The Bright Side

What does it mean when something is in the paper?
One thing it means is that the people who read the paper will know about whatever is written in that issue of the paper. What also happens when something is published in a newspaper, the Geneva Shore Report included, is that the information becomes public knowledge. What does that mean? Here’s an example; a single employee of the city has taken it upon himself to place an orange cone at the downtown boat ramp to block vehicles from going around other vehicles stopped while trying to turn left from Wrigley up onto Center Street.

That single cone, ostensibly placed there to provide more safety and order so boats and trailers could access the municipal pier, backs traffic on summer weekends all the way up Broad Street, through the signal on Main Street, and then through the new four-way stop at Geneva Street. The orange cone was not authorized by city ordinance nor placed there by the street department after a determination of relative traffic safety had been made. This, now public, knowledge about the situation means that if there is a traffic accident or pedestrian injury because of the unauthorized backup then the injured parties may file suit not just against any other party involved, but against the city because the city reads the paper too and therefore would have had every legal expectation to know that the hazard existed but then did nothing about it. Sometimes the newspaper means work rather than entertainment or being a good fire starter.

Four Way Stop

Cartoon of the Week