You may have noticed a new light in town. Drive through Wood & Main, and you’ll see the new light poles now controlling this nearly complete intersection. We know, we know: it’s not completely done yet. There’s some more concrete work to do and some more work to get the pedestrian signals on. We also have another art piece to wrap the utility box. Once the pedestrian signals are working, you can cross in any direction—even diagonal—and the crosswalk painting will add that option. We didn’t want to paint it before you could actually cross that way.
As you know, the ribbon cutting for this project was last week. Even though the project wasn’t completely done, we didn’t want to wait any longer for worse weather during the celebration. Well, that idea drowned in a downpour anyway. That’s okay – even though it was soggy, we had a great event attended by current councilmembers, past councilmembers, former Mayor Bill Pugh, Sumner Main Street, our contractors, and many of you. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this project. Thank you to those who funded it, including our Council, Puget Sound Regional Council, Federal Highway Administration and WSDOT. Thank you to those who worked on the project including our staff and contractors. And, thank you to our businesses who lived through construction—especially Day & Night Grocery, Heritage Bank, Napa Auto Parts and Main Street Dairy Freeze. The Dairy Freeze generously donated fries and milkshakes for the celebration!
This intersection sits literally in the center of the city, and it probably affected everyone in some way or another. We know good roads and transportation are important to you. They’re important to us too. This intersection had been so old that we couldn’t repair the light signal if it failed. (Thankfully, it lasted until we took it down.) This project was a long time coming. Logistically, we can’t fix all our roads as fast as we may like, but slowly and surely, we keep upgrading sections piece by piece. If you didn’t get the chance to join in the celebration, give the intersection a wave as you drive through. It was all well worth the wait. Mayor Kathy Hayden
