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WCBC Radio Selects 2018′s “Person of the Year”

December 31st, 2018 by WCBC Radio

Each year WCBC Radio, following in the tradition of Time Magazine, selects a “person of the year”. A person or event, for good or bad that has dominated the news headlines and had considerable influence in the course of local events. For 2018, for the first time the award doesn’t go to an individual, but rather an inanimate object. The West Side CSX owned West Side bridges- and more specifically the train that collided with two of those spans during the summer will receive this year’s designation. It’s not exactly a date that will live in infamy, but June 22nd, 2018, will be remembered as the date that things changed dramatically in the West Side Bridge issue.  That’s the day when a double stacked train slammed into the spans over CSX tracks on Washington and Fayette Streets and effectively closed all bridges on Cumberland’s Westside. Following the crash, CSX was more than willing to come to the table to discuss responsibility for replacing the bridges.  City officials also took it as an opportunity to have more leverage in negotiations.  As we begin 2019, the outlook is completely different than it was a year ago, and, ironically, it’s all because of a train wreck that happened in June. Although the problems with the stability of those three bridges go back decades, the situation became an election year issue- specifically for Mayor Brian Grim who spent much of his time in the past twelve months attempting to appease angry and frustrated West Side residents…

One Response to “WCBC Radio Selects 2018′s “Person of the Year””

  1. December 31, 2018 at 12:57 pm, kevin said:

    Mr. Foote must be heart broken to be skipped over for a rotting bridge.

    Reply

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