Berlin’s anti-theft plan

By LINDA DROLLINGER
Posted 1/8/20

BEACH LAKE, PA — The cell phone of a gallery member was being passed around the room at the January 6 Berlin Township Board of Supervisors meeting. The phone was playing a clip from a WNEP …

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Berlin’s anti-theft plan

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BEACH LAKE, PA — The cell phone of a gallery member was being passed around the room at the January 6 Berlin Township Board of Supervisors meeting. The phone was playing a clip from a WNEP television news broadcast spotlighting the ongoing theft and vandalism of Berlin Township road signs, which featured interviews with supervisors and roadmasters Rob Mahon and Charlie Gries. Mahon could be heard saying that what used to be a relatively rare occurrence has become so commonplace that it now occurs on a daily basis, making the cost, time and labor of replacement an unsustainable burden for Berlin’s highway department.

In addition to Gries and Mahon, a volunteer firefighter was interviewed. He explained that missing road name signs can result in a life-threatening delay in emergency services response time.

While the interview played, Gries said that the signs, which are now made of plastic, are not being stolen for sale as scrap metal; they’re simply being taken for sport or as souvenirs of derring-do. And sometimes not even that. Gries mentioned that some of the signs are only being vandalized—hopelessly bent out of shape until they are useless and unreadable.

But, as the news broadcast indicated, Berlin’s many miles of heavily-wooded back roads make theft detection virtually impossible. Gries marveled at the lengths to which the thieves and vandals go. “Some of those signs are in the most inaccessible places, briar patches, poison ivy patches and quicksand hollows among them,” said Gries.

“We can’t let them win,” said a woman from the gallery, who bemoaned the lack of old-fashioned ingenuity. Then the ideas began to fly, some of them worthy of the mad geniuses who write Hollywood comedies (think the “graffiti-proof wall” that squirts indelible ink at graffiti artists). And at last they hit on one that seemed plausible, doable and cost effective.

“But no one can know about it,” said supervisor Cathy Hunt, with a meaningful glance toward the media representative. “No one.”
“The gauntlet has been thrown down,” said Gries. “The guilty parties will be apprehended.”
“And when they are, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Hunt. Road sign theft in Pennsylvania carries stiff penalties that include fines, community service and imprisonment.

For the entire WNEP report, go to bit.ly/BerlinTownship.

During the annual reorganization meeting that preceded the January regular meeting, Gries was re-elected board chair for 2020, Hunt was elected vice chair, all three supervisors were reappointed roadmasters, and the 2020 board of supervisors meeting schedule was set for the third Monday of each month at 7 p.m. The one exception to that schedule was this month’s meeting, held on January 6, for convenience.

Street signs, theft, Berlin Township

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