TIME MACHINE: The Pocomoke River Bridge Collapse1988.

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August, 1988

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Baltimore Sun

In August, 2009 our late Brenda Wise (jmmb) for The Pocomoke Public Eye posted pictures and information she had gathered regarding the 1988 bridge collapse.

The Falling of the Pocomoke Bridge

August 17,1988

Do you remember the day the Pocomoke River Bridge fell? My telephone rang very early that morning to tell me the news. I will admit I didn't really believe it until I saw it for myself! For some reason, very early in the morning the little bridge just came tumbling down. And of course, for months there were the rumors and speculations of how it could fall, who was the last to travel it and how remarkable it was no one had been killed.

My news clippings from the Pocomoke paper are gone but I did find these pictures that were taken 2 days after it collapsed. There isn't much on the internet but I did find some interesting information.......

Well, that was not all I found. Two days before the collapse of span, a motorist traveling west to east noticed a dip in the bridge deck and that the pedestrian crosswalk railing ,in places seemed to bowed downward. The same motorist on August 16,1988 crossed the bridge again and noticed the dip in the bridge had become more severe. He naturally assumed that the bridge tenders were aware of it and didn't feel the need to report it to anyone. ( I would assume that too). And the manager of the market on the Somerset side of the bridge noticed the same thing
on those same two days.


August 16, 1988, around 11:00 a.m. another motorist noticed
a "V" shaped depression that traveled 10 to 12 inches deep and about 20 ft. long. This wasn't all he found to be faulty with the bridge and immediately drove to Pocomoke City Police Dept. and reported it to the dispatcher. The dispatcher did not notify the officers on duty nor was it logged in as a complaint on the police log.

Finally that afternoon another motorist noticed it and contacted the police chief. The police chief stated that all he saw was a pothole, and did not inspect any other sections of the bridge.

The report further stated that the police department is not trained in matters of bridge construction and defaults................And even though the tiny bridge would have collapsed anyway, IF someone had perhaps paid more attention to what these 3 people were saying that bridge could have been shut down and eliminated the possibility of personal injury or even death. No, personal injury did not occur. But it sure could have.

Quite interesting. I worked downtown for over 25 years and never heard any of this. I don't know of anyone at the time that had heard about this report written in January of 1990. Be sure to read it.  Another DUH moment.

Posted by jmmb at 9:52PM

A link to the report was posted by Brenda but that link is no longer working.  The bridge re-opened in June, 1989 with Maryland governor William Donald Schaefer on hand for the ceremonies.  Cost of repairs was about $3.5 million. -tk 

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about?  Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

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Dale Trotter on Upcoming Election

From Councilman Dale Trotter:

One of the greatest factors that drove me to running for reelection was the citizens of this wonderful town. For those that know me personally, I believe they will tell you that I am service oriented. My position as a Law Enforcement Officer for greater than 20 years, my military service and commitment both as a Elder in my church and as a City Councilman for District 3, "Service to the Citizen" is my watchword and I have made it a life long aspiration and choice.  

During my first term as City Councilman I have been and remain committed to making Pocomoke City a better place for us to live. My family and I located to Pocomoke City in 1994, and absolutely fell in love with all of the people that we encountered. Pocomoke City remains a great place to raise a family and acts as the hub of industry for the southern part of Worcester County that helps to create jobs. 

The last three years we have seen progress within our city. The downtown area, which I represent has added five businesses and will soon see repairs being completed to buildings because of grants the city and business owners have worked tirelessly to attain. We also enjoy added activities and festivals that draw interest to our town and help promote the park, cypress trail, Delmarva Discovery Center as well as the downtown business district. It has been my desire to consistently work to attract business and industry to the town.

Our city park, Cypress Park, has become home to several concerts and events and will also see vast improvement so that our citizens and visitors can enjoy the scenic Pocomoke River while enjoying a relaxing day in town. 

Our town added a Economic Development Director to help area businesses boost revenue and attract new people, business and added tourism. We have been a "required stop" for the Delmarva Bike Week ride across Delmarva which has brought additional tourism to the area. As well, we have added the 4th Fridays and Spring and Fall festivals that promote families and activities within in our town. 

We also recently joined with a neighboring town, Crisfield to help boost and promote both towns by a Circuit Rider, This position is aimed at assisting both City Managers with economic development and tourism by way of our comprehensive planning so that our towns can thrive. The best part of this, the position is funded by a grant thru the Governors office. I believe it is very important that we work tirelessly with our neighbors to save city funds and to help each other. 

One of the greatest accomplishments of the last couple years is within our Waste Water Treatment Facility. First, we have attained a grant that once fully organized will aide in revitalization of our Clarke Avenue pump station. We recently completed a on going study with GMB regarding water service to our citizens. I am happy to say I feel we are well on our way to providing better services to our citizens and we are stepping forward and getting the job done. Some citizens have already came forward and noted the improvements.  

During the past three years I have strived to be an approachable Councilman, both to our city employees and the citizens. I feel I have accomplished that and wish to continue that service. I have always been reachable by email, facebook or even the knock on my door. I have strived to handle your complaints and praise as timely as possible. We overhauled the city website and included areas that citizens can contact the city government to report issues and provide praise, as well as timely reporting to the citizens via the website and facebook. For those without internet we approved low cost internet services available to those who qualify, and still post city actions in public areas.

I am excited about the work we have accomplished and more excited about what we desire to accomplish. It is my hope that the citizens of District 3 will come and cast a vote for me to continue to represent them within our city government. I do not take the position for granted and will remain thankful to God for the opportunity to serve you.

We have a lot of work still to accomplish, thanks in advance for your vote on April 4th.

Respectfully,

Dale Trotter

Councilman District 3

Citizens and Government working Together!

A Worcester County Treasure

From The Dispatch

Taylor House Museum Continues To Evolve; Berlin’s Historic Home Looking To Expand Hours With Help Of Volunteers

Feb 28,2017 by Charlene Sharpe

Photo by Charlene Sharpe

BERLIN – Uncle Ned’s electric shoes. The “treasure chest” behind the Treasure Chest. Calvin B. Taylor’s desk.

They represent just a few of the fragments of the past on display in Berlin’s Taylor House Museum. The historic home, saved from demolition in the early 1980s, is full of 19^th century furniture and exhibits depicting the various periods of Berlin’s past.

Read the full article:
https://mdcoastdispatch.com/2017/02/28/taylor-house-museum-continues-to-evolve-berlins-historic-home-looking-to-expand-hours-with-help-of-volunteers/

Spring Trips!

Motorcoach

We are excited to welcome back our Motorcoach Tour program.  Come on out and join us on some fun-filled, family friendly, day trips!
 

Motorcoach Schedule

Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - Visit Washington D.C. in the Spring
Saturday, April 29, 2017 - New York City On Your Own
Thursday, May 18, 2017 - Amish Country 

 

Registration: Your deposit will reserve your seat.  Trips are filled on a first come, first serve basis. Please see individual trip flyers for fees and deadlines.  To register for a Motorcoach Trip, the trip registration Form and a Trip Participation form must be completed.  

 

Registration Forms

Washington D.C.
New York City
Amish Country

Trip Participation Form 

  

Contact: Lea Cataggio for more information at 410-632-2144 x2509 or lcataggio@co.worcester.md.us 

TIME MACHINE: Recollections Of Market Day In Pocomoke.

(Reader-friendly viewing of news archives/historical archives material)

November, 1962

(The caption read:  "Market street in  Pocomoke City on a busy day in about 1910, the period Miss Young writes about below.  This photograph courtesy of the Worcester Democrat and the Ledger Enterprise, of that city.")

Baltimore Sun Magazine

Footnote:  Miss Alice R. Young was a longtime employee, and a former editor, of Pocomoke City's Worcester Democrat & Ledger Enterprise newspaper.  She passed away in 1974 at the age of 90. 

  

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

Market Day In Old Pocomoke City

"Just after the turn of the century, when the automobile had not yet brought hurry into our lives, Saturday was market day in Pocomoke City."

This was the opening line of a 1962 article by Miss Alice R. Young of Pocomoke for the Baltimore Sun Magazine as she wrote of her recollections of an earlier era in Pocomoke City.

We'll have the full article on this Sunday's Time Machine here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

Remembering When..

(From the Eastern Shore of Virginia's WESR Radio/ShoreDailyNews.com)

2/20/17  SHORE GOOD NEWS: Modern Technology

By Linda Baylis Spence

Todays world is full of the latest and greatest technology where everything seems to be instant, from communication to fast food. It truly is a great time to be alive. I think about my grandparents and what they would say about all these newfangled (that's a word they would probably use) machines that allow us to have just about everything we want or need at our fingertips or at least delivered the very next day.

There are things, however, that this generation will never get to experience and it is actually kind of unfortunate for them. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and I remember when we had only three television channels. There was 3, 10 and 13. Shows like Happy Days, Andy Griffith and Leave It To Beaver, provided entertainment for all. Cartoons were only on Saturday mornings and nothing could beat getting your bowl of Captain Crunch or Fruit Loops and plopping down in front of the huge black and white console TV. watching the Coyote do everything he could to catch that Road Runner. I felt so sorry for that Coyote.

How about the Poloroid One Step camera? This camera was on both my sisters and my Christmas list. To think that with one touch of button, a picture would instantly slide out was magical. The only downside at the time was that each pack of film had 10 pictures and you had to be especially careful in choosing your photography subjects. If your finger accidently hit that button, there was a great feeling of loss when a blurry picture of the ceiling slid out and that was one less picture you could take of your cat. You can actually still buy these cameras but they are of course considered vintage now and can cost well over $100.

And then there is the now obsolete, dust collecting, set of Encyclopedias. Do you remember how many times we had to use them for school reports and homework? Todays kids dont have the luxury of hauling those heavy books and flipping the pages to find out all about Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison. Bless their hearts, now they have to google it all.

What about the excitement you felt when the Sears Christmas Catalog came in the mail? Talk about a thrilling day! I recall flipping through those pages folding the corners and circling all the things I just had to have. The possibilities were endless. It was the catalog of dreams. Somehow sitting in front of a computer scrolling simply doesn't have the same thrill.

Do you remember the Green Sheet? That was something else we looked forward to receiving with the newspaper each week. It included all the TV shows for the upcoming week, some puzzles, and the comics if I remember correctly. I loved looking at the Green Sheet.

My husband Terry, who grew up in in the 50's and 60's shared a memory of having the toy, Mr. Potato Head. I was not impressed until he said that you had to use your own potato. That's right! When he was a child the toy was only the facial pieces and arms and legs that you stuck into your own potato. Wow we really have come far.

The phone book, cassette tapes, walkmans, being chained to a landline phone and drinking straight from the water hose. These are all things todays generation will never get to experience. Locally, we enjoyed Saturdays at the Dream Roller Rink and who couldn't wait to get their license so that they could join the weekend cruizing at Four Corner Plaza? Yes those were the days.

So today's generation may have some really cool gadgets, and I have often wondered how I ever lived without my Iphone, but honestly, we had it good growing up in the 70s and 80s. It was a time when parents looked out for and disciplined everyone's children. A child would not even think of disrespecting an adult because we knew if our parents found out, we were gonna get it, and I am not talking about a time-out. We had more freedom because it wasn't quite as scary out there. We made our own adventures instead of living them through a video game. People actually talked to each other. Often face to face. Life was much simpler then and life was good. Don't get me wrong, I really do love the conveniences of today and I probably would not trade them, but growing up in the 70s and 80s has given me precious childhood memories that you simply couldn't buy-not even on Amazon.com.

TIME MACHINE: Way, Way Back!

(Reader-friendly viewing of news archives/historical archives material)

June, 2010

(Article text size varies due to duplication process)

The News Journal (Wilmington)

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

Best Presidents Survey

Who have been the best past presidents?

C-SPAN has released its 2017 survey of presidential leadership showing rankings in overall performance and in 10 other categories.  Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were in the top two overall rankings.

See the full survey for all of our past presidents here:

http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015a-4d99-d5b6-a35f-ffff4eae0001

The Way We Were

Science traces Delmarva's climate history over time from periods of warmth to sub-zero almost tundra like conditions, and a geologic history of the Atlantic coastline being well west of what now is Delmarva to a time when the Delmarva coast extended some 80 miles farther east than at present.

Read more about it on this Sunday's Time Machine here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

Benefit Tournament For Lt. Miles

TIME MACHINE: 1892, 1975, 1936, 1923, 2007.

(Reader-friendly viewing of news archives/historical archives material)

July, 1892

The Morning News (Wilmington)

December, 1975

The Daily Times

February, 1936

The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.)

August, 1923

The News Journal (Wilmington)

Footnote:  There was stock car racing at the Pocomoke Fairgrounds track in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

ACROSS THE USA

July, 2007

The Ithaca Journal (Ithica, NY)

Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public Eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.

A February Mission

What brought the Goodyear dirigible on a 1936 Eastern Shore mission, and with the possibility of army bombers to follow?

It's one of the Time Machine items this Sunday here at The Pocomoke Public Eye.

Worcester Sports Field Complex Studied

From The Dispatch, Ocean City

Study Finds No Market For Indoor Sports Arena, But Demand For Outdoor Field Complex

Feb 07,2017 by Charlene Sharpe

SNOW HILL – A study conducted by the Maryland Stadium Authority indicates that while there is a market for an outdoor sports field complex in Worcester County, there’s little demand for an arena or ice rink.

(Article:)
https://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/2017/02/07/study-finds-no-market-for-indoor-sports-arena-but-demand-for-outdoor-field-complex/

TIME MACHINE: It's 2000 And Pocomoke City Is Looking Ahead.

(Reader-friendly viewing of news archives/historical archives material)

December, 2000

(Conclusion of the article couldn't be reproduced in a reader-friendly view but this is the text:)

  In this case, the highway is the Route 13 bypass, a four lane divided highway used by an average of 18,000 cars a day that pass the usual array of fast-food restaurants, car dealerships, gas stations, motels and strip shopping centers.

  Business leaders say the downtown district pretty much held its own through rapid development along the highway in the 1980's, but the opening three years ago of a 147,000-square-foot Wal-Mart accelerated the closing of shops downtown.

  "Free enterprise is free enterprise, and what it tells us is that we have to adapt if we're going to be successful," says Marc Scher, a third generation merchant whose family opened a downtown clothing store in 1933.  In recent years, Scher has switched focus, concentrating  on a bridal business that attracts clients from as far as Baltimore.

  "I don't think we'll ever see the era when downtown was a big retail center," Scher says.  You have to specialize if you are going to get people to come to you.  I just hate to see an empty store, whether its an office, retail or whatever.  You just want to see the lights on."

   The Baltimore Sun

 
Do you have a local memory to share with PPE readers or something of interest your parents or grandparents told you about? Please send to tkforppe@yahoo.com .

When you're clicking around the Internet remember to check in with The Pocomoke Public eye.  We strive to be a worthwhile supplement to your choices.