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Six hours, that's all it took. From the time the Reporter hit the streets last week with a picture of a State Parks Commission sign seemingly directing tourists to Hades for a view of the American Falls to the time it had been put back upright at 2 p.m. was just six hours.
What took so long?
The sign, located on Fourth Street near Buffalo Avenue, had been in its comical state for more than a month prior to last Tuesday. The winter winds had apparently caused the upper bolt holding the sign to work loose and, finally, to fall out altogether. But, while it was the talk of the South End, apparently none of the dozens of state employees working full-time jobs in the virtually closed park -- to say nothing of Niagara Reservation State Park Administrator Ed Rutkowski -- noticed.
Maybe they take another route in to work at the Niagara Reservation. That still wouldn't explain the Parks Police not noticing. They're a common sight on Fourth Street, tooling from the Reservation to the Niagara Street Wilson Farms, where they stock up on the good coffee and fresh doughnuts.
To give them the benefit of the doubt, we'll assume that the parks officers are keeping their eyes open for Arab terrorists, and can't be bothered with anything as prosaic as comically broken road signs misdirecting the very tourists they're supposed to be looking out for.
Even a small victory can seem like a big deal in Niagara Falls, though, and we've received kudos from numerous well-wishers over the past week. But let's face it, this was a problem that could have been fixed by one guy with 10 minutes on his hands and a 20-cent bolt. It shouldn't have dragged on for months and it shouldn't have taken a front-page newspaper photograph to get it done.
But alas, two days later, on Thursday, the sign had disappeared entirely, becoming yet another in the lengthening list of unsolved Niagara Falls mysteries. Parks police, presumably, were occupied elsewhere.
In December, following an article detailing the horrible experiences of a group of Texas tourists attempting to visit the falls, a Parks Commission employee wrote in to tell us how "stupid" most of the tourists were. Her letter was emblematic of all that is wrong with the operation of the Niagara Reservation, from the rude kids who collect money at the parking lots to State Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro, Ed Rutkowski and the rest of upper management from here to Albany.
It's time to clean house.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 16 2002 |