CHEBEAGUE ISLAND — It may go down as one of the quickest thefts of a roadway sign in island history.
Deborah Bowman, director of the Chebeague Island Library, received a package of cones and signs reading “SLOW” to put in front of the Chebeague Island Hall Community Center on Friday, May 31. She assembled them and put them out on the roadway. By Sunday, June 2, they were gone.
“I hadn’t even gotten the invoice for them,” Bowman said.
They had been run over, dismantled and thrown in the bushes. Bowman found some pieces and reassembled what she could, but the signs were again stolen. She later received a call that they were found in someone’s yard. She’s put them up again.
Bowman understands the adolescent desire to pull pranks; she admits to a few from her her teenage years. But she says the signs are necessary because many island drivers don’t respect the posted 30 mph speed limit, especially as ferry time approaches. The community center is one of the most congested parts of town, and she worries for the safety of pedestrians and bikers.
“At boat time, people are ripping through here,” she said.
Bowman put the signs up after she asked the town to post something more official. She waited three months until deciding to take matters into her own hands.
Town Administrator Eric Dyer said the town soon will put up six to eight yellow and black advisory signs throughout the island to remind drivers to slow down and drive safely. The town is waited to purchase the signs until the new fiscal year began in July.
“We’re taking a more municipal approach,” Dyer said.
The problem with the cone signs that Bowman put out is that they take up space in an already-crowded area, he said. Dyer understands concerns about unsafe driving, especially around boat time, but he’s had to stop people from putting up their own impediments and signage.
Recently, he had to remove a piece of plywood from a public road put there by a Chebeague homeowner to slow people down. He worries such efforts actually may make roads less safe and hopes to find a better long-term solution.
“There is signage that can be put up that is legal. What Deb has done is put cones in the roadway, which isn’t legal,” Dyer said.
As a gesture of good faith, the town has agreed to reimburse Bowman and the library for the cost of the cones, Dyer said.