Dummy light knocked off by a City of Beacon vehicle during milling on Main Street.
*Photo Credit: Anonymous Citizen Reporter*

Beacon’s Dummy Light with orange cones placed on top of and beside it while the City of Beacon works to restore it.
*Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin*

This week, one of Beacon’s most iconic landmarks located at the intersection of Main Street and East Main Street - the Dummy Light - was knocked off its pedestal by a City of Beacon vehicle. As reported by 97.7 The Wolf, citing RoadsideAmerica: "Only three of these old, dangerous, middle-of-an-intersection traffic lights are still standing." A reporter at 101.5 WPDH recently discovered Beacon’s Dummy Light, which does have a devoted fan base like a website.

Based on the photo above showing the light split on the ground, it does not appear that protection was placed around this endangered species of a light to aid in prevention of large trucks milling around it.

Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White said on the City’s Facebook page. “As many of you know, the City has been milling Main Street the past two days in preparation for repaving next week. Yesterday afternoon, one of our vehicles accidentally backed into the ‘dummy light’ at Main and East Main Streets. Fortunately, the base is intact and undamaged, and the light (which was not original...it was a replacement of the original with LED bulbs) will be replaced so that it matches as closely as possible the dummy light that was damaged.”

In his post, the City used a photo of the Dummy Light erected, before it was hit. As of that post and now, the light remains off the base.

Immediately after the Dummy Light was hit, more than one reader reached out to ALBB to inquire how to fundraise to get the Dummy Light restored. Beacon’s City Administrator, Chris implied that the City has started the restoration project.

From other articles, it looks like City Administrator Chris was whipping around different media threads trying to calm everyone after the light hit the ground, breaking into several pieces. As reported by 97.7 The Wolf, City Administrator Chris commented in a thread: “The City is not trying to remove this light: it was damaged during the milling of Main Street. Please take a deep breathe, everyone. This was an accident, and our driver feels terribly about it.”

After 97.7 reached out to him for further comment, he responded: “The dummy light will return!”

Citizen Reporter and Photographer Jean Noack took one of the photos used by 97.7, and questioned: “The mayor could not be reached immediately for comment on the actions of the city employee that resulted in the damage.”

Damage caused to buildings and structures by City owned vehicles does happen, and the resulting actions toward those employees is unknown, in terms of what is viewed as an accident and dismissed, and what is viewed as an accident resulting in disciplinary charges assigned to the driving employee, assuming that every employees feels terribly about an accident.

Disciplinary actions are difficult to track in the City of Beacon, with the exception of one case that has been a set of charges resulting in aggressive disciplines. Hopefully the current City Administrator is weighing these charges and accidents equally. Not knowing who the driver was, ALBB’s opinion is that no dicipline results in this accident, and that simluar consideration be given to everyone in all City of Beacon departments.

A Little Beacon Blog will file a FOIL to try to get a list of other accidents by city employees, and which resulted in discipline, to see if fair treatment happened, or if disciplines were pursued aggressively toward targeted individuals.

What cannot FOIL is accidents that were not as public and were not reported at all by supervising staff.