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Diamonds to organizers, volunteers and supporters who continue to push for completion of the D&L Trail along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. Currently, the rails-to-trails project stretches — with a few rough spots needing improvement— from Bristol in Bucks County to a relatively new trail head in Fairview Township, just off Route 437. A patch near Jim Thorpe remains incomplete, and the hope is to stretch it from Mountain Top to Laurel Run. Once there, it will work its way into Wilkes-Barre, where a northern terminus has already been noted on a sign near the river. These trails offer recreation, education and historical perspective in relaxed, wooded settings. The stretch from White Haven to Jim Thorpe, in particular, gives you a chance to inspect old canal locks and even an old oil pipeline strung across the Lehigh River that one adult recalled, on an historic marker, crossing as a child to get to school. To those involved: Keep up the good work.
Coal, yet again, to the mindset of those who commit vehicular hit-and-run. The most recent example: Hanover Township police say a Ford Mustang struck a pedestrian crossing the road. It’s not hard to speculate why people don’t stop and render assistance: They don’t want to face the consequences. In some cases, they could’ve been texting, driving with an expired license, or just don’t want to take responsibility. They could also blame the person they hit. But they don’t realize running compounds the offense and the consequences. Society and the media don’t stress that last fact. They know the consequences, but figure the odds favor fleeing and risking being caught over staying being caught. We have stopped adequately instilling personal responsibility. We have embraced the car culture so irrationally we diminish the life of anyone not in a motor vehicle. Or maybe it’s a simple matter of forgetting the golden rule. Imagine yourself lying bleeding and immobile on the road as you watch the car that hit you speeding off.
Diamonds to Luzerne County for relatively quick work in cleaning up the extensive debris at the River Common fishing pier. Yes, it may have seemed like it took a long time to get workers and equipment in there. But consider that the Susquehanna started jamming with ice in January, and by the end of March, you could still find ice chunks on the pier that were as high as the average person’s ribs. There’s still work to be done, particularly thanks to several chunks of the pier wall that fell out of place. However, getting the debris out and some new trees planted was important in keeping this park from falling into neglect.
Coal, while on the subject of the River Common Park, to the ongoing failure to get a fountain on the other side of the levee running on any regular basis. The problems are many, but surely not insurmountable. This is, sadly, just one more example of our region’s curious inability to make the seemingly-simple and presumably well-understood concept of public fountains actually work.