SKINNERS FALLS, NY and MILANVILLE, PA — Money used to mitigate the historic damage caused by the demolition of the Skinners Falls Bridge could be used for a grant program to support historic preservation elsewhere in the river corridor. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) organized a meeting to discuss this and other mitigation options on Wednesday, April 30, with the meeting taking place both virtually and at the Tusten Town Hall. 

A proposal from the Upper Delaware Council to use mitigation funding to support historic preservation elsewhere in the river corridor received broad support from those in attendance. Other proposals, such as the installation of signs where the bridge once stood, received less support from the community, who saw them as small consolation for the loss of the historic structure. 

Overall, PennDOT officials said they were committed to finding a mitigation option that meaningfully acknowledged for history that was lost with the bridge’s destruction. 

The mitigation meeting also included discussion about the process of determining whether to put in a replacement bridge between Skinners Falls, NY and Milanville, PA. See a following week’s edition for coverage of that discussion. 

Supporting historic preservation

The money dedicated for Skinners Falls Bridge mitigation does not have to be spent on projects immediately around the bridge. It can be used for the broader aims of historic preservation throughout the Upper Delaware. 

An example of how that could work came from Laurie Ramie, executive director of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC). 

The UDC was established in 1988 to mediate between various local, state and federal government entities to collaboratively govern the Upper Delaware River Valley. It currently administers as part of its duties as Technical Assistance Grant program, helping local entities preserve the river. Over the 37 years since its founding, it has funded 267 projects with a total spend of just over a million dollars, according to Ramie.

Ramie suggested the UDC could administer an “Upper Delaware River Historic Preservation and Interpretation Grant Program,” to be funded with mitigation monies. 

The program would help preserve the region’s historic assets, preventing other pieces of Upper Delaware history from suffering Skinners Falls’ fate. It would fund activities like hiring consultants to prepare applications to the National Register of Historic Places, improving museum collections and conditions, creating educational materials and “any sort of preservation or interpretation project,” said Ramie. 

“We want to make an investment into our unique historic assets here in the river valley, and this we feel would have a meaningful long-term impact beyond putting up a sign or doing an art exhibit—which also have their value, but this would be perpetually living on, hopefully,” Ramie said. 

The grants could be scaled to the funds available, and could be a one-time thing or a continuing program.

Participants in the mitigation meeting reacted favorably to the idea of a historic preservation grant program.

Kristina Thompson, PennDOT architectural historian supervisor, said the department has previously administered a similar program with a historic barn foundation in central Pennsylvania. It’s something PennDOT could consider in this case, especially considering the UDC’s track record, she said. 

Pieces of history

Several members of the community asked what happened to the parts of the bridge after its demolition. 

Heather Gerling, PennDOT architectural historian for districts three and four, said the department set aside a few pieces of the bridge’s steel truss structure, as well as the stones from the central pier and the New York abutment, for later use. 

PennDOT is offering the superstructure pieces to organizations and individuals who want them. Government entities and other organizations get first dibs—so far, the Basket Historical Society in Long Eddy, NY and the Town of Cochecton, NY have expressed interest, said Gerling. After that, interested individuals could have the chance to acquire their own piece of history. 

However, any potential bridge-memorabilia owners would need to sign a memorandum of agreement with PennDOT, said Gerling. 

The remaining steel from the bridge went to the contractor, said Gerline, which sparked some outcry from the public in attendance. 

“That’s public property!” said Damascus Citizens for Sustainability Executive Director Barbara Arrindell. “That bridge doesn’t belong to the contractor, and it’s not PennDOT’s to give to the contractor.”

PennDOT officials present said that was standard procedure for these kinds of project contracts. 

Milanville mitigation

Previous mitigation meetings had included discussion of interpretive signs that could be constructed where the bridge once stood. 

Community members who attended the April meeting broadly dismissed the suggestion. 

Arrindell said she had talked with many members of the community about the idea of a plaque, and that it had been “soundly rejected.”

“It actually feels abuse,” said Arrindell. “It’s like…”

“Thumbing your nose at the community,” said another member of the public present. 

Other suggestions for uses of mitigation money in the neighborhood immediately around the bridge received similar pushback. 

PennDOT officials asked if there were improvements to the historic Milanville neighborhood that would be wanted as part of mitigation efforts for the project. Gerling said that PennDOT could do improvements such as improving parks or tranquil areas, or planting trees. 

“It is already all of that,” said Milanville resident Cynthia Nash. “It has its own integrity. It has its own charm. There is no need to build a park.”

One Damascus, PA resident, Hester Green, said the neighborhood has a “lovely, calm feeling to it.” Keeping the roads the way they are and keeping traffic slow was important to maintaining that feel, she said. “You can get rid of the potholes,” she conceded. 

Treasured memories

Pennsylvania officials present at the meeting acknowledged that there had been an erosion of more than just metal bearings and truss parts during the process of the Skinners Falls Bridge’s destruction. 

“There’s clearly an erosion of public trust related to how this project was handled,” said Andrea MacDonald, director of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO). 

MacDonald said that while PA SHPO tries “very hard” to avoid the adverse effect of the loss of a historic structure, since that had happened in this case, she wanted to move the conversation forward and discuss what kind of mitigation “would be commensurate to the loss of these historic resources, the adverse effect to the historic district and the loss of the metal truss bridge.”

Thompson said that she had worked in PennDOT for 17 years, attending mitigation meetings such as the one for the Skinners Falls Bridge. “I’ve never heard a group of people speak so eloquently about what the bridge means to them as part of the sense of place in this community.”

“It really touched me how eloquently they spoke about what this means to them,” said Thompson. “It did not fall on hollow ears, I assure you.”