Lord knows I love taking the bike out and riding this canal as much as anybody, but enough is enough!
The Express-Times is reporting, "A $225,000 grant announced Wednesday will study the best course of long term maintenance for the waterway and the financial sustainability of the maintenance of the canal."
The state (us taxpayers) already spent $49 million to repair the damage done to what has become a drainage ditch between 2004 and 2011.
Even after all that money was spent according to the park manager's report issued on February 6, 2015 various parts of the towpath are still closed for repairs. "The remaining four towpath obstructions from Morrisville south to Bristol are in varying stages." The report goes on to say in 2015 "DCNR secured $12 million through the Department of General Services to address infrastructure needs along the Canal, specifically bridges and culverts." It seems to me this study should have been done long before we (taxpayers) spent over $60 million trying to patch this thing up time after time.
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the hours we spent biking this canal with the grandkids. However with all so many other pressing needs Pennsylvania faces this has become a 'white elephant'.
I don't need another quarter million dollar study to tell me what should be obvious. Every time we attempt to allow water into this canal it eventually ends up damaged. There's a simple solution. Block off and divert any possibility of water getting into this thing. Anyone who has hiked or rode the towpath at Heritage Park in Reading found the same delight of doing so even though that canal bed is kept drained and dry.
So how about this. We fixed this thing one last time and prevent any water from ever getting into this thing again. Storm or no storm. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Instead of spending another quarter million dollar$ for this study apply that money to the repairs.
Then again, like everything else government does, there are those certain someones making out like bandits who want nothing more then to maintain that status quo. Logic and common sense be damned.
I grew up in Easton, Pa. I remember the canal as a part of my life. When I was little, I remember the big coal yard at the end of South third St. before the Railroad Station. I believe it was the Blue Coal Co,?
ReplyDeleteAs a child in the early 1940's I remember the group of out of work canal men fighting with some railroad workers about who were more important the canal men or the rail workers.
I remember Rt 611 from Easton, still being partly a dirt road.The best way to new York or Philadelphia, was the coach on the railroad. After they built the inter-states and paved all the major roads the railroad made a fast decline.
My Mother lived on the edge of the mountain in South Side Easton and talked about going to her back yard and watching the canal boats hauling coal on the canal on the Lehigh River.
This was an everyday thing. Today the canals are just tourist attraction and the railroads are almost gone.
I would go to the Easton rail yards with my uncle who was the electrician for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He would take us into the round house and make the turn table rotate. The Steam engines always had a small fire in the fire box so as to have them ready for service. There was the fear of a cold fire box cracking and being unusable.
I remember the small engine "making train" for the bigger "Black Diamond" engines to haul. The diesel engine was not yet being used. Today all of this is gone and the roads are crowded
with cars and trucks.
Will our children remember the days of the self-driven cars and trucks. What does the future hold for transportation and hauling? Just my thoughts.
Wow Dave. I can only remember back as far as riding the trolleys since I wasn't born until 1948.
DeleteAlthough I do remember going down to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Terminal (by Hamilton Street) to pick up the 'Fresh Air Fund' kid (about my age) from Chinatown. His father owned a restaurant. He stayed with us for a week in the summer. But that was a diesel engine. Later on a few rides back and on both The LVRR train To Grand Central and later on CRR of NJ's Budd train cars which went as far as the ferry in NJ to take us across to NYC.
So I guess I missed the whole canal boat era. I suppose the canal operators didn't stand a chance because they couldn't move during the dead of winter over frozen canals. Not to mention the limited amount of cargo and how long it took to move it.
Thanks for sharing you memories.