Local frustration over municipal traffic safety measures came to a head when town officials addressed long-standing delays regarding state approval for stop signs at key intersections. Commenting on the sluggish bureaucratic pace, one local selectman dryly remarked, “It takes an act of God to post a stop sign!”
The exasperation stemmed from a nine-month delay in securing official Department of Public Works (DPW) traffic approval for stop signs at the intersection of Guild Street and Central Street. In response to local inquiries, a state traffic engineer explained that the matter had originally been referred to the district office in Taunton for investigation on November 19, 1965.
Bureaucratic Paper Trail and Record Searches
According to state officials, telephone conversations indicated that the district office submitted a favorable investigative report on November 10, 1965. However, an exhaustive subsequent search of central records failed to locate the incoming documentation at headquarters. Consequently, state engineers requested that the Taunton district office reissue copies of the report and all supporting traffic data immediately to finalize the official authorization.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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