Ken MoniotWorth Township

I would like to comment on the March 8 front-page article pertaining to the bridges being closed at the same time in Worth Township.
First and most important, my mention of the state Department of Transportation is not directed toward the men and women of PennDOT of Butler County, but to those of PennDOT who thought a bridge deck reconstruction project could be accomplished through the winter months.
In the article in question, Harold Swan, a PennDOT spokesman, mentions the residents and business owners looking for a "magic bullet" to stop the project. Actually, we residents were just asking for something that apparently must seem "magical" to PennDOT and that is common sense.
Why would they want to cripple us residents of West Park Road by closing the two bridges on what is our detour for the first bridge project? We were asking for the second bridge closing to be postponed until the first bridge project is completed.
Swan responded that the contracts were in place last year.
Well, so was the contract for the first bridge, and that contract has been extended due to the "technical difficulties" that arose during the reconstruction process. The "technical difficulties" mentioned are stupid mistakes made by PennDOT during the reconstruction process that halted the project until these mistakes were addressed.
By the time they were addressed, winter snow started; the project has been idle since December.
Again, common sense was not used when PennDOT thought this project could be accomplished during the winter months.
Now, getting back to my earlier question, the reason for crippling us residents, businesses and the thousands of visitors to Moraine State Park:
The bridge projects are part of the federal stimulus package. Even though the money is available until 2012, this project was started in the winter season.
The reason for that, you ask? So the people working with this stimulus project would be working and not on unemployment and hence would reflect in positive numbers for those trying to justify the whole stimulus package.
So, for the sake of our government bureaucrats, the health, safety and welfare of us residents of West Park Road and the users of Moraine State Park are endangered.



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