The Foot Bridge to Nowhere

For years some folks in our Town have talked about building some type of RiverSide Park by the old Horton Lumber Company. Every few years, a group of kids spends a day "cleaning up " the banks of the river. This year however, there is a group of people who are actually trying to make this dream become a reality. They have captured eveyones attention by getting the money to construct a footbridge from the Town Parking Lot by the Temple Theater to the proposed Park.

Now the first thing that captures your attention as you drive down North Street is the new high arched bridge. Paving has been completed on both sides and it will be opened to traffic by the end of the month. Town Officials are hoping that it will attract people to Houlton, and who knows?; just maybe it will....someday.



Right now, just being a realist, the bridge goes from the parking lot by the recently closed Temple to the other side of the river. A few people will walk across it the first few weeks, but will they after that? A Bridge has to go to something and right now it doesn't. And what will it cost to develop this Riverside Park? and WHEN will it ever be developed.

Personally, if I had $800,000.00 - $1 Million Dollars to spend, I think the Town may have been better served to refurbish the old Fort on Garrison Hill. At least there was some Historical Value attached to that. There was an effort made on that about 25 years ago- but that has evaporated. The Fair Committe somehow even managed to talk the Town into moving Hanncock Barracks to Community Park to be used as a storeroom. What a shame!

This Town has lost 3000 people over the last 30-35 years. Sad. It's even more Sad when pieces of the Towns History virtually disappear, like the old POW Camp at the Airport, or the Garrison Hill Fort, or Ricker College, or the Pavillion at Nickerson Lake - where everyone seemed to go on a hot summer day.

Houlton doesn't want to look back too often, and maybe that's a good thing. Time will tell. They have a State Firemans Convention around the Corner this Fall. Maybe the Fireman can use the new Footbridge as peart of their Parade Route/

That's The View From My Couch