April 24, 2016
Most
of us know that this winter was hard on our streets. Over the winter
months there were several freezing and thawing cycles where water
could work its way into crack, freeze and expand and damage the
cement in our roads. The city is currently making plans on how to
deal with our infrastructure however, there is a more potentially
serious outcome of this winters climate that I want everyone to be
aware of. The winter was not just hard on our roads but other exposed
surfaces as well. The freeze/thaw cycles were also hard on our cliffs
along the river. During this late winter and early spring some of the cliff-side had fractured and fallen into the river. This is a normal
process of erosion and an example of how our landscape is constantly
changing. I want to bring this particular spot of erosion to
everyone's attention because I heard that some people have used this
particular over-hang to jump into the river below.
I know with warmer weather coming
to our area and the approach of graduation some people's attention
will be drawn to spending time in our parks and around the water.
While I would never recommend anyone jumping off our cliffs into the
river where the depth constantly changes, I want to point out what is
different this year. The over-hang that stuck out over the water edge
by a couple of feet has lost much of the rock that did over-hang the
water. What makes things even worse is that couple of feet of rock is
now in the river which extends the shoreline out a couple of feet. In
other words, a jump which in the past would have landed a person 4
feet from shore, would now place that jumper onto some very hard and
sharp rocks. Don't kid yourself! You will not clear those rocks (the
ones above and below the surface). In the picture below you can see
the amount of rocks that have fallen from the cliff and into the
water.
This
is all I wanted to cover in this article this week. I wanted to make
sure everyone was aware of the new dangers. I know this seems like we
are taking some fun away, but we just don't want anyone to be
seriously injured! Please be safe
and be aware of this new danger in our area. The City is looking into
options to address this situation.
Yours
in service,
Chuck
Bradford,
Mayor
- City of Mantorville
MantorvilleMayor@Gmail.Com
MayorBradford.BlogSpot.com
