A well-intentioned effort to beat the seasonal clock and repaint some yellow lines instead brought some red-faced city workers, but there was no other harm.
Crooked road surface markings on upper Washington Street that became joke fodder were covered up this week and repainted Thursday. Shawn Regan, spokesman for Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini, said the Highway Department set out to do the right thing when a city contractor got backlogged and couldn’t complete the road painting job.
“Basically, we had to get it done. We were in a time crunch. They weren’t able to do it when we wanted. (Highway Superintendent) Mike Arpino had to make a decision. He had no choice and said ‘Let’s do it in-house.’ The guys either have not much or no experience doing lines with the machine. It was like their first project so they went out there and did a horrible job,” Regan said.
Regan and the mayor drove out to the area and worked with the department on a plan to correct the situation. Last night, Fiorentini notified WHAV the lines were repainted.
The result likely brought a sigh of relief for the city workers involved. In the end, it became a learning experience.