The long awaited locked bypass road (50 feet) at the welcome center is nearing completion. The reason for this bypass road is to allow access to and from US route 11 from the welcome center parking area (route 81) and will only be open during a flood.

One can think of the Great Bend area as being an island. When a flood is imminent the people are notified to evacuate. Most people do and some do not. In 24 hours the evacuees learn their homes have not been damaged, but have no way to return because route 11 north and south are both closed and may remain so for a week. Taking route 81 to the welcome center and crossing the newly opened bypass road will allow them to get home. We hope.

PennDOT Engineering, with their infinate wisdom, has designed the bypass at an angle toward the welcome center exit road to route 81 south. In some respects this makes sense because the normal flow of traffic in the parking area is in this direction. It is clear that the design is to allow traffic coming from route 11 to pass, but not traffic coming from the welcome center toward route 11.

After the flood I recall a well known contractor who was on vacation with his pickup towing a travel trailer. He was able to get home to access his damage by taking route 81 to the welcome center, jumping across two curbs and out to route 11. His only option with the new bypass road would be to turn around in the parking lot and back up the south bound access road so he can make the swing into the new bypass leading to route 11. This is just another example of arm chair engineering by a person that does not understand the problem.

Sincerely,

Eugene L. Henneforth

Great Bend, PA.

I feel compelled to respond to Mr. Bob Scroggins letter in the County Transcript dated 9/5/12. It was captioned, “Commercialization Of Cancer”.

I get your point. I have previously read and enjoyed your writing style. You write well.

However, the cancer letter/article was a step too far. I have had tears streaming uncontrollably down my face for two days since reading your letter. You over stepped this time and your letter should never have gone to print. It is not your place to take the hope from the hearts of cancer patients. You should put your God given talent to better use. Your letter was soulless and took much from those of us within the reach of the readership. Some things are better left unsaid.

You cannot understand the grief you’ve spread to us cancer victims until it hits you somewhere personally. I pray that you and yours never hear the words, “You’ve got cancer”. Obviously, according to your letter, it will come to your doorstep. Until then, spare the rest of us from another such letter and let us begin to build on the little bit of hope you may have left us with.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Estabrook

New Milford, PA.

You probably never heard of Michael DeMarsico. He died recently and only a few were aware his of passing. His vehicle triggered a roadside bomb somewhere in mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. His life ended almost before it began in his twentieth year.

Michael's remains were gathered up, placed in a standard aluminum coffin, welded shut, and flown 7,000 miles back to his hometown in North Adams, Massachusetts.

An Army officer accompanied by a sergeant representing the president and the American people expressed their sorrow and gratitude to the DeMarsico family. He died, said the lieutenant, defending our freedom or was it, he made a heroic sacrifice, or he paid the price for democracy. Whatever it was, it was a grand and glorious death - except it was neither and few even cared.

Sure, his father, mother, brother and three sisters; they cared. His relatives, Army brethren, and friends; they cared. And so did thousands in his hometown of 14,000 who lined the route of the motorcade carrying Mike home; they cared.

But in the larger scheme of events, his departure went unnoticed distinguished only by changing the number of our war dead in Afghanistan from 2,076 to 2,077.

The graveside ceremony was antiseptic, not the havoc of the explosion: the gore, the scattered body parts, the stench of blood; not the suffering of those whose bodies or minds will never work quite the same. No, that would never do. It was a sanitized ceremony, acceptable. A liturgy that gave meaning to the meaningless.

The flag that draped Mike's coffin was ritualistically folded exactly 13 times. It together with a letter signed by the president was presented to his mother by the lieutenant. He expressed all the proper condolences, the platitudes expected to be said on these occasions and said many times before. His sincerity was evident. Officers are true believers.

Mike's remains were lowered into the earth. The officer and sergeant left. Michael and Lisa DeMarciso stared quietly at the grave holding a flag and a letter. And that was the end of it.

Mike was awarded a Bronze Star for “conspicuous gallantry” and a Purple Heart, but he did not die fighting that day. An explosion took his life; a millisecond that marked the passage of life to death. There was nothing of redeeming value in his death. It did nothing to protect us from Afghan tribesmen, or further democracy here or anywhere else, neither was it heroic or sacrificial. He just died. The terrible truth is that Mike and his 2,076 comrades died for nothing. That's a hard thing; to die for nothing.

Yes, some of the fallen met their end fighting but not for home and country; they fought just to stay alive, to live just one more day, to kill the other guy before he kills you. No matter that the Afghan's life is as precious to him as your life is to you. To stay alive. That was all that mattered. These are America's sons who lost that battle.

In Afghanistan, they cheered Mike's death, the “foreign invader.” Just retribution in the eyes of the men who planted the lethal bomb for the tens of thousands of Afghan deaths caused by the crime, lawlessness, and disruption bred in the chaos of war.

In North Adams, Mike's family grieved over the death of their now silent son and brother; they will forever grieve.

But as gradual as a sunset at day's end, the memory of Michael Robert DeMarsico II began to fade. Life returned to North Adams.

In country, the destroyed armored personnel carrier was towed away. The crater was filled and the wreckage cleaned up and carted away. Nothing remained to mark the explosion and its aftermath. It was just another day in Afghanistan.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

Cabot gets "Business of the Year Award", but has the most Vviolations in Susquehanna County!

Cabot just got "Business of the Year" Award and they have 368 active wells in our county and have 349 violations since 2008 and have paid $183,369 in fines to the DEP !

Cabot has also now been determined to be responsible and guilty for polluting four water wells at four homes in Lenox, Pa. near the Stalter Gas Well Site!

These four homes receive daily deliveries of clean water to their "water buffaloes".

Parrish, Inc. in South Montrose delivers clean water to homes all over the county. This is the latest area that has been found contaminated by gas drilling because of defective casings.

When will Cabot or any gas company get it right ? Do we want such a company in our county and why would the Economic Development Board give such a company an Award for Business of the Year? Is it because they like to buy their image by giving money to the hospital fund, to the library, scholarships to SCCTC technology school to train more gas workers and money to the Historical Society. Does money help clean up your image as a Ppolluter in our county? Will the Economic Development Board please consider giving Cabot the award of "Polluter of the Year"?

Sincerely,

Vera Scroggins

Brackney, Pa.

I am asking people to do some fact checking before they continue to accept the promises being made by President Obama. To be among those voting for the first black president in our history is not a commendable act if that man is not qualified to lead us to better times. There is a movie out that you really should see before blindly accepting Obama TV ads. That movie is “2016 O’bamas America”. It has cleared more than 18 million dollars so far and is not a bashing movie, just a fact filled movie. There is also a new book by Bob Woodward, famous for uncovering Watergate. Bob Woodward is a highly respected investigative journalist. He describes President Obama as arrogant, aloof and unprepared and charges he is not qualified to lead our country. He lays much of the blame for the collapse of our economy on President Obama. The book is entitled “The Price Of Politics” from Simon & Schuster. If you have a computer take the time to check out the movie and book.

We do not need a president you “like”. We do not need to re-elect a president who said himself he should not be reelected if he fails to turn our economy around. We need a president with a proven track record of financial success. We need a president you can trust and believe, because he has succeeded in turning around whole companies and the Olympics when they were on the brink of total failure.

Besides the failure to help us get jobs for Americans, I am unable to trust a person to make decisions for our country who believes expanding the acceptability and use of abortion as the best solution for solving women’s problems.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Susquehanna County

I have just heard that the Susquehanna County Commissioners recently voted to fund restoration of home delivered meals back to five days a week. I write the word, back, due to another of the Corbett administration's cuts to one of the most vulnerable groups of us - the elderly. This cut to funds for this basic service left planned delivery of these meals to three days a week in the four counties of Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Tioga.

While I can understand the need for fiscal responsibility, I also understand priorities. These meals are delivered by volunteers throughout our county to many people. One of the only contacts these elderly individuals have on a regular basis is that volunteer that stops by with a hot meal, a kind word, and an observation of their well being. I believe that a large majority of us county taxpayers recognize the importance and benefits of this program.

Every week I read in your paper how poorly this or that elected official is or has been performing the duties entrusted to them by the voters. With this action by the Susquehanna County Commissioners, I want to publicly thank them for doing the right thing and continuing an important part of hundreds of Susquehanna County residents lives. Not all of the four counties will do this and unfortunately for their citizens they will now remain at the three day delivery level.Thank-you for righting this terrible injustice to our Susquehanna County elderly.

Sincerely,

Rick Ainey

New Milford, PA

Now that the conventions are over, it is a good time to determine which direction you want our country to go. To hear the president say it, four more years would be a good thing for you. However, you might be well served by taking a hard look at what he has done with the last four. With respect to the problems we face, he spent his first two years ignoring them while enacting O’bamacare. He also added five trillion dollars to our debt load in four years, more than Bush did in eight. Do the math. What do you expect in the next four? I didn’t think much of Bush spending. I think less of O’bama’s spending habits.

We know from his record that he is hell bent on driving coal out of our energy equation. Solar panels and windmills are the stuff of Spain and their unemployment levels are three times ours. The record shows that his EPA is an agency out of control. His record on the economy is disgraceful. Know anybody out of work? Are they expecting to get hired soon? Are you comfortable with the status of our national defense? Actions have consequences. Kissing butt internationally and apologizing for the United States are actions which have emboldened our enemies who, by all accounts, are the radical Islamists. I don’t doubt a bit the connection to the murder of our Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya. When you look weak, you are weak. So much for leading from behind. And then the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military calls and tells the nitwit who writes the stuff about Mohammed to knock it off. The rad-Muslims are re-writing our Bill of Rights. When you kiss butt, you are weak.

Israel is in a tough spot. O’bama seems to believe that there are not enough Jews in America to make a difference. No rational person would deny that Iran intends to nuke Israel. Israel is not going to stand by and, mark my words, if Obama is re-elected, the Israelis will be “wheels up” in days, with or without us. Believe me, better for us to be with them than for them to stand alone. Yet, there are those out there who would rather drink the Kool-Aid than face the facts. Boggles my mind. No amount of drone strikes is going to make the world respect the United States and respect is the mother’s milk of diplomacy.

All of the above is not speculation. It is the record of the O’bama administration. Past is prologue. Say as the administration spinmeisters will, you act like a pansy and you get treated like a pansy. Yet, we continue to give billions of our hard earned money (40% of which we borrow from China) to governments whom we know despise us. What jerks we are. Let’s use that money to beef up our military and stop playing Mr. Niceguy to the entire world.

Don’t get sucked in by the hype, the pretty face and the honey voice.

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake, PA