GLENVILLE — A Glenville family is hoping to prevent bridge strikes on Maple Avenue with the help of a towering Halloween decoration.
The red-hatted, crazy-eyed skeleton figure stands about 12-feet tall. Strapped to its hands is a bright yellow sign reading, “LOW BRIDGE AHEAD.”
It has a name, too: Crazy Carl.
“He's helped,” said Kassondra Paull, a wife, mother of three and caretaker of Crazy Carl. “I've actually taken a couple of pictures of the people that have turned around.”
Glenville Town Supervisor Christopher Koetzle doubts that the decoration has helped. He maintained that turn-arounds are nothing new and more “professional level” signage is needed to prevent collisions.
The Republican town leader has heard about Crazy Carl before.
“I know everybody thinks this is funny having the skeletons out there, but this isn't that funny,” Koetzle said.
While differing in solutions, Koetzle and Paull share concerns over the ten-foot bridge. The structure took multiple hits in 2023, but none worse than a recent strike heard as far as Clifton Park.
"Crazy Carl' hovers above Maple Avenue in Glenville on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024.
“I understand that a lot of people have their own opinions, but that doesn't make it any easier for the community or anybody else that's focusing mainly on their children's safety like me,” said Kassondra Paull.
On Dec. 22, an 18-wheeler carrying compressed natural gas slammed into the steel girder and exploded. The driver, 60-year-old Texan Sylvester Basil Jr. was airlifted downstate for treatment after suffering third-degree burns to his face and hands.
Evacuation orders were immediately issued within the immediate area. The east side of town went dim as a result of sprawling power outages.
Kassondra Paull remembers embers flying onto her front lawn. The Maple Avenue property owner of seven years said the whole situation has traumatized her and her school-age children to the point that they don’t sleep in their rooms anymore.
On Dec. 22, the family took matters into their own hands and attached a low bridge sign to Crazy Carl.
See, Crazy Carl was already there. Husband Zach Paull picked up the since-discontinued 12-foot skeleton figure from Home Depot in East Greenbush back in October. Kassondra Paull said that spooky decorations like Crazy Carl had become one of her husband’s “obsessions” at the time.
“My husband has put in a lot of effort, time and money into Crazy Carl and his siblings,” said Kassondra Paull, referring to several other large decorations her husband picked up at the time.
As the standout decoration gained popularity in the neighborhood, the Paulls decided against taking it down. Since then, they’ve decorated it for Thanksgiving, Christmas and are now considering Valentine’s Day. LED lights were installed in the skeleton’s core to make it glow.
Kassondra Paull isn’t sure if her Crazy Carl will survive the elements. Its arms keep falling off.
Large storage tanks — spilled from the trailer of the tractor that hit the Maple Avenue bridge Thursday — lay in the road on Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, with the mangled trailer in the background.
“It could be a couple different factors because technically they're not supposed to be out after Halloween,” the Glenville mother said.
Meanwhile, she also worries that Crazy Carl’s message isn’t making enough of a splash.
“There are still truckers going by it and just like I said, with the town and everything, it’s another Thursday,” said Paull. “They don't care about it anymore.”
Koetzle disputes that.
“Everybody wants solutions immediately,” Koetzle said. “And we are working from the town level — which by the way is the only level of government that has no authority in any of this — to make sure that this isn’t forgotten.”
Schenectady County owns the highway and therefore was responsible for repairing signage following the incident.
County Planning Director Steve Feeney discussed strategies to improve bridge safety during the Capital Region Transportation Council's latest committee meeting. County Manager Rory Fluman also sits on the committee.
"Additionally, the County is actively working to improve visibility by installing lighting on the bridge," County spokesperson Erin Laiacona said in an email.
A railroad bridge on Maple Avenue in Glenville, New York, Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023.
Koetzle noted that he’s regularly been in phone conversations with county and railroad officials about the bridge. He has considered mounting a lawsuit in federal court against two railway companies in an effort to raise the CSX-owned Maple Avenue and Canadian Pacific-owned Glenridge Road railroad bridges — both of which have both become known for collisions.
When Scotia native Kassondra Paull moved to Maple Avenue seven years ago, she recalled that this was a non-problem.
“I didn’t think about it all to be honest,” she said.
This article has been updated to include comments by Schenectady County.