Talking to these people is like beating your head against the wall.  I went there with the intentions of having them update the public on the findings about the dead battery in the control box at this intersection.  Andrew Parker just played his same old  broken record about the fact that they can't just change the timing on the light themselves, that they need a traffic controller/engineer to help them adjust that and if they do anything without authorization, the town could get sued.  That was all mentioned in previous meetings on this subject.  

I had to remind them that they had a dead battery but I was rudely shut down with my questions and conversation because they just don't want to do anything about this issue.  

I was able to ask them how long the battery has been dead, but they don't have an answer on that and they clearly do not have a maintenance plan in place to check the status of the battery on a regular schedule.   I asked them to have it put in place.  We will see if they do that from here on out.  It was mentioned that there are probably thousands of dead batteries across the state, not just here.

I had to bring up what Ryan told me about the two separate timings on the light reverting to one timing because of the dead battery.  They seemed to have no clue what I was talking about.  Ryan knows what was found, but the board seemed to not understand what Ryan found out.  Ryan told me after the meeting that he doesn't know when this outside contractor will be finished with their analysis and repair of the timing issues.  It's possible that with the fixed battery, and getting the two times back up and running, that the issue will resolve itself for the short term.  It's pretty obvious that the timing that the light has defaulted to is the 10 a.m. to 6 a.m. setting because it's too short.  

The board was annoyed at the fact that I have been standing out on the side of the road with signs.  That's good that they were annoyed.  That means they see me and that means they know people are watching.  I told them I had 187 people that signed this petition so far and they wouldn't even let me tell them the comments some of you shared here.  They hushed me.  

It was mentioned by Blaine Bershad that there should be a new traffic study there, but it won't be this year.  It's too late in the year and it's not on their budget line items.  

So we still can't let our guard down on this because it can easily slip into the cracks with all the other issues going on in the DPW.  So I'm going to mark my calendar to bring this up next year, around January, to see what they will do about setting up a new study.  

I was told that the study that was done 6 years ago by the DOT was done because the DOT was planning on doing something with the on and off ramps at I-190, down the street, and that they wanted to find out if what they had plans for there would affect the Rt 140/Dana Hill/Legg Road section of the road.  So the study was not done to determine if the light was timed right.  

So The Town of Sterling has never done a new traffic study at this intersection on their own in recent years.  The traffic has certainly increased, especially for the traffic coming from W. Boylston and Holden on the Legg Road side.  

I also mentioned to some people that a lot of elderly use that intersection to go to the Sterling Village Nursing Home.  

I reminded them that I'm keeping the residents informed about this light through this petition and through the Sterling Community Facebook Page.  They don't seem to like that, but that's too bad.  That's how people can come out and fight to change the light.  Be informed, stay informed, stay tuned for more updates.  Thanks for continuing to share this petition and get your neighbors and friends to sign.    Thank you.  Laura