“Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) has often been quoted as saying: “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Although it appears his collaborator on The Gilded Age, Charles Dudley Warner, actually wrote the statement.” (SOURCE: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/arts/twain2.htm)

The Route 441 “project” continues to be another much-talked-about matter …. by citizens … at council meetings … and on the Borough’s Website where there is a link stating “New Alternative on SR 441 Relocation.” As you open the file, you will see it is the  July 2009 presentation; still, may be worth your time to read because it is one of the few “black and white documents” we have been able to surface. While there is discussion at council meetings; it’s cumbersome to find any documentation of the conversations in minutes of these meetings.

We lean towards the movie mogul quote, “An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”  and Judge Judy’s “show me; don’t tell me” advice. Documentation is what solidifies, validates and “forces accountability of leadership.” Talk is cheap, they say. We like these reasons to document from an article at http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org entitled “Why documentation in a church is important.”

NOTE: What could we find as written documentation when we “googled” route 441 project columbia:

• 2008 Lancaster Newspaper article
• 2009 Lancaster Newspaper article
• July 2009 – Council approves $10,391.90 to pay for study
• Borough’s 441 Project list
• Central Penn Business Journal interview with Borough manager, Norman B. Meiskey, III. ““A second major project is realigning state Route 441, which runs through the center of the historic district. The 600 large trucks that rumble through daily have been damaging buildings and becoming involved in an increasing amount of accidents, according to the borough’s website. The $20 million realignment would shift the road away from the downtown and toward the river. The project is in the final design process, with construction expected to start next year, Meiskey said.”
• It takes some doing, but we found this (2011 Lancaster County [state] Road projects) at the PennDOT site for District 8: ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/Districts/District8/2011/2011Lancaster.pdf . The Website has a search function that displays alleged press releases about the project, but links to the releases produced nothing. (NOTE: Sadly, there is no search function at the borough’s Website.)
• Thankfully ColumbiaTalk had this posting: “Mayor Lutz also reported the proposed Route 441 relocation project is still on the Lancaster County Planning Commission’s transportation list for the next two years.” Though a review of the minutes from the meeting does not reveal this.
• Taggart Associates assessment (updated as of January 11, 2010) [NOTE: see above bullet, “Council approves $10,391.90 …]

So, what’s the progress … guess you’ll have to come to council meetings and “listen up” to wade through the “explanations.”