It’s disappointing that the TriCounty Record chose to publish the editorial titled, ‘Icedale Road Bridge and Pennsylvania Politics,’ which is nothing more than politically biased nonsense.
The mystery writer implicates Tom Corbett and the Republicans in Harrisburg for failing to address an emergency repair of this structure, which was closed due to a failed inspection. We are left to assume that the Democrats in Harrisburg bear no responsibility.
Let’s put aside the fact that this writer is obviously in the dark on how state funding is generated for local bridge projects and the statistics on structurally deficient bridges in Pennsylvania and focus on the ludicrous claim that a single party is to blame. I suspect the writer would also implicate the Republicans for the failure to reach a compromise by passing a respectable $2.5-billion bill sponsored by Republican Senator John Rafferty from Montgomery County, despite the fact that many Democrats admittedly refused support due to what they considered inadequate funding for mass transit.
Let me set the record straight. The entire legislature — incuding Republicans and Democrats — failed the citizens of Pennsylvania by failing to pass transportation funding in the Spring. Let’s hope they get the job done in the Fall.
The Icedale Road Bridge is the first of many bridges that will fail due to inadequate funding. Compromise involves two parties. When a deal falls through, both are to blame as they are in this situation.
Political agendas from partisan factions always seem to surface at opportune times such as this. Instead of insulting the intelligence of the readers of these two publications, I would assert that we would all be better served by using this newsprint for animal bedding on one of the local farms.
Brian M. Fraley Morgantown
