County drops East Lemon bridge

BY MICHAEL J. RUDOLF

Wyoming County Press Examiner

TUNKHANNOCK - The Wyoming County Commissioners are scrapping plans to replace a bridge that no one wants anyway.

At Tuesday's meeting, the commissioners reported that PennDOT does not want to continue with plans to put in a new bridge over the Tunkhannock Creek at East Lemon.

"PennDOT would like to take it off the table because there are so many projects that need attention," said Commissioner Tony Litwin.

Litwin noted that the commissioners recently met with representatives of PennDOT and the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission to discuss infrastructure improvements.

According to Litwin, PennDOT had an estimated cost of $2.5 million to replace the bridge, which spans the creek between Lemon and Tunkhannock townships.

The commissioners want assurance, however, that the money earmarked for that bridge will remain available for other projects in the county. For example, Litwin said his first hope is that the state will focus its attention on the next bridge downstream, on Tunnel Hill Road.

Litwin noted that residents in the area have repeatedly told officials that they don't want the bridge, and traffic seems fine without it.

"It really doesn't serve a purpose anyway," the commissioner said.

The metal bridge that once spanned the creek was built in 1891. In 2001, the bridge was found to be structurally unsafe and it was closed to traffic. In 2004, the remnants of Hurricane Ivan further damaged the structure's abutments. The bridge was finally demolished in April 2005.

In another matter, the commissioners reported they met Monday with representatives of The Williams Companies. That business plans to construct a 20-inch natural gas pipeline from Dallas to the Marcellus shale gas region in Susquehanna County.

Litwin said the project is just in the planning stages right now, and the meeting was for informational purposes only. Williams will have to contract for rights-of-way with individual property owners, and the county will probably not be involved in the matter.

The commissioners also opened bids for an upgraded audio recording system for the courtrooms.

Topp Business Solutions of Scranton offered the apparent low bid of $13,320. The only other bid came from Office Business Systems of Lincoln Park, N.J., at $14,000.

The bids will be turned over to Solicitor James Davis and Judge Russell Shurtleff for review. The commissioners plan to vote on accepting the bid at their next meeting on Feb. 16.

Also, the commissioners spent about a half hour meeting in executive session with District Attorney Jeff Mitchell to discuss a legal matter. The commissioners said the conversation dealt with the ongoing case against former D.A. George Skumanick brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over the sexting issue, but they would not elaborate.