20 years ago, our town had a war over an intersection.
Someone decided to upgrade a 3 way intersection, for a a dirt road going into the woods off a main artery. (rumored someone in town planning bought a house on that road and was trying to make it so they didnt have to wait a long time for a gap in traffic)
So they made it a 3 way stop unsteady of just the dirt road having a stop sign. This caused tragic to back up miles on either side, as it was pretty much the only stop on the main road going out to the town’s comercial district (100s of work vehicles traveling it at 9 and 5)
Almost immediatley, People started coming out with chain saws, and wpuld cut down the 4x4 wood signpost. Leaving the stump and the concrete block in the ground. Fairly quickly, the town ran out of room on the narrow strip between the road and the bike path, and started hammering in metal posts, wedged between the buried cement supports.
Guys with welders on their trucks started cutting those down flush with the ground. At one point, a cop car was stationed there overnight.
The police report detailed 2 trucks, with chain strung between them, driving on either side of the post at speed, wrapping the sign, and tearing it out of the ground before dropping the chain.
Thst was about as far as it got before town meeting, where an inquest was called for into the appropriateness , and approval process, and who had put in the work order etc. (There was some passage about the planning board being able to make minor changes to signage, etc without impact studies, and going through the approval process (which includes open forum, and with enough detractors to a project can force it to be put to a vote)
The main point of contention being how anyone qualified to be in that position could think that something that caused a 30-60 minute delay on a 5 mile road qualified as a ‘minor change’
Iirc the whole thing ended with the town cementing over that little strip (covering over all the metal and wood protrusions, and effectively signaling a stop sign couldn’t be put there anymore) and then several members of the planing commision, resigning their posts, which made the inquest moot.
20 years ago, our town had a war over an intersection.
Someone decided to upgrade a 3 way intersection, for a a dirt road going into the woods off a main artery. (rumored someone in town planning bought a house on that road and was trying to make it so they didnt have to wait a long time for a gap in traffic)
So they made it a 3 way stop unsteady of just the dirt road having a stop sign. This caused tragic to back up miles on either side, as it was pretty much the only stop on the main road going out to the town’s comercial district (100s of work vehicles traveling it at 9 and 5)
Almost immediatley, People started coming out with chain saws, and wpuld cut down the 4x4 wood signpost. Leaving the stump and the concrete block in the ground. Fairly quickly, the town ran out of room on the narrow strip between the road and the bike path, and started hammering in metal posts, wedged between the buried cement supports.
Guys with welders on their trucks started cutting those down flush with the ground. At one point, a cop car was stationed there overnight.
The police report detailed 2 trucks, with chain strung between them, driving on either side of the post at speed, wrapping the sign, and tearing it out of the ground before dropping the chain.
Thst was about as far as it got before town meeting, where an inquest was called for into the appropriateness , and approval process, and who had put in the work order etc. (There was some passage about the planning board being able to make minor changes to signage, etc without impact studies, and going through the approval process (which includes open forum, and with enough detractors to a project can force it to be put to a vote)
The main point of contention being how anyone qualified to be in that position could think that something that caused a 30-60 minute delay on a 5 mile road qualified as a ‘minor change’
Iirc the whole thing ended with the town cementing over that little strip (covering over all the metal and wood protrusions, and effectively signaling a stop sign couldn’t be put there anymore) and then several members of the planing commision, resigning their posts, which made the inquest moot.