City Hall is looking to deploy new traffic signs throughout Thorold, but there’s only one issue: they keep getting stolen.
Luckily, City Hall has come up with a nifty, little way to keep track of all of them.
The matter was discussed during Wednesday’s meeting of the city’s Road Safety Committee.
“We have some speed signs deployed and we have experienced vandalism,” said the city’s Manager of Engineering Sean Dunsmore. “Vandalism is something that we see a lot of, especially for public infrastructure. The signs tend to get spray painted, the mailboxes tend to get their logos put on them, and so on and so forth.”
Another issue is signs that get stolen.
“I will tell you that we try very hard to replace them as quickly as we possible can,” Dunsmore told committee members. “In terms of stopping the vandalism, it’s certainly a policing issue. We have been in communication with the police about it and they’re certainly working hard at it.”
Dunsmore says that it’s difficult to catch vandals in the act.
“The one thing about the vandalism is that it tends to happen when no one is looking,” he said. “It is one of those things. We really try to replace and fix the infrastructure as quickly as possible. If you see or notice anything, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We don’t want to make it unsafe in any way because of some vandalism.”
Committee member Donna Del Cueto wondered if new signs have a bigger target on their back.
“I’m wondering if over time that diminishes,” she said. “That people get used to having that there and they just don’t bother anymore.”
But Dunsmore said he’s not so sure that that's the case. Fortunately, the city has found a way to deter sign-stealing vandals.
“One of the things that we’re doing — for anyone who might be contemplating stealing them — is that we’re putting a GPS tracker in it so we’ll know where it is,” Dunsmore said. “At least we’ll be able to find it.”
Vandals looking to take a sign home, will just have to buy one.
