by Geoff Fox
Town Manager Mike Faith told town officials there have been a number of complaints raised about the crosswalks in town and he has started getting in touch with the state.
The main crosswalk Faith pointed out was the crosswalk at Virginia Avenue and Main Street.
He’s since reached out to Maryland State Highway to see if the crosswalks in town can be relined.
He also noted there is a problem with people not stopping at the stop signs in town and has spoken with Chief Rich Miller and Sgt. Shawn Faith about it.
“One of the reasons we have police officers sitting down there across from Sheetz is to watch that crosswalk,” Town Manager Faith said. “They can watch the traffic, they can watch all the cars there and keep an eye on that crosswalk.”
In keeping an eye on the crosswalks and intersections, police have been told to give citations for people running a stop sign.
Faith said police couldn’t be everywhere all the time, but with an officer sitting there, people stop.
He added he had gone out earlier that day to the intersection at Sheetz and said half of the people didn’t stop and about 20% of the cars at the intersection didn’t even slow down.
“Bunch of them, the guy in front of them stopped and they stopped, so when he goes, they go,” Faith said. “It’s a wonder there’s not more accidents there.”
Faith said the town would work on it and those two issues would be addressed as that particular intersection is heavily used with the number of businesses and people walking to and from them.
In a Facebook Live event last Friday afternoon, Faith gave more details about the crosswalk situation.
Because Main Street is a state highway, it’s controlled by the Maryland Department of Transportation.
“We don’t plow it, for the most part. We don’t maintain it. We’re not responsible for signage, crosswalks, or anything,” Faith said about Main Street. “ We have to go through the state for those things.”
If the town were to put a sign along Main Street, he said the state could come along and remove it because they’d need permission to put the sign up.
He also noted the water drains and similar things are also the state’s control.
“That’s the way we want it,” Faith said, “because that would be an expensive street to maintain.” He listed as paving, plowing, repairs, and storm drains being costly for taxpayers.
The state also has control of High Street from 522 to Methodist Street, and Virginia Avenue from High Street to Main Street.
In regards to the crosswalks, Faith said he had a work request from the Department of Transportation he received last week but he hasn’t heard when work would start on the crosswalks.
Faith said he hopes to get an update in the next week and would pass that information along when he does.
He said he has pictures of each crosswalk on Main Street and the state will be coming in and relining them to the new standards and also new signage that will be to the new standards.
Those signs, he said, will be two-sided.
“So hopefully people will slow down when they see the new signage and they see the crosswalks clearly marked and we can avoid someone getting seriously hurt,” Faith said.
He again noted the amount of pedestrian traffic in town, especially in the area of Sheetz, Pittman’ s Liquor, and Save-A-Lot.
There has also been some concern about the crosswalk by Martha’ s House because that area isn’t well lit and the amount of children going to the location.
“Hopefully this will contribute,” he said.
Faith added the state would be paving Main Street from AC&T to about the Blue Goose in the next month or so.