Addressing the bridge concerns

Dear Editor

This letter is in response to Jerry Strubinger's letter in the June 30th edition of The Time News.

In his letter he basically says that it is a horrible idea to have the upcoming bridge project in Jim Thorpe proceed as planned. Let me address his concerns individually.

1 - "The possibility of a traffic back-up on the hill going up to the liberties." While its possible that on a few weekends per year you could see a traffic back-up on that hill, the fact is that traffic on that road is extremely light compared to routes 209 and 903. Where the bridge is currently located it presents traffic back-up problems for the much more heavily traveled roads. I'm sure anyone who regularly drives through our town has experienced trying to make a right hand turn to get to the east side and not being able to get to the turn lane due to the back -up. Its also gets backed up into the downtown area when truck traffic comes through, which has the side effect of deterring people from stopping at one of the local businesses and thereby costing the local community tax revenue.

2 - "Replacing the bridge in the exact same spot." This creates a traffic disaster during the period the bridge would first be torn down and then rebuilt. How many people on either side of town want to cross town by driving through Franklin Township every day? It's just not logistically smart, plus it would basically be imposing a fee on borough residents since they would be forced to drive many miles out of the way. I would think that you as a Jim Thorpe School Board member would have thought this through and realized how much of a fuel increase, and thereby a tax increase this type of plan would impose on residents.

3 - "A deadly situation on the liberties hill". How about a deadly situation on the bottom of North Street? Surely you remember that a home was destroyed at the bottom of North Street due to the sharp turn at the bottom. Plus, driving through there on a daily basis shows me just how badly we need that road straightened. How many times do tourists stop in the middle of that turn and cause a truly dangerous situation? Besides that, people live on Front Street and it is a hazardous situation each and every time someone crosses that street due to the blind curves on both ends.

4 - Railroad improvements. This is mind boggling to me. I would expect that someone who has served in an elected position for as long as you have would understand the process by which funds are allocated for projects. You cannot take money that was earmarked for a bridge 10 years ago (Thank you Mr McCall) and all of the sudden move some of it to a railroad project. That is not reality. Besides, why would you want to hand a private company money that is marked for improving public transportation. If this is how you have been doing school district budgets, then I think that it's time that we had an independent audit done.

I would ask you first to think before you speak. Secondly if that is how you are doing things on the Jim Thorpe School Board, to resign.

Thoughtfully yours,

Don Wilson

Jim Thorpe