Local Citizens Pitch In To Get Mountaindale's Rails To Trails Segment Back Open

There are a lot of counties, the towns and hamlets in them that got hit a lot harder than we here in Mountaindale got hit...that said, we took our share of the pounding that Hurricane Irene (which is shaping up financially to be one of the top ten disasters America has ever witnessed) delivered to the East Coast this past weekend. Many people are still without electricity, and some small towns have been hit so hard they may never recover. Governments up and down the coast have their hands full, and in many cases, they need citizens to step up and help with some of the heavy lifting as cleanup after Hurricane Irene progresses forward.

Yesterday, we had some of our own citizens who live, work or recreate here in Mountaindale up on the Rails To Trails leading by example, doing the heavy lifting necessary to get our trail back open and accessible to members of the general public who use it frequently during the summer months. Ken and Barb Schmitt from Diversified Realty Services brought in the heavy equipment, sending their backhoe onto the trail to do some of the serious lifting. Charlie Sanborn of Cinder Track Bicycles and Mike Yavaniski (who is still without electricity in his own home) were out there with chainsaws, rakes and shovels. It took a couple hours, but the trail is now at least open and available, though it may take weeks, even months to repair some parts of the trail here in Mountaindale, as the Hurricane washed away a lot of the foundation base on the rail head, the water even causing land collapse in a couple of areas.

The good news is we can access the trail, and some of the heavy lifting has been done, thus freeing up town and county resources right now for other more pressing problems. Our after storm problems need to be addressed, but right now there are other communities that have far more pressing concerns to deal with...so, if any of our readers find themselves with a few hours to spare, we encourage you to consider volunteering anywhere where Hurricane Irene clean up is being done.