A recently missing piece to the Lake Shore Drive and Central Avenue intersection is just one more example of individuals here getting worked up over irrelevancy in our region. Within the past month, major job losses at Wells Enterprises and ImmunityBio were announced through Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

In the big picture, those two notices mean some 355 local workers will be losing their jobs. That topic, however, has yet to be addressed at a Dunkirk council meeing.

But the depiction of a lighthouse — that no one could see from ground level or in a driver’s seat at the stop light — became a source of controversy. In a sense, Councilwoman Nancy Nichols nailed it.

“There are a great many people in the city of Dunkirk, when it was started, frowned upon it and thought it was ridiculous — but over the years they tended to admire it … because it was beneficial, and it depicted the entrance to our waterfront and the lighthouse,” she said. “The beam of light, the hope of what the lighthouse was significant for.”

Maybe. But the depiction itself was irrelevant. No one was coming to Dunkirk to view the magnificent lighthouse that was placed on the pavement of a state route. Thousands of motorists each week would drive over the design without a glance or knowing what they were moving over.

Not everyone will be happy with the renovated Lake Shore Drive project, which is nearing completion. But no motorist — or tourist — will be missing the piece of the road that only those viewing from above could see.