In a town not far away or long ago, a woman stood on her porch and watched as a state department of transportation truck pulled onto the highway median. Two men with shovels got out and began to work. One man dug a hole; the second man filled it in. They moved about 15 feet. The first man dug a hole; the second filled it in. The woman walked to the edge of the road and called, “What on earth are you fellows doing?”
The first man replied, “The guy who plants the shrubs is out sick, today.”
The woman folded her arms. “Hmph!” she said. “Looks to me like the person with a brain is out sick, today.”
It looks to me like the person with the brain in the Georgia Department of Transportation has been out sick a lot, recently.
Not too long ago, along Ga. Highway 54 from Peachtree Parkway past the city limits to the east, crews planted trees and shrubs. For the past few weeks, crews have been working at the intersections along that same stretch of road, installing pedestrian islands with curb cuts as well as what appears to be wiring for “walk-don’t walk” signs.
With utter lack of brains and planning, most of these curb cuts point not to sidewalks, but to the edge of the road where the earlier planting was done. Not only are there no sidewalks, but in order to build sidewalks, most of the plants would have to be removed or plowed up. Further, there are places where sidewalks cannot be built without drastic alteration to the landscape.
Don’t get me wrong: I can’t walk without braces on both feet and with the assistance of a cane. I appreciate ramps and curb cuts. I appreciate being able to trigger a stoplight so I can cross a busy intersection where that makes sense. It doesn’t make sense at most of these intersections. It makes so little sense it seems to me to be criminally stupid.
But this is stimulus money, you say? No, it’s our money that we sent to the state or federal government and which is being returned to us minus the government’s brokerage fee.
It’s money that we could have used to buy groceries or pay mortgages; it’s money that could have been used to create real wealth; in this case, it’s simply being wasted.
We must take back our government.
Paul Lentz
Peachtree City, Ga.
