East Ave. bridge closed

The barricades were put in place Tuesday morning to close the East Ave. bridge. Traffic from the north side of the canal will now have to travel south over the N. Main bridge or the Clinton St. bridge. That traffic includes most of the community's manufacturing employees - Fold-Pak, IEC, Spinco, Refractron, NAFCO. Pictured here are cars waiting for the Clinton/Union traffic light after Tuesday afternoon's shift change.

In 1988, the NYS Department of Transportation put a 3-ton limit on the East Ave. bridge and warned the village that it would eventually be closed. At that time, the DOT offered the bridge to the village for $1. The village declined the offer, and within the next few years, saw the bridge closed to one-lane, one-way traffic.

Again in 1995, the DOT told the village that it would rebuild the bridge if the village would assume responsibility. But village officials didn't want to take on that financial burden and, instead, bargained for a new Clinton St. bridge. Replacement of that bridge is scheduled to begin next summer.

In the meantime, Dick Colacino is working on a petition to re-open the bridge. Colacino and several of his Newark Electric employees must now take extra - and sometimes precious - minutes to answer the call for volunteer firefighters.

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