WHERE’S THE SIGN FOR THE LINCOLN TUNNEL

About five years ago I wrote a letter to the editor of the local
newspaper about blanketing the community with the wayfinding signs which are now everywhere visually vandalizing the community. In that letter I set forth the many negative facets of this hideous endeavor, including the proposed $50,000.00 for a consultant and no hint as to the final cost of this repugnant and repulsive endeavor. I questioned whether the cost might be $100,000.00, $200,000.00, or even the outrageous and ridiculous cost of $300,000.00.

If you remember, quickly after my letter was published two front page
articles appeared relating how wonderful these signs would be for the
community. The front page articles went on to say how the signs would
bring together the citizens of the community, which was a fine
objective but a questionable outcome as recently witnessed with the
police issue. Would another municipality want to be part of such a
disaster? I don’t find it effective for us to form a circle around a
campfire, hold hands, and sing Kum Ba Yah in order to raise community
morale. Another supposed benefit was to bring tourism into the valley.
Just what we need – more traffic in the community. With our hundreds of tourist attractions, I guess we are in competition with Washington D.C., New York, San Diego, and many other cities.

The roads have trouble handling the current traffic. One thing interesting for valley residents: you can tell the tourists as their heads will be tilted 90 degrees trying to read the signs because they were so poorly designed. To me, these two front page articles seemed powered by Director of the Chamber of Commerce Luanne Stauffer.

At the time, local Chamber of Commerce head Luanne Stauffer, who seems to be the force behind this ill-conceived project, didn’t come forth with a cost for these signs. I think all of us with any deductive
ability now realize why she didn’t come forward with a cost. Was I ever
mistaken in my letter to the editor questioning whether the cost might
come to the ridiculous amount of $300,000.00? Shockingly, Luanne Stauffer, as promoter of this project, was able to bring the cost in at over one-half million dollars ($500,000.00), with 95% or more being our tax money. It won’t surprise me if the final cost ends up even higher. On second thought, they may not spend more because I understand they ran out of money. I understand there are issues which still need to be addressed, including the questionable placement of signs and the need to move some of them. It has widely been noted that some Wayfinding Signs are blocked from view and some Wayfinding Signs block the view of vehicle drivers. You just have to take a look at how some of these signs are mounted; it’s not hard to see there’s a law suit waiting to happen. Who will be responsible for these law suits, the taxpayers or Luanne Stauffer?

This brings up the topic of the sloppy, disgraceful, and brainless
manner of how this undertaking was implemented, including the clueless lack of knowledge of the total cost. Then you find Luanne Stauffer attempting damage control by suggesting in an article that they use the Tech School as one source for the signs. What smoke and mirrors this statement provides, but I always felt that Luanne Stauffer thinks she is good at pulling the wool over people’s eyes. Then came the questioned approvals of many sign details. My understanding is things were considered being done before the necessary approval was acquired. I was informed the original bases for the signs would not support the now oversized signs and had to be redesigned. Plus, it was stated to me that one or all of the municipalities in the valley would erect the signs. My understanding is none of the municipalities had the appropriate equipment to do this task.

Fortunately, we have Luanne Stauffer to solve the problem. As many of
you in the valley observed, Luanne Stauffer was able to hire a company from New Jersey to erect the signs. I find this disgraceful; the company is not even from Pennsylvania let alone the area. These signs are certainly the talk of the community. The hard truth is the great majority of citizens of this valley have an unbelievable abhorrence for them, with one valley official stating the “G—D— signs
are ridiculous”.

It is truly unfortunate for this community that a few people in this
valley feel they are the authorities on the needs of this area. Is it
ego, or their thinking they have superior thinking ability, or in their
minds they are doing wonderful things for the area, or love of control?
l think one of the worst offenders is the President of the Chamber of
Commerce Luanne Stauffer. I think this disaster of the signs for which
the community has such a strong loathing is a perfect example. I believe it is way past time Luanne Stauffer needs to be replaced as head of the local Chamber. If such a thing happened in the corporate world, wasting over $500,000.00, the individual would be shown the door. I believe it would be a positive factor if the Chamber Board were replaced as well, considering they allowed this to happen. The recent letter in the newspaper taking Luanne Stauffer’s Chamber of Commerce to task was right on. I got the feeling the letter writer thinks much the same as most of us: the Chamber is being used as a power base for incompetent and financially unsound meddling in areas where it does not belong.

The blame is equally shared by the individuals holding office on the
boards of the boroughs and townships in the valley. They each had to
approve this project in order for it to happen. It is truly a shame
these individuals did not have the ability to understand they were
approving an unpopular, excessively costly, and visually-a-joke fiasco.

I live in Upper Hanover Township and remember when Mr. Gene Fried,
running for re-election for the Upper Hanover Township Board of
Supervisors, was questioned about the signs and the cost. He was not
honest with his answers to the citizens. He would state that it only
cost the township $13,000.00 in tax money. He managed to avoid revealing that he and other members of the township board had to approve this project or it would not have happened. So, when you look at your local boards, unless the individuals were recently elected, there is an excellent chance they voted for this $500,000.00 + catastrophe.

Lastly, I want to mention that the Regional Planning Board, which
encompasses members from each municipality. One member of the board is a regional manager for the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation. I wonder what his involvement might be, considering his being on the Regional Planning Board, employed by Penn DOT, and I would not be surprised to find out is either a friend or friendly to Luanne Stauffer. I currently would be interested in the conversations they might have had on the subject of the signs. I would hope all possible conflicts of interest would have been adhered to and no issues would ever be found, but it certainly allows for concern. I find it so hard to believe that a disaster like this could happen in this community. There is little question that measures need to be taken to ensure this never ever happens again.