Asked last week by the Freeman when ceremonies for the opening of the reconstructed “Wurts Street Bridge” over the Rondout Creek in Downtown Kingston, the mayor said “soon.”

He should have said “very soon,” or better, “next Tuesday at noon.”

Undoubtedly, the mayor was busy finalizing plans for Kingston’s Fourth of July fireworks celebration — or more likely, was sworn to secrecy by the state Department of Transportation which was in charge of rebuilding the bridge. Public relations come under the governor’s purview, and they are state secrets. “Public works,” indeed.

But, based on contacts from the favored few who actually got invitations to the grand event, Tuesday at noon looks solid. I was not invited, having covered the original grand opening in 1921. A huge photograph of New York Gov. Al Smith dedicating the original bridge hangs in Hudson Valley Mall in the town of Ulster. Smith ran for president on the Democratic line in 1928.

The guest list, as far as I can gather, includes the usual local Democratic deities we see ad nauseum in the paper on a daily basis, led by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, standing in for the governor.

A surprise guest speaker will be former assemblyman Kevin Cahill who, for over a period of years, successfully lobbied state DOT, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly leadership for the estimated $32 million to rebuild the bridge. I say surprise because Cahill has kept a low public profile since being defeated in a Democratic primary by Sarahana Shrestha two years ago. I’m assuming (once again) that Shrestha, as a courtesy to the resident assemblyperson, has been invited, even if she had nothing to do with the bridge reconstruction.

Few of the grinning faces we’ll see in the paper Wednesday morning had much to do with the decades-long struggle to fix the bridge either, but at least Delgado was a congressman representing the city when construction work on the bridge began. Delgado resigned his congressional seat to take over the lieutenant governor post in 2022.

I’m looking forward to Cahill’s remarks. The man is just chockfull of bridge history and the area surrounding it.

At the risk of putting a damper on what should be a joyous, historic occasion on the restoration of a bridge that connects Kingston with Port Ewen to the south, a few words on this “invitation only” list.

When they opened the Golden Gate Bridge in 1935, the public was invited to walk across it and (presumably) back. Published reports indicated upwards of 100,000 took the trip, a journey they no doubt remembered for the rest of their lives.

On this occasion, only poo-bahs have been invited. Ignored were the taxpayers who footed the bill for the (final?) $44.6 million price tag and who will be the beneficiaries of this major public works project. I rather doubt that any of the poos and few of the bahs will mention that on Tuesday.

Of Bald Men and Combs

Some of the best pundits in the world have by now weighed in on Joe Biden’s disturbing performance at the presidential debate last week. Trump was Trump, but Biden was like, nowhere, man.

Biden can make it through the convention in August and probably the election in November. But four more years? Yikes.

I thought my wife, as she usually does, summed up the presidential debate succinctly as we stared at the tube in astonishment. No Trumper, she, Phyllis looked over from the coach after about 15 minutes of that debacle and said, “Can you believe there’s only four years between these guys?”

For Democrats, the timing is terrible and time is short. Even if they can talk their nominee off the cliff, Republicans will make hay on Democratic chaos.

Comparing Biden with LBJ is ridiculous. Lyndon Johnson knew he could not get re-elected. Biden thinks he can, or at least his wife does.

One of the pundits compared the opponents as “two bald men fighting over a comb.”

As a footnote, I was not surprised that Assemblymember Shrestha and state Senator Michelle Hinchey were “unavailable for comment at this time,” when reporters called. Call it duck and cover by two of the better media manipulators on the scene.

Inside the Numbers

Politics being a bottom-line business, I thought I’d add a few returns from the primary race for Assembly that weren’t available on election night.

Prior to ballots being cast, I asked the Board of Elections to break out results in the county’s biggest population centers, Kingston, New Paltz and Saugerties. Within a few days I had them in my greedy little hands.

To no surprise, Shrestha, who won the election by 2-1 over challenger Gabi Madden, carried those key localities by substantial margins. With about 28 percent of eligible Democrats voting, she won Kingston by 717 votes, Saugerties by 562 and New Paltz by 474. Just out of curiosity, I queried the Dutchess Board of Elections. Shrestha won Red Hook and Rhinebeck on the eastern end of the district by 787 votes. In total, those four locales delivered almost half of Shrestha’s winning margin.

Overall voting was down a bit in the 103rd A.D., but Shrestha’s margin of victory was up by about 25 points, her winning total by almost 4,000 over 2022.

The lessons are clear: Olde Ulster, with few exceptions, is but a memory. These Democratic socialists are here to stay and eager to expand their ranks. Sitting Democrats, beware. Blame not Gabi Madden. So-called “moderate Democrats” have no one to blame but themselves. More than 70 percent did not vote.