To the editor:
A while back, a reader wrote a letter to the editor concerning the Washington Street bypass project in 1969. At that time, the writer reiterated, a new bridge had been proposed to be built at the foot of Washington Street.
Mike Paprocki, executive director of the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, is reintroducing a proposal for a new bridge at that site.
In 1969, all of the cards were in line for a new bridge. Sen. Jennings Randolph of West Virginia was chairman of the Public Works Commission, which made him a very powerful man. Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who holds the record of serving as a representative for six years and a senator for 51 years, also was a very powerful man.
Who was our congressman in Ohio at that time?
Another very powerful man, Wayne L. Hays. Hays was known as the meanest man in Congress and was feared by many, but he could get things done.
So, the local valley leaders at that time had their cards in a row, and they could have pressured a new bridge with a strong determination.
Someone dropped the ball.
Years back, I took my father to the Garibaldi Parade in Follansbee. Arch Moore was running for governor at the time.
He was riding in a big convertible. Jay Rockefeller was his opponent. He was walking the parade line and shaking hands.
During the parade, a large convertible came by with Mayor Adam Dalesio, and sitting next to him is the mayor of Steubenville, Bill Crabbe.
Later, at the Garibaldi Club, Crabbe sat with me and my father. I asked, "Bill, why are you here?"
He said he had been calling and writing Moore about a new bridge (the Veterans Memorial Bridge.) "I cannot get an answer -- today, he will see me eyeball to eyeball."
Jim Rinaldo
Toronto