OPINION: Ashland council’s decision mistake
06/25/2007
The Ashland Borough Council seems
to have made an error in judgement.
The council recently decided to
reverse itself and voted to not participate in the Upper Schuylkill
pedestrian safety program. Participating municipalities receive up
to $5,000 a year to cover police officers enforcing pedestrian crosswalk
laws.
To receive the money, a participating
municipality’s police department must draw up a plan for enforcing
the law that includes vehicle and foot patrols as well as educating
motorists and pedestrians. The funding only covers straight time officers
spend on the job.
In Pennsyvania, motorists are required
to yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks. Pedestrians must cross
the street at such cross walks.
Ashland took part in the program
last year with the rest of the Upper Schuylkill communities —
Frackville, Girardville, Mahanoy City, Ringtown and Shenandoah. This
year, Ashland says the program won’t work for the borough because
it does not cover overtime.
•
There are several things wrong with the borough’s
reasoning.
First of all, why do we even need a grant program to
get police officers to do something they should be doing in the first
place?
As driving habits deteriorate in this country, pedestrians
are more in danger than ever. Police should be out there pulling cars
over right and left for not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.
Likewise, they should crack down on people who don’t know how
to cross the street properly. (Pesestrian safety is a two-way street,
after all.)
In small communities like the boroughs of Schuylkill
County, enforcing the crosswalk rule should be part of the regular
routine.
Some communities, like Schuylkill Haven, take this seriously.
That said, if there is a grant program that will put
more money into a borough police department’s budget for doing
something they should already be doing, its really free money. Haggling
over it because it only covers straight time is despicable.
Is there a major crime wave in Ashland? Are there unsolved
murders? What is taking up the officers’ time that they must
use overtime to protect pedestrians? It is murders and crime waves
that should be overtime work, not citing drivers who are a danger
to little old ladies crossing the street.
•
Another thing that is distressing about this issue is
that if there is any community in Schuylkill County that should worry
about pedestrian safety, it is Ashland.
A state highway runs right through the middle of the
borough on a significant incline. It is a recipe for disaster and
the borough has seen some disasters.
Pedestrians have been struck by cars in Ashland and
some have died.
Maybe the borough council didn’t have time to think
this through properly. The council is currently negotiating with the
police department. Tempers can flare at a time like that. Emotions
run high. Threats are made that no one really means. We don’t
know what was discussed or said behind closed doors. No one is perfect.
So let’s hope the Ashland Borough Council realizes
how bad a decision this is and reverses itself again and gets back
in the pedestrian safety program.
If not, the taxpayers of Ashland should take note of
what their elected officials and tax-dollar-paid police officers’
priorities are and instruct them through petition, speaking at council
meetings and, if necessary, through the ballot box — sorry, the
voting computer terminal — that safety is at the top of the list.
© The REPUBLICAN & Herald
2007
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