Handmade signs arebeing taken down
By:Alec Moore
First-grade students in Paula Minichini’s class at Hillsborough Elementary School may not have the answer to the age-old question of why the chicken crossed the road, but they certainly know why geese do.
But their efforts at warning motorists to watch out for geese crossing the road have been hampered in recent weeks.
During a two-week study unit on "living things," the 17 students in Ms. Minichini’s class learned that geese molt lose their feathers between the end of June and the beginning of August and therefore lose their ability to fly during that period.
"We studied about different animals and their natural habitats and we learned that geese can’t fly during their molting season," said Ms. Minichini.
A local guest speaker later pointed out to the class that as a result of the summer molting many geese are struck and killed by cars and other vehicles while attempting to cross busy roadways.
One area of Hillsborough in particular along Amwell Road between Route 206 and Raider Boulevard has become a particularly fatal crossing spot for a large number of geese that make their home in a pond adjacent to the busy county roadway.
Several months ago, Somerset County approved the posting of two yellow diamond geese-crossing signs along the roadway. The county posted the signs after a resident raised concerns to the Hillsborough Police Department over the issue, who in turn contacted the county to see what could be done to ensure safety along the heavily traveled section of roadway.
But after completing the lesson on living things, Ms. Minichini’s class chose to further heighten drivers’ awareness of geese in that area by making five laminated poster board signs. Each of the signs depicted a mother goose and a gosling between the words "GEESE X-ING."
"All of the students love animals so this was a good community project for them," Ms. Minichini said. "They had a lot of fun making the signs and they were excited about the whole project."
Although the signs were initially posted nearly a month ago along Amwell Road and Raider Boulevard, all five appeared to have been stolen by the following day. Hillsborough Police and officials from the Somerset County Road Department said no representative of either department had taken down the signs. High school administrators said they had no knowledge of who may have taken signs down posted on school property, and said no directive was given to any school employees to do so.
Despite the setback, Ms. Minichini made a new set of signs by herself. The new signs, which were posted on July 4, however, were also discovered missing by the following day.
The students who participated in making the original batch of signs are: Michael Adam, Meghan Bochinski, Austin Bodzas, Kathryn Brownlie, Melanie Burnett, Ashley Charles, Mackenzie Conway, Anthony DeFilippo, Cameron Dennis, Trevor Lazicky, Sojourner Mineo, Niya Murdock, Katherine Nelson, Anthony Paolozzi, Joseph Pultorak, Kaitlyn Squires-Black and Jamie Vallorosi.