Saugerties’ red bridge adds a bit of blue

Thanks to a request by the high school baseball team, and a promise made and kept by mayor William Murphy, the blue Sawyer sign hangs from the red bridge over the Esopus Creek. (photo by Robert Ford)

The big red bridge across the Esopus Creek at the bottom of Hill Street just added a  bit of blue. Village mayor William Murphy hopes that’s the way the bridge will always be.

“I was just keeping my promise to the boys’ baseball team,” the mayor said of the ‘Home of the Sawyers’ sign that now graces the bridge.

The boys’ baseball team just completed one of the best years Saugerties sports has seen with a Section 9 Group A title and a winning game in the state regionals.

“I was in the gym playing some basketball,” Murphy explained. “Evan Normann said there was a ‘Welcome to the Raiders’ sign on a bridge going into town [in Port Jervis], and he wanted to know if Saugerties could do the same.”

The rest of the team echoed their support.

“So I told them if they won a Sectional title, I’d make it happen,” Murphy said. “They won the title, and the team began to text me asking me when the sign was going to go up.”

So on Tuesday morning a Sawyers blue sign ‘Welcome to the home of the Sawyers’ went up on the red bridge.

“I told the boys that it would have to be for the whole town, and all the teams at the high school and they agreed,” Murphy said. “The sign will stay up there, and if it rips or wears out we’ll replace it,” Murphy is himself a Saugerties High School graduate and former athlete at the high school.