Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1904-04-21
IOINT MEETING
OF COMMISSIONERS

The Commissioners of Montour and
Northumberland counties held a Joint
meeting in this city yesterday to take
action on some matters pertaining to
the free ferry The full Board of each
county was present as follows: C. W.
Cook, George n. Leighow and Henry
Cooper of Moutour and George W.
Raudenbush, A. H. Cooner and John
/ II. Beck of Northumbarland
/ a good many matters relating to the
/ ferry came up for discussion. Not the
least important Of these was the fixing
IF the hours for operating the fat
/ boat. II was finally decided that the
/ ferry should begin running at O. clock
! = the morning and continue until 10
o'clock at night. Between 10 p. M.
and 3 a. m. the river will be without
any means of transportation. These
hours will 90 into effect on next Mon
day. N the interim owing to the un-
| finished state Of things the ferry will
not be run after dark.
The proposition from the PennsyI-
vania railroad company looking to the
installation of steam as motive pow
er to operate the ferry was not acted
upon at the joint meeting yesterday
1t appears that after hearing from the
Railroad company, the Commissioners
made counter proposition carrying
with it little better terms for the
two counties and that up to yesterday
the railroad company had not been
heard from in reply.
The plan proposed, it seems, pro-
vides an endless chain arrangement
carried across the river in connection
with the cable and operated by an en-
gine installed on the South Danville
shore. The Commissioners are an-
xiously waiting to hear from the
Pennsylvania people with reference to
the last proposition. Meanwhile the
ferry is doing very we'll with no other
motive power than the current of the
river. Up to last evening the best
time made was four and one-half
minutes which was accomplished Tues
day afternoon in passing from South
Danville to this side.
The principal detriment to speedy
aud safe transportation at present is
the bad condition of the landing on
this side Of the river. Both roadways
from Front street down to the ferry
are steep and narrow. rudely cut
through the sand and ashes which
form the river bank at that point. They
are totally unfit i'll their present shape
to meet the demands of travel.
The County Commissioners take the
view that the construction of the road
on this side devolves upon the Bor-
ough of Danville just as the roadway
on the opposite side belongs to Gear
hart township, by which it was con-
structed The County Commissioners
state that they are willing to help re-
pairs along by constructing gangway
at the waters edge to make it easier
for the vehicles on entering and leav-
ing the fat boat For this purpose
they can use plank from the river
bridge just as they used stone from
the piers in assisting to perfect the
landing on the opposite SIDE.
Ii is the sense of all parties inter
ested that work should begin i'm
mediately on the landing here. If the
ferry is to be of any service to the
public it is clear that the roadway
leading to it must be as easy as it is
possible to make it and adequate TO
meet all the demands of travel. Until
this is done it will be impossible TO
adopt rules for the observance of team
sters and the congestion Of traffic with
the incident confusion which has mark
ed things for a couple of days past
will be pretty sure to continue.