Letters and comments for August 4, 2011

Keep signs clear

To the Editor:

It was my privilege to be back in La Grande July 23-26 after moving away more than six years ago.

After living in the community for nearly 25 years (in two time periods), I remembered the streets well, and getting around town was a breeze ... up to a point.

Jeff, my brother-in-law from Portland, was approaching Spruce Street on May Lane when I cried out, “Stop. There’s a stop sign there.”

“What sign?” he asked.

He quickly brought his car to a halt. We noticed that tree branches and leaves obscured the stop sign on May Lane. We made the right turn toward Riverside Park and I determined to notify the sheriff’s department about this hazard.

A sheriff’s dispatcher thanked me and said she would forward my concern to Union County Public Works, which handles such matters.

The thought occurred to me: “Why did public works allow vegetation to block a driver’s view of a stop sign?”

Does public works have a list of problem intersections, and do workers routinely visit these sites to cut branches and make sure all is clear?

La Grande motorists would never think twice about stopping at that intersection. They know there is a stop sign on May Lane at Spruce.

But what about outsiders like Jeff?

I can only imagine what might have happened if he had not heeded that stop sign but driven right through the intersection. You probably can imagine that, too.

Dave Stave

Gig Harbor, Wash.

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