Dec 11, 2002 2 min read

So did you hear the latest PennDOT joke? It seems the workers have special vision. They can’t look down and see neglected roads but they can look up and complain about a flag. It’s far too easy to bash PennDOT. Shovel-leaning jokes are as plentiful as the curses uttered by drivers slamming into potholes. But just because it’s easy to take a pot shot at the state agency that’s the butt of so many jokes, it doesn’t mean PennDOT is to blame or that the employees of its District 12 office are unpatriotic villains bent on tearing down an uplifting symbol.

PennDOT has come under heavy fire ever since officials noted that an American flag strung across Route 51 was placed there without a permit. Regulations require that permits be obtained for stringing banners or whatnots across state highways. There’s a good reason for this. The wrong material, affixed haphazardly, could easily fall and damage man and machine. And who do you think people would blame? That’s right, PennDOT.

So when someone strung the flag without seeking a permit, PennDOT had a responsibility to the traveling public to check it out and make sure that it was safe. Officials deemed it so, but said that the owner of said flag had to come forward to ask for a permit and gain township approval in order for it to remain. In other words, someone had to be responsible for the flag.

That the person who strung it in the first place took it down rather than come forward is his choice. Even the unknown flag stringer had his reservations about safety issues during the winter season. He told a local radio announcer that he worried ice buildup might make it heavy enough to fall and cause an accident.

Yet people are still blaming PennDOT even though the district office is anxious to work with the man in the spring if he wants to put it back up. So this time folks, give PennDOT a break.