Mburgh Elementary School Crossing Lights Installed

MIDDLEBURGH - Members of the Middleburgh Village DPW crew were busy last week installing new crosswalk lights in front of the Elementary School on Main Street just in time for the beginning of the new school year.

The Middleburgh Central School District purchased the lights, which the Village installed, and the New York State DOT will maintain.

At Monday night's village board meeting, officials said the "bugs" are being worked out of the lighting system to make sure the lights coordinate.

The school district purchased the equipment for the crosswalk lights after the village submitted a permit to the state DOT for approval, it was announced last Tuesday.

In May, village officials were informed that in consultation with the DOT, the MCS administration had chosen a crossing lights system to purchase for the Elementary School Crosswalk.

In March, Middleburgh school officials said they were continuing to work with the state to repair two broken crosswalk warning lights near the elementary school.

The issue came up at the village board meeting in early March. village board members and school board members met about the issue.

School officials have never stopped working on repairing the crossing lights, Superintendent Mark Place said in March.

Repairing the lights was not a matter of just a simple application, he said displaying a six-foot-long list of applications and other items that the school has applied for to repair the lights. The repairs have to go to architects and there have been numerous changes in the village government and the local DOT since the district began to seek repairs, the Superintendent added.

In March, Superintendent Place said the district continuing to work on the permit that is required by the State DOT.

Several village board members in March wondered why the lights had not been fixed.

The crosswalk warning lights on Main Street at Middleburgh Elementary School have not worked for several years and, saying that it was a safety issue, wondered why the lights had not been repaired. 

One of the lights, on the east side of Main Street, was damaged in a vehicle accident a few years ago and not replaced. The light on Main Street on the other side of the street stopped working a few years ago and was not repaired.

Under an agreement, the school pays for the lights, the village installs them, and the state maintains them.

The lights were added several years ago after a middle school student was struck and injured by a vehicle while he was attempting to cross the street one fall evening.