Narrowsburg gazebo
Narrowsburg Bridge
Narrowsburg Bridge

Skinners Falls Bridge - PennDOT’s Neglect and Its Impact on Our Communities

Editor: The New York–Pennsylvania Joint Interstate Bridge Commission agreement, established in 1919, mandates equal responsibility between Pennsylvania and New York for decisions involving the maintenance, repair, and replacement of bridges spanning the Upper Delaware River. This compact requires cooperative decision-making for all significant actions, including demolition, ensuring that neither state acts unilaterally without mutual consent and commission approval. In light of this longstanding and binding covenant, Pennsylvania’s recent actions regarding the Skinners Falls Bridge raise serious concerns. Since its abrupt closure by PennDOT in 2019, the bridge has been left to rot without adequate maintenance or repair. Now, with PennDOT proposing to demolish the bridge using explosive charges, backed by Governor Shapiro, questions arise about whether the required collaborative process has been followed. Any decision to demolish or replace this bridge must consider public need, traffic flow, and environmental impact. It must also reflect the agreement of both states under the compact. Of course, the safety of the traveling public on land and on the water is paramount. But an adequate replacement must be put in place.

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Welcome to my front page. I am restoring and organizing available online material into a more accessible database that indexes both this Drupal website and also the static elements of my earlier webserver's directory structure dating back to 1996 and before. A work in progress, it will remain a creative and expressive outlet, as it has in the past, and a place to post information that I consider worthy of note and of possible public interest. Play nice in the sandbox and reach out here to share what you wish. Thank you.

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Route 17B and Puckyhuddle Rd., October 21, 2001. Photo by Tom Rue.
Sunday, October 21, 2001

BETHEL - According to a post by Bethel Town Clerk Rita Simpson Sheehan, this circa 1900 "wash house", often misidentified as a turnpike tollhouse (which it was not), was once part of the Halsey Hotel across Route 17B by Perry Road not far from Bethel Woods. Finally, on Easter Sunday 2024, after years of neglect and much commentary on local social media over when the "leaning house" would fall, it did.