Hide Article Text (OCR)
Commuters(Continued From Page 1A)Grocery store.West Virginia residents also flock to the bridge on weekends to access the CO Canal on the Maryland side of the river, as well as hunting clubs and social clubs like the VFW in Oldtown.Twigg said the two communities are closely linked, despite the river that places them in different states.“There’s a lot of visitation back and forth because many people have relatives on both sides,” he said.The bridge closing could also make it harder for area volunteer firefighters.Fire companies in Oldtown and Springfield operate under a mutual aid agreement, backing each other up when needed.Dennis Mallery of the Oldtown Volunteer Fire Department said all of the company’s equipment would travel across the bridge, which has a posted limit of 15 tons.He said the mutual aid agree ments will now have to be revised.“We have no way to get across the river,” he said.For residents of the Oldtown area, the bridge provides a direct route to jobs at Koppers Industries in Green Spring, as well as factories in Romney and Moore-field.According to Ravenscroft, nearly a third of the 38 employees at Koppers’ Green Spring plant live in Maryland. He said many of the delivery trucks that service the railroad tie manufacturing plant also use the bridge.At the Oldtown General Store, proprietor Charles Blahut said the county went too far in banning all motor vehicles.“I could see them stopping the truck traffic, but not tiie small passenger cars,” he said. “For people going to work, that’s a 50-mile trip.”Blahut and others said the bridge is sturdy enough to carry cars “for years and years.”“I can’t understand why they’re doing it, unless the state made them do it,” he said. “You look at the bottom of that bridge and they’ve got loads of railroad ties under there.”Green Spring residents criticized the abrupt decision to close the bridge, saying officials should have provided at least 30 days’ notice.Like many in the small community, Leo Kesler regularly purchased an $8 monthly pass that allowed him to make as many trips as he wanted across the toll bridge.“Most of us people over here have doctors in Cumberland, we use the hospitals in Cumberland and we go grocery shopping in Cumberland,” he said. “It’s going to be a terrible inconvenience. I don’t understand why they’re doing it so fast.”Green Spring residents Virgil Mullins and Dennis Kerns saidthey frequently travel to Oldtown for hardware supplies or up to Spring Gap for gasoline.“We use it just about every day. Sometimes I make two or three trips across the river,” Mullins said. “In 15 minutes you’re over there and back.”In addition to inconveniencing motorists, the bridge closing will throw four bridge tenders out of work.Grace Piper works with her mother, sister and nephew, collecting coins in a tin cup extended from the small tenders’ house on the Maiyland side eveiy day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.She only learned about thedecision to close the bridge after motorists asked about a sign erected Monday warning of the move.“I guess we start looking for a new job,” she said. “I don’t know what to say.”Green Spring resident Kesler said the two communities must join together to save their bridge.“Both sides of the river’s going to have to get together to try to do something about this,” he said.
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Times News
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Wed, Aug 02, 1995
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 17 Jan 2020
Other Publications Near Cumberland, Maryland
Cumberland Daily Alleganian and Times
Alleganian and Times
Cumberland News
Cumberland Times News
Democratic Alleganian
