Lewisburg moves Pride crosswalk plan to parking lot entrance

PennDOT’s warning forced Lewisburg Borough Council to change course on a Pride Month crosswalk plan, shifting the rainbow design off South Third Street and into Municipal Parking Lot No. 1. The move kept the display in public view, but it also exposed how far borough leaders can go on local streets before state traffic-control rules take over.

At its June 16 meeting, council rescinded last month’s motion for a multicolored crosswalk on South Third Street near White Pine Alley and instead approved moving the design to the entrance and exit of the parking lot between South Third and South Fourth streets. The borough’s draft agenda had already flagged the item as a follow-up to the earlier approval, with a possible motion to direct staff to place the rainbow crosswalk in the adjacent lot instead.

The change was not just cosmetic. PennDOT had warned that painting the design on a street crosswalk would run afoul of traffic-control rules, and borough officials moved to avoid a direct clash with the state’s reading of roadway-marking standards. PennDOT’s updated guidance, issued in a May 27, 2025 strike-off letter, clarified Publication 46 chapters on unsignalized midblock crosswalks and traffic-control verification tools. The department’s draft Traffic Engineering Manual also cites the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as the framework for state roadway markings.

Council members split over how to respond. Councilman David Heayn said he wanted to “embrace that spirit” in a place that is still publicly visible but consistent with road-safety rules. Council Vice President Jordi Comas said borough crews would use the Progress Pride flag as the design and argued that the parking lot site would still capture meaningful foot traffic. Councilwoman Jamie Grobes opposed rescinding the earlier vote, saying the borough should have carried out its original decision rather than quietly redirecting it after pushback.

The discussion also highlighted the stakes for a small borough that depends on state cooperation. One council member warned that moving ahead in defiance of PennDOT could jeopardize millions in state funding. Lewisburg chose to avoid that fight, but the compromise leaves the larger debate unresolved: whether a parking lot entrance preserves the visibility the borough wanted, or blunts the message by pulling the design off a public street.

The Pride crosswalk is unfolding against a broader push on pedestrian safety in Lewisburg, where councilwoman Samantha Pearson said in April that the borough had been working on the issue for more than a decade. Pearson said pedestrians have been hit in the borough and that the problem intensified over the prior year. She also said Lewisburg had already installed an LED-lit crosswalk sign, that PennDOT asked for additional engineering before more upgrades could move forward, and that the borough was using a $200,000 grant to assess road safety for drivers, walkers and bikers at spots including Market and Water streets and Market and South Front Street. That background helps explain why a single crosswalk became a test of how Lewisburg balances visibility, safety and state oversight.