Ramsey Resident - 1985 - November/December

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~ r . .-... Tri.City Newsletter, NovemberlDecember 1985 - Page 19 - ~~ I' I Traffic Signalization in Anoka We receive many phone calls regarding the timing of the traffic, lights in downtown Anoka. As a result, we thought this short article might be use- ful to the public in answering some of those questions re- garding how our traffic signals work. Pedestrians may have notic- Why Your Digital Clock May- Flash Did my house lights just blink? I'll look at the digital clock. Yes, it's blinking, so the lights did blink. What really happens when the lights blink? At the substa- tion is a device called a re- closure which watches the cir- cuit for overloads, unbalances and faults. The device will open and close three times to try and clear the problem before it remains open, and you are out of electricity. The first time the reclosure opens and closes is called the instantaneous trip. The lights are out two or three tenths of a second. If the problem is still there, the reclosure will Qpen and wait about six seconds before closing. If the problem is still there, the reclosure will open and wait about 15 seconds before closing. If the problem is still there, then the reclosure will open and lock out. Then we have tol.oo~ .for tile problem. ,-"," ., ~ Most reclosure operations are caused by animals (squir- ' rels, gophers, birds, etc.), lightning, dig ins, trees, and equipment failures. These are called faults. To us in the busi- ness, the blinks are a victory. The fault has cleared 'and the system is whole. This has happened for years and most of the time no one noticed it. But the new digital- type clocks will start to flash if there is an outage. No matter how long the outage. Some clocks reset themselves to 12:20 a.m., some stay at the time of the outage, some have batteries and they keep track of the time: But all flash the fact that there was an outage. While this may result in some inconvenience, because of lost time, we can all agree that this procedure is worth an in- convenience if it prevents, as it has, longer and more serious power outages. For more information on this', call Utility'Director Lewis Bradford.at 421-6630, ext. 182. ed that the traffic signals along Main Street at Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Avenues provide WALK and DON'T WALK indications for each crosswalk at the inter- section. These WALK and DON'T WALK indications are standard on most traffic signals being installed across the country. They provide a standard system of assisting pedestrians in crossing inter- sections controlled by traffic signals. There is always some confu- sion on the part of pedestrians facing these WALK and DON'T WALK indications. The ten- dency is for pedestrians to assume that they must com- plete the entire crossing of the street during the time the WALk. Indication is lit. In reali- ty, the WALK and DON'T WALK indications work, in tandem to assure the pedes- trian adequate' time to cOm- plete his or her crossing safe- ly. , When the walk light is lit, pedestrians may leave the curb to begin to cross the street. They may leave the curb anytime that the WALK light is lit. The DON'T WALK is lit im- mediately after the WALK is turned off. At first, the DON'T WALK light is Jlashing to in- dicate to pedestrians that they are in the clearance period for pedestrian crossing time. Dur- ing this time, no pedestrian should leave the curb to begin to cross the street. However, pedestrians already in the street may continue to cross the street and are assured that there is adequate time to com- pl~te their crossing. When the DON'T WALK light stops flashing and be- comes steady, any pedestrian in the crosswalk should im- mediately seek the safety of the sidewalk. The steady DON'T WALK light indicates that the pedestrian. crossi ng time has been completed and that the light will shortly become green to permit traffic to proceed past the crosswalk. During the time the traffic signal is green for traffic through a crosswalk, the DON'T WALK light will remain I it. These pedestrian indica- tions function in a manner similar to that, of the traffic signal with red, yellow, and green indications. Pedestrians need only to remember that they should leave, the curb on- ly when the WALK light for that crosswalk is lit. During the time the DON'T WALK light is. flashing, pedestrians still have adequate time to complete their crossing. Pedestrians should not be in " the crosswalk during the time the DON'T WALK light is steady. City Hall Business Hours Ch,anged Beginning on August" 1, 1985, Anoka City Hall will close its doors at 4:30 p.m'. Monday through Friday i8- stead of 5 p.r;n. Anoka City Ha.ll will still open for businessat8 a.m. Monday thro'ugh Friday. A city survey showed that only the cities of Spring Lake Park and Ramsey in Anoka County have all employees vvorking untJt 5 p.m. ,an9 city hall departme'nts average'dC1n- Iy three public contacts be- tween 4:30 and 5 p.m. Em- ployees will still be required to work'an eight hour day, with a 30 minute lunch instead of one hour. Anoka City Council will re- view the effects of the new hours after a trial period of one year. All the new hours will be posted on city hall doors. Please make a note to try to cqndklct yo~ city bus,in.ess prior to 4:30 p.m.' ~ t f' J J 1 \ 1 I I I , J \ , 'Scenes from Anoka Halloween parade I I, , I :} ~ 1