Residents demand action on Elkins Swinging Bridge
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ELKINS -- A group of concerned residents are demanding action in regard to the Elkins Swinging Bridge, which was closed in 2016.
The bridge crosses the Tygart River between the southern end of the Elkins Railyard and Baxter Street.
Larry Warner, a resident of Chestnut Street, mailed a letter to Elkins City Council on Dec. 31, saying he and many of his neighbors had used the swinging bridge as a quick and safe route to downtown Elkins.
"Due to the swing bridge being disabled I now need to use my wheelchair to go on the roads where there are not only no sidewalks, the sidewalks that are supposed to be there are worn down to nothing and crumbling," reads Warner's letter. "For those reasons I am being forced to drive my wheelchair on roads with bad decaying sidewalks or no sidewalks at all, which put me in the road with traffic."
Warner said he had a neighbor who whose doctor recommended him to walk every day for health.
"(He) died a couple months ago and the neighbors believe it is due to him not being able to walk his usual path across the swinging bridge where it was safe. We believe he died prematurely," Warner wrote.
Warner also sent his letter to the Randolph County Commission, the Elkins Emergency Management Agency, the American Disabilities Act Accessibility Clerk's Office in Charleston, and the W.Va. Human Rights Commission, and also to Gov. Jim Justice, Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin, and W.Va. Congressman Alex Mooney.
Another letter was sent to Elkins City Council on Jan. 27 by Janet and Steven Crider and Brad Cromer, also residents of Chestnut Street.
Cromer and the Criders, who identified themselves in the letter as disabled individuals, wrote that the Swinging Bridge was their safe passage into town due to being unable to drive.
"The Swinging Bridge and sidewalks have all been brought up numerous times to our City Council in Elkins, but they turn a blind eye and do nothing to help," Janet Crider wrote.
"We live in a very old family neighborhood of good solid citizens that pay taxes and vote. Some work and some are retired. It is a low income neighborhood and we feel we are being discriminated against."
"We are asking that the Swinging Bridge be rebuilt or restored in the same location it is currently in and has been in for over 80 years. We are asking that our neighborhood sidewalks be restored so we can use them safely in our wheelchairs, with our canes, walkers etc," the letter reads.
The residents asked City Council to respond in writing by Feb. 28.
In 2016, Elkins City Council voted to reject a state Department of Transportation Division of Highways grant that would have provided 80 percent of the funds needed to demolish the Elkins Swinging Bridge, and construct one that is ADA compliant in its place.
The city initially applied for the grant through the DOH Transportation Alternatives/Recreational Trail Program.
"This grant award would have paid for 80 percent of the estimated project cost of $550,075, requiring the city to fund at least $110,000 and then 100 percent of any overruns," Sutton Stokes, the city's external affairs specialist, told The Inter-Mountain this week.
He also noted the bridge would need to be replaced entirely as swinging bridges are not compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
The city of Elkins has announced plans to discuss the swinging bridge situation at the upcoming Municipal Properties Committee meeting at 9 a.m. today.