Yes, Mayor Charlie Smithgall and downtown business owners, there is a Santa Claus.

Or, at the very least, some sympathetic elves in state government.

Long vexed about the closed Fruitville Pike bridge and its reported adverse impact on city businesses, downtown Lancaster businesses recently got some help from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to promote downtown holiday shopping.

PennDOT has forked over $18,000 for an advertising campaign with the theme "getting here is easy'' to lure shoppers to downtown Lancaster.

"PennDOT is trying to cooperate,'' the mayor said. "I am not saying it is anybody's fault, they are doing all they can.''

The radio and newspaper advertisements outline alternative ways into the city from routes 30, 222 and 283 using Harrisburg Pike, Lititz Pike and Walnut Street. The ads also note that there is free parking through Christmas Eve at metered parking spaces in the city.

The 75-year-old Fruitville Pike bridge was abruptly closed Nov. 12 after inspectors found dangerously cracks in a support pier. The bridge is one of three leading into the city that cross Amtrak lines.

The mayor and city businesses beseeched PennDOT to come up with a temporary solution to reopen the thoroughfare, warning that downtown retailers could be devastated.

PennDOT officials said they considered the request, but decided that the railroad and power lines next to the tracks keep them from doing so.

According to an earlier interview with PennDOT spokesman Greg Penny, the bridge should be completely dismantled by early to mid-January. Workers will then begin building a replacement, a four-lane structure, he said.

PennDOT will open the span to two lanes of traffic by Memorial Day, even though the bridge work will not be complete until September or October of 2003, Penny said earlier.

The mayor said today he is also urging PennDOT to erect more signs to guide traffic to the various alternative routes. As it stands now, the Lititz Pike and the Dillersville Road bridges "are really getting hit hard.''

The radio ads started earlier this week and the newspaper ad is expected to run early next week, the mayor said.
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