Resident raises safety concerns about Army Road crossing stanchions; town says devices malfunctioned in cold, fixes planned

A resident urged action at the Army Road pedestrian crossing after a near-miss and inconsistent operation of newly installed remote stanchions and flashing lights.

Chuck Kurtz told the commission he nearly was struck while using the crossing and said the bollard-mounted push-button devices carried warnings that they “may or may not work.” He said the stanchions were intermittently flashing and that the devices appeared unreliable in cold weather.

Town staff and public-works personnel told the board the devices were installed as part of a town-funded safety project paid for by a local foundation gift. Staff said the equipment worked initially but stopped functioning when temperatures dropped; the transcript records staff explaining that the vendor (Tapco) has been contacted and that cold-weather reliability was a complicating factor. Public-works staff are testing hardwired solutions and a backup bollard-mounted button so pedestrians would not need to walk to the signalized intersection to activate the lights.

The board asked staff to press the vendor for repairs or replacement and to pursue a wired or redundant button solution; staff said they would raise the issue with the vendor and pursue a durable fix, noting that installation during very cold weather complicates troubleshooting. The board also asked staff to forward complaints to the police department for enforcement around crosswalks while repairs proceed.