Flooding forces Mingo’s removal from Covered Bridge Festival
But other 7 locations remain open for weekend events
The Covered Bridge Festival will not take place at Mingo Creek County Park this weekend due to recent rainstorms, but the other seven bridge sites scattered across Washington and Greene counties will still be open to visitors for the annual event.
The Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency announced Thursday afternoon that flooding at Mingo made it impossible to bring vendors and crowds to the park where the Ebenezer and Henry covered bridges are located.
“After consulting with the (county’s Parks and Recreation) team, we determined the flooding at the Ebenezer site presents safety issues for our festival volunteers, sheriff’s deputies, traffic control personnel and visitors, especially for those with disabilities as our main handicapped area is unusable,” said Jeff Kotula, who is president of the tourism agency.
Washington County Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said county officials were “disappointed” by the decision, “but the integrity of our park and the safety and security of our visitors must remain our top priorities.”
“The park experienced significant flooding this week, impacting both the fields where vendors set up and the parking areas,” Sherman said. “Given these conditions, we believe the decision was necessary to protect our visitors, vendors and the park itself.”
The centerpiece of the 55th annual festival is Mingo Creek County Park in Nottingham Township, where thousands of visitors congregate and dozens of vendors set up in the shadow of the Ebenezer Covered Bridge. But photographs shared by the tourism agency showed Mingo Creek had swelled to the edge of its banks from recent storms and the area where vendors would normally set up was a soggy mess.
“The Covered Bridge Festival is one of Washington County’s most longstanding traditions, and we recognize the tremendous amount of time and effort that our Mingo Creek County Park site coordinators, vendors, volunteers and community partners put into preparing for this weekend,” Kotula said. “However, the safety of our visitors and everyone involved with the festival must remain our priority.”
Still, the scattered nature of the festival means that the other seven bridges in Washington and Greene counties will continue with attractions and vendors, giving people other locations to visit as part of the event.
“Each covered bridge site involved in the festival is operated by individual groups and we have been in contact with them to inform them of our decision,” Kotula said.
The other five sites in Washington County that will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday are the Brownlee Bridge in McGuffey Community Park; the Wyit Sprowls Bridge in East Finley Township Park; the Hughes Bridge in Amwell Township; the McClurg Bridge in Hanover Township Park; and the Pine Bank Bridge at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village near Avella.
There are also two locations in Greene County – the Carmichaels Bridge near the Greene Academy of Art and the White Bridge just off the Kirby/Garards Fort exit of Interstate 79 – that will have various activities this weekend.
“Thankfully, we haven’t had the rain you guys have had up there,” said JoAnne Marshall, who is tourism director for Visit Greene. “The good thing about working with Washington County is we can send people to other bridges and encourage people to visit them. … I think that’s what’s good about having the nine festival sites.”
Marshall said the Carmichaels location will have live music, vendors, demonstrations, wagon rides and kids activities. The White Bridge will have food, live gospel music, Native American re-enactors and a Civil War re-enactment for the “Battle of the Bridge” at 3 p.m. both days, she said.
For more information about the weekend’s events and schedules, go to www.CoveredBridgeFest.net or search for the Covered Bridge Festival page on Facebook.