I am wondering if anyone else has met the poles that surround the hydrant in the walmart parking lot. I was told by the body shop that they have at least one car a month brought in with major damage. The poles are extremely short. Out of the line of sight of the driver. Anyone else willing to admit they've had a problem with the poles? By the myriad of colors on them I know there are lots of people who have hit them. I was attempting to miss some people who felt the need to get out of their car and walk down the middle of the aisle. I missed the people but the pole was out of my line of sight.

And Mr.Mayor, isn't there anything that can be done about them???????

[This message has been edited by Kacey (8/14/2009)]

And Mr.Mayor, isn't there anything that can be done about them???????

Sounds like this is on private property. If so, take it up with the landowner.

The poles surround the city's fire hydrant. Thus my question to the mayor.

I'm with you on this one Kacey, I watched a poor woman drag one of those things across a new Escalade from wheel to wheel. Great sadistic entertainment for onlookers. I'm sure that future mishaps could be easily prevented by bolting on simple 2' extensions or something like that.

I am sorry to inform you but those are not the citys fire hydrants in the walmart parking lot. Being that they are on the privat property they belong to walmart.

>>I am wondering if anyone else has met the poles. . . .

Did you write them a czech?

Hah . . . beat ya to it Richard ; -)

Honestly, I have seen the poles, and they are in clear view. I have yet to hit them, and I normally park by them... I think someone needs their eyes checked..

If Walmart saw this as a possible liability issue, I bet they would do something very quickly. I suspect if anyone even mentioned their having to pay for car damage, you would get action.

>>I am wondering if anyone else has met the poles. . . .

Did you write them a czech?

I'll see what I can do, Hal.

Are they young Poles? Maybe if we had a Youth Center they would have some where else to hang around and be stupid.

Is this really the most efficient way to get in touch with the mayor?

As I have found out Levi, No. Let me google that for you...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Miles+City+Mayor
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Miles+City+Mayor
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Miles+City+Mayor
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Miles+City+Mayor
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Miles+City+Mayor

Sounds as though these poles are magnetic.

Has the "Wal-ehrmact" tried to annex the Poles?

If so, somebody warn Dairy Queen of possible blitz.

Ace may have to start a lend/lease program to support Murdoch's in order to sustain the second front.

Let's hope this ends quickly.

[This message has been edited by ABE (8/15/2009)]

Hey, that Google thing was fun, Josh. Didn't know you could do that.

Thanks Bart, someone used that on me awhile back and I figured it would be perfect.

The Poles are at Walmart . . . so they finally did make it to the most beautiful city in the world. Hope someone will buy them a piwo and make them feel welcome.

http://www.milescity.com/...fpid=21160

Kacey, I drove out to Wal-Mart this afternoon and looked at the posts you've described. There are two hydrants in the parking lot at the end of handicapped parking spaces. Each hydrant is protected by several posts painted in caution yellow and stands 4' high, at least as high as the door sill of a full-size 4WD pickup.

I was expecting stubs no more than 24" tall. It'd be difficult to miss them unless you're distracted. I'm sorry for your mishap but I don't see the problem.

Hope someone will buy them a piwo and make them feel welcome.

Or at the very least stop driving cars into them!

I'm guessing if you are hitting 4 foot tall objects school zones should be avoided at all costs. And probably driving near circuses with any side show attractions should be discouraged.

Very pro-active Mayor Joe, could we interest you in a job in D.C.?

It's no secret that I work at Wal*Mart...and you would'nt believe the amount of people that run into those "4 foot, caution yellow posts" surrounding those fire Hydrants. I was following a lady one day...we were on the drive right in front of the building making a left turn to leave the parking lot...the lady was watching me in her rear view mirror instead of where she was going and side swiped her brand new Subaru along one of those posts. When I stopped to help her she says to me ....".....I was'nt paying attention to what I was doing!!!! Ha ha ha!". All I could do was shake my head. At least she did'nt run over someone. Most of the accidents that happen in our lot are because people are not paying attention to where they are going...or they're (God Forbid) talking on their cell phones. One of the other major things that people do in the parking lot....drive 50 MPH diagonally across it...I watched a guy do this one morning when I was getting off work.....He plowed right into a shopping cart.....For some reason some people don't think that safety needs to be an issue in Parking lots too! To be honest, I'm really surprised that no one has gotten hit or killed in our lot.

I can't remember how many times I have almost been hit walking to my car. People drive like maniacs in that lot.

My Motto. If they hit me, their car will have one helluva dent! lol

I'm not much taller than those poles, so I have to be super careful.

I was doing FIVE miles per hour. Had just begun to move from a parking space the next aisle over. So speed had nothing to do with it.

Kacey, it may have nothing to do with speed, but lets be real. Looking at the road and not your cell phone is a must. ;P

Terry, I am with you I don't work there but have stopped by before coming to work and have saw a few people in a certin age group doing 360's in the parking lot. I have also saw them going pretty fast. People do need to pay attention. It is scary just backing out of your parking space sometimes if you are not paying attention. I always make my grandson hold my hand when we are walking through that parking lot. I have seen children running amuk in the parking lot waiting for one of them to get hit. It will be a sad day when that happens. So my advice is to "pay attention to what you are doing".

Each hydrant is protected by several posts painted in caution yellow and stands 4' high

Sounds like they were built according to specification.

I used to install these back in my younger days as a hydrogeologist, when I installed monitoring wells in high traffic areas. Four feet tall steel posts, 4-inch diameter, filled with concrete, and painted in a bright color.

Consider the alternative....instead of hitting these posts with your vehicle, what if you hit the hydrant? Not good.

Are we ready to learn a new word, mc.commers? What is actual name given to these types of posts?

If no correct answers in a few hours, I will post it.

They look to me like 6" diameter Sch 40 concrete filled class 52 steel pipe painted with two coats of Rust-o-leum No. 2766, hi-gloss Caterpillar yellow paint, but that is just a wild guess.

Gunnar: bollards

Bing! We have a winner. Thank you, Dave. They are indeed called bollards.

From back in my days as a deckhand on derrick barges and dredges:
http://www.britannica.com...95/bollard

When bollards attack!http://www.youtube.com/wa..._Cw0QJU8ro

Here's a photo of the bollards:



http://www.flickr.com/pho...859108541/

I think those red bollards in front of the store entrance, that keeps handicapped patriots from driving their vehicles directly to the gun counter, need to be removed as well.

The Miles City Walmart stopped selling guns three years ago. Maybe Red Rock Sporting Goods could put Osco's old drive-thru back to use.

Man alive those bastards are hard to see.....................if you're Stevie Wonder.

Sorry... I'm with the whole Stevie Wonder theory, too.

Now Chuck, there were days you couldn't see your own fingers in front of your eyes.

And again...Chuck rules.

It seems I go to WalMart on an almost daily basis, but I've never hit those poles; close a couple times, just avoiding pedestrians, but I've never hit anything. Technically, I think it's just like when the carts are left in the lot rather than taken to the cart return (what's a few car widths away to drop off the cart?) and say, for instance, the wind blows the cart into your car: you can't turn in a claim to WalMart (or any other place) because it's "not their fault". A customer left it there and if you saw the person who left it there and it ran into your car, you would have to go after the person who left it there; I know cuz I had a similar situation not too long ago at a hotel where someone left a luggage cart outside and it rolled into my pickup (I was NOT happy about that one!). But point being, I think the poles are on the same "logic" as the cart issue. The poles are there to block the hydrant from getting hit, and they are technically tall enough and bright enough to see.
On another note, though, I frequently drop mail off in the boxes in the alley outside the post office, and I have actually hit those poles with my mirror a few times; thankfully it's just grazed it and I was able to either rub off the paint or just touch up over it!

Kacey you are correct but even then I would have missed those big ass poles.

I took advantage of a shopping trip to the Billings Walmart stores to look at their poles. They are set up off the ground in round concrete pilings. They are done that way so that you don't hit the pole, but your tire will graze the concrete on the bottom. Hmmm...perhaps the ones in MC were not put in properly?

Perhaps they were put in properly and people who hit them are just lousy drivers.

Anyone that hits those bollards needs to have thier eyes checked and be re-tested for thier ability to drive a vehicle. Perhaps they should be limited to driving a flat motorized platform with no doors or body to hinder thier vision...



Maybe one of these....

http://www.youtube.com/wa...LQvBczyrhg

[This message has been edited by Chad (8/27/2009)]

Their.

Sorry, my bad. Sometimes my fingers go faster than my brain processes.

thier thier chad....

If someone wants to stake out those poles with a camera and wait for the right moment of a collision you can submit them to http://www.peopleofwalmart.com