Uhrichsville, Ohio - City officials are preparing to say goodbye to the orange barrel stop sign at the intersection of Eighth and Water streets and hello to two new LED stop signs.

Mayor Rick Dorland says the signs were purchased online following a Safety Committee discussion about ways to get rid of the unsightly orange barrel while maintaining the safety of the intersection.

“We didn’t feel safe taking it out because we took them out once before and people just don’t know what the word stop means, so we put it back in,” he says.  

Dorland explains that the barrel was installed about two years ago to alert motorists that the intersection had been changed to a four-way stop.

“We’ve had a four-way stop barrel sitting in the middle of the road, along with the stops signs, along with the word stop painted on the road. We did that so people would get used to stopping because that’s been a thru-way for years and years and years,” he explains.  

While he isn’t aware of many accidents occurring at the intersection, Dorland says it’s not uncommon to see someone drive right through the intersection without stopping. 

Dorland says the new signs will be highly visible with solar-powered LED flashing lights that blink 24-hours a day, seven days a week.  

“We’re trying to do everything we can to make people aware of the stop sign,” Dorland says. “If something is flashing red, your eyes will go to it automatically, so hopefully, this will help take care of the problem,” he says.

Dorland says the new signs were purchased from Amazon at a cost of just under $1,000 each and are expected to arrive within the next week or so.

In addition to the new signs, the city has also ordered several Stop Ahead signs that will be placed in front of the new signs and at two other intersections.

Stacey Carmany, Tusco TV