DUBOIS – The mayor of the City of DuBois wanted to assure the public that DuBois City Council did not drop the ball. On Monday night, he delivered on that assurance.
John “Herm” Suplizio announced that after months of hard work, an agreement was reached with PennDOT to upgrade the crosswalks at Park Avenue and Brady Street, Scriber Avenue and Brady Street, Long Avenue and Brady Street, and Washington Avenue and Brady Street. The announcement came after a lengthy discussion at council’s last work session on Thursday.
“I know it has been mentioned that everyone thought that the ball was dropped,” read Suplizio from a prepared statement. “But i can assure you that the city council and myself as of last fall made this a number one priority.”
These crosswalk improvements will greatly help the vision and physically impaired and general citizenry, according to Suplizio.
“After a few calls to Harrisburg and attending numerous meetings with PennDOT over the last couple of months, they also understood the problem,” said Suplizio. “But once again there was a huge hurdle to overcome. The cost of the project was in the range of $250,000 for audible alarms and total cost of resyncing all the lights to make this work would be over $500,000.”
Suplizio said the calls kept going out, and that he and Steve Swope of the city met with Kevin Kline, regional director for PennDOT and his staff.
“There are a lot of people that need to be thanked for seeing this through,” said Suplizio.
He went on to thank Denny Prestash and Ron Klem, both of whom work for PennDOT, Swope and Scott Farrell of the city.
“And most of all Kevin Kline,” said Suplizio. “For feeling that this was a worthwhile project.”
Suplizio also thanked council for giving him the room to run with the project. He also added that hit was one of the biggest projects undertaken by council in recent years.
The room erupted in applause after Suplizio read his statement. Many representatives from the vision impaired community were in attendance and voiced their praise over the decision.
“We are just so thankful for everything you’ve done,” said one woman.
To further help the physically handicapped, council voted to make the first parking spot off of Scribner Avenue near the post office handicapped accessible. The room erupted into applause after that decision as well.
Additional design work for the crosswalk project is expected to be completed by June 30, and construction advertisement is anticipated for fall 2007. Construction is anticipated around the beginning of 2008.
