SUNBURY – Sunbury City Councilman Dale Henry was on the hot seat during Monday’s City Council meeting. Sunbury Fire Police volunteers came to voice their frustration with how Henry handled himself during the Sunbury River Festival’s bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Bruce Colyer, Captain of the Fire Police, says Henry could’ve acted differently, “For a city council member who is charge of the streets to act like that, I’m sorry for a fool like that, and instead of him acting like a fool he could’ve said how can we improve this. Not be cursing and swearing at my police officers.”
Due to Chestnut Street being closed, traffic was directed to alternate routes, including Second and Fourth Streets causing long backups. Police Chief Brad Hare, says we learned from our mistakes, “We learned a couple of things and hopefully next year we can make it a little smoother but again people just have to be patient. It’s a festival that has happened for the last 26 years and every year it’s the same thing. Traffic’s backed up everywhere.”
Councilman Jim Eister thanked the volunteers and apologized, “We the city made the error. We worked closely with the police department to ensure these men knew what was going on. We threw them to the wolves and they got eaten up. It was our error. We’re sorry.” Sunbury city councilman John Shipman assured the public that council would discuss the matter further. (Lauren Koch)