Did you ever notice the sidewalk connecting the east side of Jim Thorpe to the train station ends at a telephone pole? I asked this question a couple of times at the council meetings. One member told me to go ask the county commissioners! When I saw the plans for the new 903 bridge, I thought at last the sidewalk will be completed. However, it was not to be, despite the design plans including: “A single 8-foot wide multiuse walk/bikeway will be installed across the bridge and leading into the downtown historic district.”

Well the bridge is complete, but the sidewalk from the old bridge to the train station remains unfinished. Despite more residents and tourists using it, the fence along the tracks is unsafe and a sidewalk along the county owned parking meters does not exist. So what are the county commissioners doing about it? Well it appears they are on the D&L and Switchback trails looking for grants to keep hikers and bikers safe.

When I read that they were concerned about the safety of hikers/bikers coming off the new $3,000,000 pedestrian bridge and spending $21,000 on a master plan to shift the trail out of their parking lot and then looking for $400,000 to complete the move and then one commissioner unsure of the funding for this project was quoted in the Time News saying “maybe we can use some parking lot funds.”

This county parking lot is a sore spot to me and a lot of other taxpayers. To take this money to move the D&L Trail and ignore a sidewalk needed by Jim Thorpe residents is outrageous! Over the years tourists coming to visit Jim Thorpe have paid the county millions of dollars and not one penny of this money was ever given to Jim Thorpe borough.

In 2011, Councilman John McGuire ask the county to tack a $1 fee on parking lot tickets during fall foliage weekends to help cover the cost of hiring out-of-town police needed for traffic and crowd control. Request denied! Ironically they were needed mainly to control traffic at the county parking lot exit/entrance and cars backing out of county-owned meters onto Route 209. Both major contributors to the traffic chaos.

Bill Malatak

Jim Thorpe