If I were a betting man, I’d say that everyone reading this letter, at one point or another, has wandered past a couple of young, motivated entrepreneurs on the sidewalk in front of their house or near the town park, trying to sell some lemonade or mama’s fresh baked cookies to earn a few bucks.
And most of us react in one of two ways: fork out the $1.25 for a cup of slightly warm, watered-down flavored drink to support the cause, or continue on past with a slight grin and renewed sense of confidence in the next generation.
Unfortunately, there’s a third reaction that seems to be the kneejerk response of a small yet growing portion of the population — demand proof of a permit or make sure the whole operation gets shut down.
The strangest thing about this particular response is that the people who react this way had no intention of interacting with the little tycoons in any meaningful way to begin with, customers or otherwise. These are the type of people who are only concerned with the letter of the law and have no regard for the spirit of the law. They either don’t know how to use common sense or simply refuse to.
Enter Yacolt, Washington, temporary patriotic roadway striping, and the controversy that should have never been.
Based on the article posted by The Reflector on Monday, June 1, the anonymous Karen or Ken who has single-handedly caused a controversy out of temporary roadway striping, something in this case as innocent as a lemonade stand does have a couple of valid points if the letter of the law is to reign as supreme.
But, if nuance, common sense, or the spirit of the law have any meaningful influence on decision making in the real world, then “anonymous” should just simply ask Siri to find an alternate route. You can avoid the stand altogether if you don’t like home-mixed lemonade, but you don’t have to kick the table over.
Although “anonymous” is very focused on authorizations, permits, procedures and “willingly breaking Washington state law,” to be clear, the real substance of this conversation is about two things, and two things only: safety and frivolous lawsuits (I’ll get to those later).
Anonymous appears to have a lot of distrust towards elected officials, claiming that because of this decision to openly stripe the roads with patriotic colors, that “it raises legitimate concerns about how serious other laws, standards and procedures are being treated behind the scenes.”
This distrust puts off a little bit of the dark web conspiracy theory crowd type of vibe, so I’d just like to remind anonymous that Yacolt isn’t the federal government, Yacolt isn’t the New York City government, Yacolt isn’t even the Clark County Government.
There are no big lobbyists trying to bribe us for our massive influence. There’s no insider stock information. There’s no pension. There’s no reason to do anything other than what we believe is best for the town and its citizens.
We are six elected officials who represent about 565 households. That’s roughly 94 households per elected official. Between the six of us, we know just about every single person in the town. They’re our friends, neighbors and family members.
So what about the law? We are a nation of laws, right? The Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) is “national standard published by the Federal Highway Administration that dictates the design, placement, and operation of all traffic control devices on public streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public travel.”
The primary purpose of the MUTCD is safety, and it is achieved by creating uniformity, efficiency and standardization. It’s not that difficult to see how important it is to have standardized signage and pavement markings so that travelers know and can anticipate what’s going on around them, especially in high traffic high speed areas.
But Yacolt doesn’t have high traffic or high speeds. Yacolt has no posted speeds over 25 miles per hour, doesn’t have highways, freeways, one-way streets, merge lanes, turn lanes, overpasses, clover leaf interchanges, roundabouts or any other confusing traffic patterns or intersection.
In fact, because of the low traffic volume, Yacolt isn’t even required by the MUTCD to provide roadway striping at all. Why? Because it isn’t necessary to ensure public safety with the speeds and traffic volume in Yacolt.
Choosing to stripe in patriotic colors may or may not temporarily put the town out of “compliance,” but, if so, not with the intention of being rebellious, putting people's lives at risk or sticking it to the man, but simply to celebrate our great nation as a community.
The only important consideration is, does it create a safety hazard? Will a person traveling into town on a two-lane road with yellow striping suddenly get confused when the stripes, although they maintain the same layout, change colors? Will the unfamiliar out-of-towner have a sudden urge to travel on the left side of the road instead of the right side? Will they not notice that the signage on the right side of the road is facing them and the signage on the left side of the road is facing away from them? Will they all of the sudden be confused by the fact that oncoming traffic is still in the left lane, the same lane as before the color change?
Of course not.
The patriotic striping has been on the road for nearly a month and there’s no record of accidents as a result, nor is there any sign of pending doom on the horizon. We have a sheriff’s deputy in town every day and have received no complaints from the sheriff’s department. We have a fire district and North Country EMS stationed within town limits, organizations who are committed to safety, and have received no complaints from either organization.
As a matter of fact, we had a state representative at our council meeting on May 11, and he didn’t seem to be at all concerned.
But “anonymous” isn’t concerned with safety, so there's that.
If safety isn’t a genuine concern, and it isn’t, then an “honest” liability risk is ruled out because there’s no reasonable claim of danger caused by the striping that would directly lead to damages, injuries or losses.
But we do still face the risk of frivolous lawsuits. This is inescapable. Having worked for the public works department for a municipality for over 10 years in the past, I’ve taken several classes directly related to MUTCD standards, and in those classes have heard many stories that are enough to make a person’s blood boil. There are documented cases where drivers who were under the influence of alcohol going double the posted speed, eventually wreck, and were able to sue the highway district or municipality because of things like cone spacing or sign retro reflectivity levels, and win, even though they shouldn’t have been on the road to begin with.
There are simply too many laws and regulations to be in 100% compliance 100% of the time. And, as a matter of fact, the letter of the law is exactly what provides the opportunity for these kinds of frivolous lawsuits in the first place.
So is there a liability risk? Sure. But not an honest liability risk. The risk only exists because of people who look for noncompliance with a microscope and a fine-tooth comb as a means to release themselves of any accountability, in order to extract money from jurisdictions and municipalities, who just so happen to be funded by their neighbors, the taxpayers. These are self-appointed lemonade stand inspectors who pervert the justice that the law was intended to provide, and instead use the letter of the law as a means to an end.
And lastly, we have the potential to receive fines from the state. Prior to our anonymous lemonade stand inspector starting a controversy that has lit up social media and hit multiple news publications, the plan was to have the patriotic striping through the Independence Day celebrations and then have freshly painted yellow lines ready to go before winter, which, because it’s all been offered for free, was going to actually save the town money.
But now there is a potential that the town could face some kind of fine, which is sad because that money comes out of taxpayer pockets. How high is that probability? I can’t say for sure, but I do know that there are municipalities all across the country who do this each year, and none of them have ever received a fine of any kind. So, I am hopeful that common sense and spirit of the law will prevail, but it does appear that common sense is getting less and less common. If we stay on our current trajectory, it won’t be long before common sense is so rare that it’s considered a superpower.
To those of you who don’t live in Yacolt and are just following the story from a distance, just hope and pray that “anonymous” doesn't get ahold of a handheld retroreflectometer. Because once that lemonade stand inspector finds out that nearly every jurisdiction in the country has traffic signs that are out of compliance, you’ll all be in trouble.
Brandon Russell
Yacolt Town Council Seat 4
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Letters To The Editor
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