Why Can't They Leave Well Enough Alone

[Triple_7]

This small town is usually quiet with little change.  Left Monday night for South Bend to work with a friend on remodeling an old building...its about a 75 mile drive and I stayed with them till Thursday.  Came rolling back into town after a LONG 2 hour drive, it was about midnight when I hit town limits.  Pulled off the highway onto a road I take daily, runs past the high school.  Noticed a bunch of new signs for no parking and then I realized there was new speed limit signs for 25 MPH through there, always been 30 since I've lived here.  No big deal really, most school zones around other places are 20-25 MPH.  Then over the past few days I've made a lot of runs about town to find those were not the only changes...mind you, as with anyone who lives in an area long enough you get accustomed to the streets, speed limits, stops, etc.  They apparently decided to change a few intersections as well.  What used to be 4 way stops are now 2 or 3 way, new stops where there wasn't before.  

Nothing like coming from 3 days in a big city where its nothing but peddle to the metal and constantly putting the brakes to the test (country boy...I HATE city driving...it scares me :o ) to find changes in your little town that popped up in a day.  Its not really smart on the towns behalf to make these changes without warning.  When you've drove around this place for 3 years you get very used to things and don't really pay attention to signs because you know where everything is.  All the towns people are upset with the deal, my pager (volunteer fire) picks up the medical runs and other departments.  Been over 10 first responder runs for accidents just tonight.  Same thing last night, wreck about every hour.  I nearly got creamed earlier at a 4 way stop that I go through many times a day, apparently its now a 3 way instead...did not know that till another truck slammed on the brakes and missed my arse by an inch >:(  

Just cant figure out why they decided to mess with our signs, its caused many accidents (a few serious) and things were just fine the way they were.  This town only covers about 3.5 square miles, traffic really isn't that bad other then the 2 highways that cross on the outskirts...even they are pretty quiet other then rush hours.  I really cant understand the reason behind changing things, its not like that many people are packing the roads to justify removing stop signs.  

Town counsel who authorized the changes apparently haven't heard the expression..."If it ain't broke...don't fix it!!!"

[ozzy72]

The average council member has less brains than a potato. There was probably not enough in the kitty for a fact finding tour to the Bahamas so in a fit of temper they decided to spend the money on the best possible way to annoy people

[H]

I met someone with NH relatives when my truck's transmission was repaired in South Bend years ago. Evidently there's some relatives in our local governments, as well: our signs have also been changed.

8-)

[expat]

The average council member has less brains than a potato. There was probably not enough in the kitty for a fact finding tour to the Bahamas so in a fit of temper they decided to spend the money on the best possible way to annoy people

Yup, in my town, the council does not have enough money to repave the path outside my house, but has

[eno]

Imagine the same thing happening  in a city the size of Birmingham UK (Second biggest city in the UK). It happened 20 or so years ago. My father was, at that time, driving intercity coaches and regularly passed through Digbeth street coach station.

On the Saturday of the big change my father passed through the coach station in Birmingham enroute to London for an overnight stay.

The return route on the Sunday took him back into Birmingham. He entered the city and followed the prescribed route until he was within a mile of the coach station, at which point a policeman stopped him as he was about to make a left turn into a road he had been making the same left turn into for 15 years.
 
"You can't go down there mate they've changed the road system this is a one way street now.".

My father asked for the new routing and was given a rather confusing set of directions which didn't make any sense as although they had changed the system they hadn't changed any road signs or put up any temporary ones in the mean time. My father made it to the coach station over an hour late and added another hour onto the journey trying to find his way back out to the motorway.

The change had happened over night ..... no one from outside the city knew anything about it ..... even the coach company, based in Birmingham, hadn't bothered sending out the revised routing to all it's none Birmingham based operators it caused chaos for several weeks after.

[Jared]

that would SUCK

[beaky]

Reminds me of a story I heard from a NJ pilot who attended college in Newark, NJ many years ago:
There was an intersection in the NW corner of the city where four one-way streets converged. A cop was positioned at all times at the intersection, where anyone driving in there was doomed to get a ticket, even if they backed out.  ::)

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Probably they had noticed you were out of town and just decided to mess with your head. Any enemies on the council?

[Triple_7]

Probably they had noticed you were out of town and just decided to mess with your head. Any enemies on the council?

All of them really

Basically, we don't have a mayor, or a single person who has the final say which the head of the counsel does everything they want.  We have the town counsel which is made up of about 20 people.  Can't go into much detail...but they are all members of one place, its the biggest in the area, all rich, and theres enough members in that place that elections are pointless as its always people from there that get elected.  

Everything done in this town goes through them.  The things we need get rejected, they want to keep people in this town where they are on the money level.  Theres 2 retirement homes, they expand every day it seems.  But the factories leave, our feed mill was closed down which in a farm town we REALLY need it.  Basically this town is being run into the ground and theres not much we can do till election time, which this year could change things as theres a new, well known, runner for head of counsel that everyone but the current counsel would love to put in there.  (friends dad)  Things would get changed real quick, hes a man who speaks his mind, and not afraid to put people in their place.  Hopefully all goes well and he will take over.  

The current counsel ran a high paying factory out awhile back.  One of our towns major factories moved to Mexico leaving a perfectly good building that suited Zimmers just fine (its a medical factory, pays REALLY well)  Zimmers wanted to move into the old building, it would have brought over 300 jobs to this little town which we could desperately use.  Town counsel denied rights to them unless they would build a brand new building on the site, needless to say it drove them away.  Theres been several other factories want to move in but have been treated the same way.  The old building was well maintained and looks great...but counsel wont let anything move in without knocking it down and rebuilding  We need jobs worse then a fancy factory front :-/

Sign changing is just another thing they waisted money on for no real reason...just did it to show they have the power to...and to "help" things move in this town