Blue Suede Signs

I guess this is sort of a rant. If you live in the town of Fairhaven you probably have noticed the new blue street signs. I'm color blind but I KNOW these signs are blue! Vivid blue I guess. Now I'm not complaining about the color, I think it's very visible. The thing that has my nuts torqued is WHY.

Maybe I'm missing something but the most important issues in town have been the budget and whether or not the middle school should mandate uniforms. The uniform issue seems to have the town divided. I've seen a mini van parked at Wood School with a big placard in the windshield declaring "no" on the issue. Personally I think it's a good idea.

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Blocking out the scenery and breaking my mind. Do this, don't do that. Can't you read the signs?", Five Man Electric Band.

Actually I love signs. I developed an appreciation for them when I worked at Poyant's Sign, as a color blind sign painter, mind you. My problem is, why replace nearly every street sign in town when the money could have been spent more wisely elsewhere? I know the fabrication of these signs and the installation of them, some with new poles, isn't cheap. Was this some sort of Homeland Security grant? I suppose it would help terrorists find their way, so that doesn't make sense to me.I could understand replacing missing or damaged street signs with new ones, but if the new ones were blue and the old ones are green it would be kinda' ugly.

My other concern is that they have been installed too low. They can be reached by a reasonably tall person or a couple of drunken teens with one on the shoulder of the other. I know the latter method works for pilfering traffic signs from experience. I still have a vintage 25 MPH speed limit sign, the old kind with highly embossed raised letters. I once scored a 6 foot high, orange 'Construction Ahead' sign from the causeway when it was rebuilt about 1977. Keep in mind I was about 4'9" at the time, lugging it home and up to my room was almost as hard as trying to explain to my mother as to how I came about to posess such an item.

I predict that the sign announcing the beginning of Goulart Memorial drive and the accompanying 'West Island' sign will disappear before the Fall, if not by September. And no, I will not have any part of it's demise. They have been historically stolen as mementos of a Summer vacation here or by college students renting a house here. I do believe that at one time, many years ago the West Island sign had been removed by residents wishing to keep the Island a secret. "Sssshhhhh!"

Well that's my take on the new true blue signs. Maybe I'll find out if the town is selling the old green ones. I  would like a 'Dogwood st' or a 'Nakata ave' sign. Buying one should be easier than trying to steal one.