Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The lights that never worked

About two years ago or so, Columbia Borough received a Safe Routes to School grant, that would allow for a major road project on Ninth Street from Route 462 to the Ironville Pike.


As part of the improvement, bump outs were installed at two intersections to slow traffic and special lighting was placed in the streets at Ninth and Locust, Ninth and Walnut and Ninth and the Ironville Pike designed to light the crosswalks at night.

One problem, the lights never worked. Now, those in-ground lights are being replaced with one that will hang on traffic poles in the area.

The change was revealed at Monday's borough council meeting.

Mary Barninger was the first to speak to the issue.

"It is not the way it was designed and its disconcerting that a vendor can weasel his way out of a project like this," Barninger said.

Mayor Leo Lutz it was learned that other municipalities were having trouble with the lighting system as well.

"The new lights will be more efficient," Lutz said.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I KNOW EVERYTHING WILL BE FIXED IF "SHERIFF" LUTZ IS ON THE JOB.

Anonymous said...

The lights at the cross walk at 9th and Walnut Street were working about a month ago. I was driving through and, at first, thought they were flares on the road. But on another issue, when will the Borough Council actually take a stand on an issue and stand up to someone. Doolittle has walked all over them, and don't forget the Silk Mill fiasco when we bought the property instead of making the owner take care of the problems.

Anonymous said...

This was a waste of money. Schools not in session when it is dark out. This project could have been better suited for somewhere else. And the lights did work. Kids were pushing the buttons all the time.

Anonymous said...

I agree this was a waste of money. Ever since these lights were installed only a 2-3 worked and how do you suppose drivers are to see these lights in the daylight hours......

Anonymous said...

and in response to Mary Barningner - how is it that a vendor can "weasle their way" out of a job that they were supposed to do! Who in the Borough is cutting deals with vendors and letting them "weasle their way" out of their obligations! What's the problem here folks? Is the Borough afraid to sue a vendor for preformance? - the vendors and contractors that do work for Columbia need to know two things - rule nuber one is that if you do the work right, you get paid. Rule number two is that if you screw up you better fix it or we will use every legal maneuver within our power to make your miserable until you do! We will Sue you, we will Sue your company, and we will get Barry Ford to write bad things about you since he isn't worried about getting ... sure that the news is out!