Bedrock officials apologize for big bang

By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS, PA — “I blew it,” the dynamite expert admitted to Damascus Township officials and residents at the township board meeting on September 20.

Kirt Gustafson of the Leeward Company, who has been doing the blasting work at the Bedrock Quarry on Oregon Turnpike for two years, said that 99 percent of the times his shots are good. But sometimes they’re not.

“We had a 63-hole shot at 11:30 a.m. last week. Sixty-two holes went fine, one hole didn’t. There’s nothing I can do about it. I violated the rules of DEP and turned myself in.”

Neighbors said the explosion shook their homes and one said it sounded like a car bomb had gone off.

Gustafson said he had his life threatened over the incident.

He apologized for the inconvenience to residents and said he would try not to have it happen again.

For two meetings now, residents who live around the quarry complained to the township and claimed that the township did nothing about it.

“It’s not a zoning issue,” said zoning officer Ed Lagarenne. Complaints would best be directed to the quarry officials.

Complaints were also registered with the township over smoke that was emitting from the quarry last week.

“They must be burning tires, the smoke was so bad,” one neighbor said.

“If the smoke from a fire up there exceeds the limits of the property, it’s a zoning violation,” Lagarenne said.

“We are not burning tires,” said quarry foreman Bob Portice.

“We put our hours back and have done everything we can to accommodate you. We stop work at 4:30 p.m. The crushers stop at 3:00 p.m., yet the complaints go on and on.”

The quarry was burning palettes, which it does routinely since so many of them come in every day carrying materials they need.

“If there’s a problem you notice, call me or come to the quarry and I’ll remedy it,” Portice said.

In other township matters, the board voted to declare an emergency in the town because of weekend flooding.

“We have to send estimates of the damage as quickly as possible to the Wayne County Emergency Management Office,” said Franklin Brooks, the township emergency management coordinator.

“Many road and culverts were inundated but no serious damage was done,” said Bill Gager, chairman of the supervisors’ board. “The worst we had was at Tammany Flats where a number of people’s homes were underwater and they had to be evacuated. Nothing else was as bad as that,” he said.