BRENT BEAN II
WESTFIELD “Signs, signs, everywhere a sign”…
At least one city council member “can’t take it anymore” so he submitted a motion to conduct an inventory of city and state signs with the goal of reducing the number of those signs throughout the city.
City Council President Brent B. Bean II, who admitted last night that he “is obsessed” with the number of signs which are redundant or no longer needed during his discussion of the motion which was referred to the Traffic Commission and Board of Public Works, said there is a glut of signs throughout the entire city.
“We’re putting a lot of signs up, but we’re not taking any down,” Bean said. “I’d like an inventory, not just downtown, but throughout the whole city.”
Bean gave the council members two examples of unneeded or redundant signage.
“Next to the Tavern (Restaurant) there is a street, an alley, which is not a street anymore. They planted a tree in front of it and put in a curb (during the Broad Street improvement project), but the stop signs are still there,” Bean said.
“Another example is the small rotary at the top of Drug Store Hill where there are four big arrow signs directing the flow of traffic around that rotary,” Bean said. “Do we really need four signs.”
Ward 3 Councilor Brian Hoose suggested that signs removed because or redundancy or the fact that they are not needed could be used elsewhere in the city.
“There may be places where those (redundant) signs could be used,” Hoose said.
Bean suggested that Hoose was missing the intent of his motion.
A multiplicity of traffic signs adorn the island in the center of the rotary at the top of Drug Store Hill. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
“This motion is to take signs down – we have way too many – not about adding more signs,” Bean quipped.
At-large Councilor Cindy Harris said she would support Bean’s motion because eliminating signs would support “beautification of Westfield.”
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty said that the city’s Technology Center could assist the commission in providing the City Council with an inventory.
“There is an app for this which is available at a relatively small cost,” Flaherty said.
Bean said that the city will have to review ordinances approved for the placement of many traffic directional signs and work with the state Department of Transportation “which is as good as the city in putting signs up, but not taking them down when they’re no longer needed.”
