Making the State Pay Attention and D-Day
Louise Hoffman Broach, Wayuga Editor
Wednesday, June 11 2008
Making the State Pay Attention and D-Day
Bill Wiggins thinks he came out on the losing end with the state Department of Transportation because its engineers didn’t find the intersection of Limekiln Road and Route 104 in Butler needed a blinking light to control traffic.
But the DOT did agree with Wiggins it needs to do a better job of alerting drivers on Limekiln, many of them inexperienced teenagers going to and from North Rose-Wolcott High School, that they are approaching a major, heavily trafficked intersection.
The DOT, after a study prompted by the many signatures on a petition that Wiggins collected, has agreed to have larger “stop ahead” signs as drivers approach Route 104 from the north and south.
That’s why I see Bill Wiggins as a winner in this case, even if he didn’t get the light. He accomplished what so few of us manage: he drew attention to a concern in a rural area and he got a state agency to react. That intersection may not become as safe as Wiggins thinks it could be, but it will be safer because of those new signs.
And you can be sure that if Wiggins didn’t make noise, nothing would have happened.
He first became aware of the potential danger when he was teaching his daughter to drive and she nearly crossed Route 104 on Limekiln without coming to a stop. He began to talk to other people about intersection and found they too, were concerned about it. Wiggins then went to the school district, he contacted the DOT and he came to me, asking for a story, and I was happy to oblige.
Wiggins did what not enough of us do; instead of complaining and sitting back to wait for someone else to act; he stepped up himself. He saw a problem, he was willing to spread the word and build support and then he went to the appropriate agency that could do something about it.
It was the anniversary of D-Day June 6, did you notice?
I promised my husband, a former U.S. Marine whose father participated in the invasion of Normandy, that I would use part of my column this week to mention the 1944 D-Day anniversary and that nary anyone paid attention.
David was listening to a “this day in history” thing on WSEN in Syracuse when then the disc jockey ran down the day’s notable events. He said it was the birthday of the YMCA and that the Securities and Exchange Commission was formed, and that Robert Kennedy died.
The announcer may also have mentioned that the first drive-in movie theater opened, but he failed to mention that invasion, that Operation Overlord, saw 5,300 ships supported by 11,000 planes ferry troops across the English Channel to the beaches of Normandy.
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