The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].
Question:
Hi Firstly thank you for everything that you for the Lakewood community. I am writing on behalf of my 13 year old daughter. She volunteers for a program that takes care of special needs children. On Friday night after shabbos begins, she picks up a child from his home walks with him to a program where they have fun play games and give the families much needed rest. She then drops him back off at home and walks home. This entails her crossing the tracks between whispering pines lane and twin oaks multiple times. She tells me that each Friday night it is so pitch black, and so scary for her and the boy that she watches to walk by. She’s asking if there’s any way that more lighting can be put up since it is a place that many people walk through all the time. She feels it would be much safer with more lighting.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good afternoon,
Thank your daughter for the wonderful work she is doing.
I have asked Public Works to look into adding some lighting there.
Take Care,
Ray
UPDATE: Good morning,
Public Works will be adding some new lighting to the area this week. We are looking for a way to bring power to the area so we can set up a camera.
Ray
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Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to [email protected]
Have a question for the Chief? Send it to [email protected]
Adding reflectors to one’s clothing would also ameliorate the situation.
“ameliorate” Huh! What’s that?
reflectors can’t reflect if there is no light present
Having the young lady wear a reflector on her clothing while walking in a poorly lit area will ameliorate the situation until adequate lighting can be installed. Still perplexed, perplexed?
Why that’s a DPW problem? The electric company should be the 1 taking care of that, all the money we pay for the crappie services that’s the least they can’t do.
To Susan. What about having the young lady wear brighter clothing in the dark? Would that ameliorate the situation?
Perplexed doesn’t seem to think so.
Can you also add a light or two at the trackes on James where it is quite dark?
Wearing a reflector or reflective clothing might help a car see this young woman. But it will not help her see. How can she look for other sorts of dangers, such as a stalker or even an uneven part of the a sidewalk?
The letter does not specify that the concern is because of cars.
To the mother of an exceptional daughter: Thank you for bringing this important issue to the fore, it’s high time it’s been addressed. The issue with lack of lighting on the tracks affects all the people walking from neighborhood to neighborhood. At night, it is indeed extremely dark with little to no light, so reflectors, even if worn, would be ineffective.
Dear Mayor Coles: Our thanks for reaching out to see how to alleviate this dangerous situation. We hope that the solution will be practical for all those involved and not cause any Shabbos desecration, which would undoubtedly occur should sensors be used.
Thank you TLS for providing a forum where Lakewood residents have the opportunity to reach out to township officials to help improve our town.