Latest update April 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 28, 2009 Letters
Dear Editor,
As a Lindener, and more so as a citizen who is equally concerned with the safety on our roads, I need to add my two-bits on the issue of the billboards that were torn down along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, Region 10, and more particularly those approaching the turn at Millie’s Hide Out into Linden proper.
First to begin, I fully concur with all that the Regional Chairman, Mortimer Mingo and IMC Chairman, Orin Gordon had to say, and please understand that they are not alone on this disturbing issue.
They have in fact expressed the vexation and concerns of all residents of Region 10 and also those who frequent the town and beyond.
This whole talk about the billboards being traffic hazards as the reason given for dismantling them is sheer poppycock; in fact it now appears to be the other way around, the removal of those signs has now created the hazard, as many have already attested to.
I can remember seeing men at work dropping them and thought that they were either being replaced more inwards, being differently constructed/design, brighten up or something more creative and enhancing, never thought that it was a mere “bruk down and done fu good”. Let me put it frank/clear and simple: The people who came up with that idea had absolutely nothing to do and were looking for something to do; it was most thoughtless and unimaginative, which has left that area flat, dull, uninspiring and hazard prone.
Everyone, all and sundry, travelling to Linden – foreigners, visitors, Lindeners returning on holiday, those coming to do various types of business et al, come alive and are reinvigorated upon seeing those billboards that guide, instruct, inform, admonish, advertise and promote our stars in the world of sport. Does the minister has any idea how Lindeners feel about their world famed athlete Marian Burnett’s live size picture being pulled down and thrown aside?
Ask bus drivers who run the highway daily or any other driver for that matter, what those bill boards meant to them. I have noted the polite and gentleman’s approach chosen by the IMC Chairman Orin Gordon in describing the manner in which the authorities and by extension the people of Linden were treated when he said that he “was piqued that the ministry did not see it prudent to notify any of the local authorities of their intentions to remove the boards”. I refuse to be so decent, for me it was nothing short of being contemptuous and uncaring.
Those billboards cost much money and brought in much needed revenue-though small, as was mentioned and they were also, indeed a sort of stimulation.
But to the people who care so much about the hazard on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, here are a few things that can be done:
A. Cut those large towering trees hanging over the road that adds to the darkness of the highway; clear both sides some 20 feet in. Getting this job done can provide jobs for people living along the highway year round.
B. Put back those reflector posts that are placed around bends, which have fallen down due to erosion.
C. Resurface the parts on the road that have gone bad and hold water whenever it rains. Many drivers, who know the road, often take the other lane to avoid the long bad parts – this spells danger.
D. Put creative and enhancing high reflector signs as a fill-in for lights along the way.
E. Have the traffic cops working constantly on the beat especially at nights, throughout.
F. Constant checks to ensure that low-beds and timber trucks are in proper order and have front, back and side reflectors intact; also they must be always equipped with those screen reflectors to be placed around the vehicle in the event of breakdown.
This billboard matter must be a concern for all citizens of Linden, we all are involved. I hope that the ever vigilant and concern councilor Mr. Ian Halls will deal with this matter on his T.V. programme “Under the Microscope”.
Frank Fyffe
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