A week ago, Mercer County commissioners, based on legal advice, declined an invitation by Sharon council to attend a public meeting to discuss the stalled Oakland Avenue Viaduct project.

On Thursday, Sharon Mayor David O. Ryan, council President Fred Hoffman, Councilman George Gulla and more than a dozen city residents, many of whom live in the shadow of the unfinished bridge, attended a commissioners meeting in an attempt to get some concrete answers about the project.

The viaduct has been closed for more than two years. Its predecessor, which stood since 1936, was imploded June 23, 2001, and its replacement was to be completed by Nov. 30, 2001. County officials halted the work Nov. 2, 2001, after county bridge officials said they discovered the steel pedestals were out of alignment, causing the steel beams to have an S shape.

"I feel that you thumbed your nose at Sharon," Gulla told commissioners Thursday. "... In Sharon I think the feeling is that we've been betrayed."

While commissioners Cloyd E. "Gene" Brenneman, Olivia M. Lazor and Kenneth A. Seamans were responsive to queries, few specific details were available to give residents and public officials satisfactory answers.

"I don't have any problem with any of them (commissioners) or with the information they've given me," Ryan said. "On the other hand, we are getting bombarded daily and weekly by the citizens."

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