By DAVID HULSE

SHOHOLA - Township officials say slow responses to accident scenes by state highway and utility workers are putting an unfair burden on volunteers.

Township Supervisor and volunteer firefighter George Fluhr said that a relatively minor July 15 traffic accident illustrates a continuing problem with the phone company's responses to emergencies.

Motorist Kelly Greer lost control of her car in the rain at the intersection of Route 434 and German Hill Road. She was not injured, but she struck and broke a telephone pole, which left its lines about ten feet above the state highway.

At 2:15 p.m. Fluhr said, "The problem is that it's two hours after the accident and we don't even have an estimated time of arrival for their repair crew."

Fluhr called the provider by a generic name because he said, "they've changed so often I don't even know for certain who it is now.

According to the Pike County Communications Center, GTE is the provider in that part of the township.

Fluhr said long waits for phone company responses have been commonplace. "We had another one on German Hill not long ago, and eventually found the phone company contracted with service people who had to come up here from Virginia," he said.

A 9:00 a.m. Tuesday call to the listed GTE customer relations office elicited a taped message saying the office, with hours from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., was closed and listed several other repair service numbers.

Township Fire Chief Don Wall said that phone company problems has also created problems with PennDOT responses.

In Saturday's instance, Shohola Police Chief Frank Brunner ordered Route 434 closed to large truck traffic. PennDOT is supposed to provide emergency signage for such closures.

Wall said PennDOT showed up at 3:00 p.m. and crewmen claimed they did not have the proper signs aboard. "They said they'd get them and be back," Wall said. "But they didn't come back."

"When we called they told us it was a phone company problem... they basically told us to go straight to hell... they do this all the time," he said.

The phone company contractor arrived at 5:15 p.m., almost five hours after the accident. "It's not right. People are paying taxes. Why are 20 volunteers babysitting a state road?" Wall said.

Wall said the situation would be more tolerable if the state provided other help. "We burned up a case of flares at that accident. They cost $100. We've asked PennDOT for donations and they've blown us off," he said.

Pike County PennDOT supervisor Leonard Coddington said Tuesday that he was unaware of the sign problem at the Saturday accident and would check with his sign foreman.

As far as flares are concerned, Coddington said, "I don't know who they've asked in past, but we'll always provide flares for agencies that use them at accident scenes on our highways."