Chris Curle/Special to the Eagle

The city soon will replace these puzzling signs along Collier Boulevard's newly widened sidewalks.

Chris Curle/Special to the Eagle

Marco'ss almost new recycling center will take your old TVs for proper disposal if you decide to upgrade to digital.

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“Giant skates!” — Confusing signs of the times

Check out the photo of a “traffic” sign, several of which line the wide sidewalk area of Collier Boulevard.

The signs are the city’s effort to explain that the wide walkways are to be shared by people using a variety of methods of getting from here to there.

We get that. There’s a symbol of a guy on a bicycle, another person walking and an outsized in-line skate, which must mean some giant wants to tool down the boulevard.

Trouble is, the signs don’t just show shared use. They seem to prioritize the transit modes with arrows.

The skate dominates, able to run over cyclists and pedestrians. The walker seems to have sway and say over the cyclist, who has no arrows to anywhere.

The problem of sidewalk sign confusion has reached crisis mode at City Hall. Well not really, but some nervous giggles have planners looking for a quick fix.

“The best thing to say is that the city is working on it,” says Jim Miller from his office at City Hall. “The arrows should be just dashes to indicate that various things are allowed.”

Miller has a full plate of important projects, including the STRP (septic tank replacement program) but he wants to clear up confusion over what wheeled wonders and pedal pushers can do and where.

“We’ll try to educate the public on how a shared-use path is supposed to operate,” Miller explains. “And we’ll do that by rolling out new signs to replace the current ones.”

Meantime we have a few unofficial suggestions for when the paths of wide sidewalk walkers, riders and skaters collide.

-- Wear pads on elbows, knees and egos.

-- Carry a big horn, like Clarabell the Clown. Maybe a seltzer bottle too.

-- Beware of stray Segway riders. In new hands, they can be unpredictable.

-- If you encounter power walkers using their cell phones, dash into oncoming street traffic. You’ll be safer there.

-- If there’s a three-way deadlock, use that age-old Rock-Paper-Scissors solution. The scissors can cut the cyclist’s tires, the paper can become moving violation tickets and the rock can knock down the confusing but well-meaning signs until replacements are available. – Don.

News about your existing TV

Here’s reassuring news for islanders who may be about to toss their old-fashioned TV sets and get a digital TV.

Many people are doing that, knowing that broadcasters are changing over to digital transmission on Feb. 17, 2009.

The news is, you can take the big old TVs to the Marco Recycling Center and they’ll dispose of them for you at no charge.

Ralph McKeller, senior field supervisor at the local recycling center at Chalmers and Elkcam, says it’s important the old TVs be disposed of properly.

“They’ve got seven heavy metals in them,” Ralph says, “and it’s against policy to bury them in landfills now.”

You can phone Ralph at the center ( 252-5153 ) for details on what materials will be accepted, hours of operation and other information.

The Consumer Electronics Association reports that about a fourth of the old low-tech TV sets will be recycled, a good thing as they can leak those heavy metals, including several pounds of lead.

We should remind you, however, that many of the old sets still will be usable if you have cable or satellite service and the appropriate receivers. Converter boxes are available to make the old TVs compatible with the new digital system.

I asked Ralph McKeller whether there’s a single item or type of thing people most often bring in to be recycled. His answer: “Latex paint.”

Ralph encourages islanders to stop by the center and pick up a list of all the items acceptable and also items the center cannot process.

This new center, opened by Collier County at Elkcam and Chalmers this spring, replaces the larger facility across the street that served Marco for more than 20 years. And Ralph has been here since early on.

“I came to Marco in 1984 and have been at the recycling center ever since,” Ralph says.

One more note. Some corporations have their own plans to recycle older model TVs for customers who get new ones. For that information, try www.epa.gov/rcc/plugin. — Chris

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E-mails: chris@chriscurle.com or don@donfarmer.com