The federal stimulus plan is no stranger to controversy.  The debate over whether it was a good idea is still going strong.  There's a new detail of the plan getting some heat, and it’s right in front of your eyes.

The issue:  road signs.  Not just any road signs… the ones that say certain road work is paid for by the stimulus plan.  Although Pennsylvania isn't spending as much on these as other states, people still think they're a waste of your money.

How important are signs?  If they tell you to stop or turn around, OK, but what purpose do the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ones serve?

“Those dollars should be going into the infrastructure instead of advertising for the president, Congressman Bill Shuster (R) representing the ninth district said.

The signs show taxpayers which local road projects are paid for by the stimulus plan.

Pennsylvania spent more than $157,000 on 70 signs, but they aren't necessary.

“It was strongly urged by the federal government that we do put them up so we opted to put them on 37 projects out of 293 so we kind of took a smaller to medium size approach to it,” PennDOT District 9 spokesperson Tara Callahan – Henry said.

“I think they could be using the money someplace better than putting a sign up like that,” Ken Walters of Huntingdon said.

He's not the only one who feels that way.  The US Senate voted on whether those signs should stay up, and the decision to keep the signs passed 52 to 45.  Are there better ways to spend two grand besides on a road sign?

“The statistics I have are that for every $2,000 spent on a sign 40 pot holes could be filled and we know here in western, central Pennsylvania there are a lot of pot holes that need to be filled,” Congressman Shuster said.

Six PennDOT projects in our viewing area are getting the signs.  Three of those are a bridge in Huntingdon, a project on route 219 near Sidman and soon on state route 30 near Bedford.  PennDOT said the projects that most people see get the signs, but a lot of folks in Huntingdon haven't noticed the ones in their borough.

“Since they're doing bridge work and you can't drive down that way, putting it there is not cost effective and nobody is really going to see it,” James Hockenberry of Huntingdon said.

We didn't even see the ones at the Sidman project.

“My daughter was up in Johnstown so we were driving up there pretty regularly and we haven't seen any of those signs,” Hockenberry said.

When we went back to Huntingdon this week, the signs on the bridge were taken down.

“Let's fix the roads, let's get the pot holes fixed.  Forget the signs.  Nobody needs to see the signs.  Just get it fixed, don't spend it on the sign, spend it on the road,” Ken Fagan of Huntingdon said.

Both Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter voted to keep the signs up.  Senator Casey said he still supports his decision.  Senator Specter didn’t return our calls to comment.