Residents Respond to Wheeler Bridge Article

Letter to the Editor:

We were surprised to read in the article of the Rehoboth Reporter on the reopening of the Wheeler Street bridge (July 2017, vol.29 n.7, p.8) Mike Costello’s unwarranted comment “…the people who live next to the bridge don’t like it because of the traffic. They were living on a dead end.” We are on record in the hearings saying that we did not oppose the reconstruction of the bridge. All along the process we only raised concerns about the design and flooding issue, based on the fact that 1) the previous bridge (as the article confirms) was built in 1965 without any study and engineering plans and nevertheless served as the standard for the new bridge, 2) the Palmer River receives more water than it once did, and the flow is increasingly blocked by silt and vegetation, which are not cleared. We commend the new design of the bridge, not to mention the removal of the eye sore of the ruins of the previous bridge. As far as traffic is concerned, we did call the town’s attention to speeding issues, but this was in no way in the interest of living on a dead end. We too were looking forward to being able to go easily from one side of the river to the other. In addition, we were tired of the number of people turning around in our driveways because they were not paying attention to the “road closed” signs or did not take them seriously. So, trafficwise, we always expected the reopening to be an improvement for us. It is dismaying that a town official would issue statements for a news article that are inaccurate and inappropriate.

H. and J. Coleman

G. Sahar

L. Solere