East Main Street In RS In Front Of Appvion Restricted To One Way

The Roaring Spring Borough Council held its first meeting of the new year on Monday, Jan. 14. The new year brought old problems as council once again discussed the ongoing issue with the wall along East Main Street, across from Appvion.

The wall, which has been leaning and having pieces of it fall out onto the sidewalk and roadway, became an even bigger hazard when a portion of it collapsed on Dec. 15, sending large stones onto the street.

In the interest of public safety, borough officials fenced off the sidewalk in front of the wall to pedestrian traffic and closed the travel lane closest to the wall, making East Main Street, from the Roaring Spring Mennonite Church to the length of Appvion, a one-way street. This portion of the road is now only open for traffic coming into town.

However, borough police have recently cited a few motorists for ignoring the "road closed" sign and going around the closed off area, driving in the left hand lane to head out of town.

Borough officials said it is a problem that is going to lead to an accident and implores residents to respect the danger going around the barricade poses.

Police Chief Greg Wyandt said people driving around the barricade are putting others at risk.

"We don't want to see an accident," he said. "It's down to one lane and there is a blind turn. People coming into town are not expecting to see anything coming at them. Sneaking around that road closed sign is going to cause an accident."

Council President William Brumbaugh said the decision to make that portion of East Main Street one way was to protect against any possible damage should more pieces of the wall fall.

With the fence up and the lane closest to the wall closed, it minimizes the risk of cars being damaged should the wall collapse.

To further alert drivers about the lane closure, a "One Way, Do Not Enter" sign was placed beside the "Road Closed" sign.

"Traffic is only permitted to come into town from that road for the forseeable future," Brumbaugh said. "It is now a one-way street out of town. That way, if the wall does fall, the fence will slow it down to where it doesn't go into the other lane."

Brumbaugh said the road is going to remain closed until council can come up with a final solution to the problem, and asks drivers to please take an alternate route out of town.

The main obstacle standing in the way of council dealing immediately with the wall is that the borough does not own it.

Borough Solicitor Larry Lashinsky said that since the borough's hands are currently tied, they had to take the necessary steps of fencing of the sidewalk and closing the one lane of traffic.

"The borough doesn't own the property the wall is on so it has fallen on the borough to do what it feels best to save lives and save property," he said.

Lashinsky said he knows that some people will view the closing of the sidewalk and road as an inconvenience, but said he hopes people can see the necessity of it and be patient while the process is sorted out.

"There is going to be an inconvenience and some people are going to be upset that they can't drive that way as usual," he said. "But the council is trying to do the best they can, along with our police department and engineers giving us advice to save lives and property damage until we figure the whole issue of what can we do with that wall, and what is the best way to pay for it. If there was an easy answer we would have done it two years ago."

One avenue council has been exploring is purchasing the houses that sit behind the wall, which would then give it ownership of the wall.

The borough has already contracted to buy two of the properties and is getting second appraisals done on four others.

Lashinsky said that just because the borough is getting appraisals done on the other properties, it does not mean the borough has any agreements in place to buy them.

"Please don't interpret getting appraisals done for those properties as authority that the borough has decided to take those properties," he said. "What we are trying to do is look at the cost of different options and one of those options would be to purchase those properties and tear them down."

Lashinsky said that the appraisals are being done to help council gather information and analyze it to determine the most cost effective way of dealing with the wall problem.

In other action:

Council accepted the resignation of Terry Glunt from the Roaring Spring Municipal Authority, effective Dec. 31.

Glunt served on the authority for 18 years.

Lashinsky praised Glunt for his years of service and said he helped guide the authority through some difficult times.

"I have served with Terry for many years as your solicitor,"Lashinsky said. "He did a wonderful job. "He led us through most of the construction projects and changes to the plant, and he always did it with grace. He deserves a lot of praise for guiding us through some demanding times. I just want to say on behalf of the folks who worked with him,'thank you Terry,' because he did a wonderful job."

To replace Glunt on the authority board, council will seek letters of interest from those interested in serving.

The next scheduled meeting of the Roaring Spring Borough Council will be held on Monday, Feb. 11, at 6 p.m. at the borough building.