to work with them as best as he can, and he doesn’t have advanced technicians who know about such things on his staff.  The little buttons on the signals, intended to let the system know pedestrians need to cross the street haven’t worked for years.  New leadership is hopefully coming to the city and that new leadership may be sensitive to such seemingly small irritations as sitting at a signal when there’s nobody about, or standing at an intersection and continuously pushing buttons that should, but don’t, work.

Place of the Week

Winterfest starts Thursday, February 1st, and goes through Sunday, February 4th.