Name bridge for Jack Gill, family and friends say

The span in question carries Wynkoop Road over the Esopus Creek in the town of Hurley.

Jack Gill’s children and leaders from the town of Hurley are urging county lawmakers to name a new bridge in Hurley for the longtime local resident and public servant.

“Jack Gill is synonymous with Hurley,” said Barbara Zell, a town councilwoman and member of Hurley Heritage Association.

Zell was one of four people to speak during a public hearing Tuesday on a proposal before the county Legislature to rename the county-owned bridge that carries Wynkoop Road (county Route 29A) over the Esopus Creek after Gill.

“He’s done so much in the town. He was on the Town Board, he was instrumental in the fire department. He’s just a wonderful person and he just deserves to have the bridge named after him,” Zell said.

Gill died in 2014. For more than 75 years, he operated the Gill Farm in Hurley.

He was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of World War II who fought on Iwo Jima, a founder of the Hurley Volunteer Fire Department, and served for more than 20 years on the Hurley Town Board.

John Gill, Jack’s son, said his father was “back and forth across that bridge more than anybody I know.”

In addition to traversing the bridge on a more-than-daily basis, Jack Gill in 1955 worked to protect the bridge during a “high water event” when tree stumps and other debris carried downstream threatened the structural integrity of the bridge.

“It was part of his life, and it’s part of ours,” John Gill said.

In February, the Hurley Town Board voted unanimously to request the county name the bridge after Gill. The request came almost three years after County Executive Mike Hein sparked a controversy in the community when he recommended naming the bridge after musician Levon Helm, a former member of The Band who lived in neighboring Woodstock and died in 2012.

As a result of that outcry, the Legislature adopted a policy requiring naming recommendations come from municipalities where the county property is located.

The Legislature is expected to vote on the Hurley bridge name proposal at its meeting next Tuesday.

TANIA BARRICKLO — DAILY FREEMAN FILE A car crosses the new Wynkoop Road bridge over the Esopus Creek in Hurley on Aug. 28, 2014, the day the span reopened following a project to replace the former bridge, which was 80 years old.