PennDOT performance peeves Pike

By DAVID HULSE

MILFORD, PA — The cold season has departed to be replaced by the heat under the collars of Pike officials recalling PennDOT’s handling of snow and ice during last winter’s storms.

Repeated instances of icing conditions caused accidents and road closures. Aside from the inconvenience and danger to travelers, Commissioner Richard Caridi said the situation put “a tremendous burden,” on the volunteer firefighters and fire police who were called on to enforce the road closures, often times requiring their presence for hours before a PennDOT crew arrived to install barricades and markers.

Caridi charged that the problems arose from the state’s reassignment of PennDOT resources out of rural areas like Pike. He said Pike was formerly staffed by 85 PennDOT employees and now only 54 remain. Pike is supposed to have three diesel mechanics, but two positions are unfilled. PennDOT is allowed to hire up to 14 sub-contractors for snow and ice removal, but only used seven last year, he said. “We have no control over this besides the ‘bully pulpit,’” he said. “I don’t want to do this again and be chasing our tails in the fall when it snows again.”

Given the problem, the commissioners approved a letter to Governor Ed Rendell on April 20, asking for his intervention in reconsidering the policy that moved PennDOT resources away, and to provide PennDOT resources “on need, not a hypothetical mathematical computation…. The safety of our school children and the motoring public of our county and municipalities are at substantial risk…” they told Rendell.

The situation was more infuriating when in mid-February the state Deputy Secretary for Highway Administration Gary Hoffimin visited the county and assured officials that he would “make appropriate adjustments.” The commissioners never heard from Hoffimin again, they told Rendell.

A PennDOT statement of response to the commissioners’ letter admitted that PennDOT had problems filling two mechanic slots, based on higher wages in nearby states. The same wage situation also caused a temporary shortage of plow truck operators, the agency said, and “…equipment breakdown or personnel shortages may cause delays in having any given highway cleared as quickly as we would like,” PennDOT admitted.

However, the agency stated that the rain-to-ice nature of several of the storms created the situations “when our services may have appeared less than desirable…but with the quick change in conditions it takes our winter forces some time to catch up.

“Please be assured that we at PennDOT are deeply concerned about the safety of the traveling public in all our counties, including Pike County…. We are reviewing our performance in all of our winter storms and attempting to improve our efficiency, which would in turn provide a better level of service for the roads we maintain.”

The agency promised aggressive recruitment to resolve personnel shortages, and “if that’s not possible, we will explore the option of hiring more private contractors to plow some of the state roadways in Pike County next season.”