Several residents opposed the plan because of aesthetics. They told the council the square should be the borough's "focal point."
Harry Morningstar, a downtown businessman and Main Street Waynesboro Inc. member, went to Wednesday night's council meeting armed with several proposals, including one in which all four sides of the four-way intersection are laid over with bricks.
"The square in Waynesboro has been very controversial," Morningstar said in a downtown interview Wednesday afternoon. "The council made a decision a few years ago to keep the square open. We want to keep it open, too."
He showed the council photos of the main intersection in Annapolis as examples of how Waynesboro's Public Square could look.
"PennDOT has engineers to do the plan for the square. We want historical planners to do it," Morningstar said.
He said the borough could ask state Sen. Terry Punt and state Rep. Patrick Fleagle, both Waynesboro Republicans, to find federal and state grants to redo the square.
The council in June voted on a plan that would eliminate what it called the "no man's land" in the middle of the intersection created by the confusing setup of the traffic light system that routes vehicles from Main Street onto North and South Church streets.
PennDOT's plan, which received the council's blessing in June, would replace the existing traffic lights with an overhead system.
The highway department's plan also calls for two separated brick walkways running east to west across the middle of the square, a proposal one resident said looked like the walkway through a shopping mall.
The council agreed in June to hold off a final decision on configuring the pavement in the square.
Borough Manager Lloyd Hamberger said Wednesday night that he received an e-mail from PennDOT asking if the borough had any ideas on how the square should be laid out.
The council also agreed that the Waynesboro Borough Authority should be involved in the process so all underground water and sewer lines could be replaced during construction.
