Published Thursday, July 15, 1999 Backed by Jamestown council, Joseph P. Walton, Jamestown Paint Co. executive vice president, said he is asking his brother and corporate lawyer, Robert Walton, Cleveland, to see if there are grounds for a restraining order to stop the razing of the 130-year-old stone arch.
The Cleveland lawyer began working on the case Wednesday, a day after Jamestown council voted 4-1 to support the arch.
Council's resolution reversed an earlier decision not to back efforts to save the arch. Councilwoman Michelle Brooks, who headed a citizens committee to save it, said J.P. Walton's letter to council had a lot to do with the change in attitude.
Meanwhile, PennDOT's Mercer County Maintenance Department Wednesday said demolition will begin Aug. 2.
"I don't know if this is going to work, but we will try," said J.P. Walton.
If the lawyer determines there are grounds for a restraining order, it would be filed in Mercer County Common Pleas Court.
J.P. Walton said he wanted council's backing before his brother went ahead with the restraining order request.
A year ago, when PennDOT said it was under a state Public Utilities Commission order to dismantle the arch, the citizens committee got signatures on a petition, asking the PUC to delay or reverse its order.
In May, the PUC rejected the petition. It said local people, council and the Jamestown Area Historical Society were not a part of hearings on the arch eight years ago.
Local people didn't know about the hearings, J.P. Walton said. They were held in Pittsburgh and should have been held locally, he said.
The PUC also claims the narrow underpass is a safety hazard to traffic, but it has no evidence of that, Walton said.
Built about 1870, the arch over Jamestown-Kinsman Road supported a railroad from the Stoneboro and Oil City areas to carry coal and crude oil to Cleveland.
Conrail abandoned the tracks after the last train crossed the arch in the mid-1980s.
