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Federal road-sign mandate to be costly
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - April 02, 2009)
Federal road-sign mandate to be costly
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Another federal mandate is requiring local and county governments to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars that they did not plan on.
Any government entity that has accepted federal funding will be required to replace road and street signs with higher-visibility ones. All regulatory and advisory signs must be replaced by 2015, Geauga County Engineer Robert L. Phillips said last week. All street-name signs must be replaced by 2017 under the mandate, he said.
Last week, Munson Township Trustees began to prepare for the change.
Road Superintendent James Teichman said he was able to find some savings after researching the issue. He said Osburn and Associates, of Logan, Ohio, offered the standard 30-by-30-inch, high-visibility signs at a cost of $28 each. That compared to $92.06 offered by a local company, he said.
Trustee Todd Ray said, while the township prefers to support local companies when it does business, in this case, he could not argue with the savings.
Mr. Teichman asked that the township provide $3,000 for the first installment of new signs. He said he would try to establish priorities for sign replacements. He said he would start with stop signs, stop-ahead signs and school-bus signs.
He said he asked for a specific amount of signs on the first installment, because the federal government is offering a partial rebate. He said a minimum of 500 square feet of signs is required for a 30 percent reimbursement.
Munson's costs may pale in comparison to what Mr. Phillips envisions for replacing all the road signs and street-name signs. He estimates it will cost the county approximately $400,000 to replace all of its signs.
"I have an extra $50,000 in my budget this year, because of this, that I wouldn't normally have," he said.
Mr. Phillips said the federal government controls the Uniform Traffic Control Code for the country and can dictate its wishes.
He said the mandate stems from Congress' reaction to an aging population and a desire to make roadways safer for all people. The higher-visibility signs are expected to aid the aging population, he said.
The county's plan is to replace signs every time a road is resurfaced, he said.
Although the county is willing to provide townships with the higher-visibility signs, Mr. Phillips said, he hopes they seek them incrementally before the deadline. "I don't want all the townships to wait until 2014 and then ask for 4,000 signs," he said.
He said the county generally provides townships with the road signs they need. Then it becomes the townships' responsibility to maintain them.
Mr. Phillips said there are two possibilities if government entities fail to meet the deadline. He said they could lose the opportunity for future federal funding. Also failing to put in the new signs could expose that government entity to tort liability. Anyone who has an accident could fault the entity for failing to provide what is deemed the standard for current signs, he said.
Mr. Phillips said the mandate was not imposed during the current economic recession. "It was already an unfunded mandate before the economy went to hell in a handbasket," he said.
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