Why not use local contractors

[Willy]

A new solar powered flashing light that warns motorists of an oncoming fire trucks was installed on Ludington Ave. The installing contractor is from Lansing. Why wasn't a local electrician hired to do the work? I wonder where the money came from and why the necessity for the sign. My understanding is that most cities have remote controls  in fire trucks that can actuate traffic signals when they approach. Is this another unnecessary spending of tax dollars?

[XLFD]

If it's a State project, then this means nothing about whether the LFD station is going to stay put or not.  And whereas I admit there is a use for these signs, I am sure there was a lot of waste from the facts Willy has presented. I also agree with your observation on the east sign being difficult to see through the trees in bloom during the seasons, however, this is common for Ludington.

The western sign will really have little use, again due to vision, as the sight lines are long from Robert to the west because Wesco is set back so much from the Avenue.  You'll see the flashing fire truck coming up Robert before you notice the flashing sign.

The only thing I will contend is that as it currently stands, Robert is the best way to get out to Ludington Avenue, and it's again due largely to safety and sight lines.  When the trucks roll out to Loomis, the station itself blocks the view to the west, making left turns over to Rath more costly in time and dangerous, whereas vehicles will see the trucks (and vice versa) from the west on Loomis and yield accordingly.  

Rath has a lot more traffic than Robert and poor sight lines where it intersects Loomis, so a left turn there can take a while and is less safe, than just turning right, again with wide open sight lines to the left, on Robert.   

Same thing happens for the likely right turn on Ludington Avenue from Robert, where while again Rath has the stoplight, but it also has limited sight lines to make the truck go through slower than it would on Robert stop sign.

I don't know how scientific the thoughts behind it was, but the LFD does have guidelines for which streets to take for responses to incident locations.  

 

[Willy]

That makes sense. I didn't consider the turning radius of the longer fire fighting equipment.

[DavisTremblay]

It doesn't matter that the contractor is from other city, but matters that the electrician resolve the issue on time.