Damascus meeting discusses roads and storm

By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS, PA — Movable walls had to be retracted to accommodate the roomful of Damascus residents at the township meeting on Monday, August 15.

There wasn’t any event or incident that brought them there, just concern for the condition of the roads. The most outspoken critic, Rolf Beck, complained that potholes were not being filled and standard road maintenance methods were not being followed.

“If you don’t fill potholes, water gets under the surface of the roads and destroys the foundation,” Beck said.

Beck also complained that when a road surface is ground by machine, it should be paved immediately.

“You’re not doing that properly,” he said.

A woman from Decker Development said that a development intersection was quickly deteriorating because of water damage. Some who lived on MacCubbins Road had a similar complaint.

“We’re doing the best we can under the budget that we have,” said Bill Gager, the township board chairman. “We don’t want to borrow because we eventually have to pay it back with interest.”

Damascus has 90 miles of unpaved roads and 20 miles of paved roads.

Gager explained how the road-masters—he and Stan Kuta—are following a plan that may not include repairing every road in the township each year.

In other board matters, Frank Brooks, the township emergency management coordinator, told how a storm of straight-line winds on Friday evening, August 12, wrecked havoc on several roads, destroying two trailer homes and causing structural damage to several other homes. He thought at first the storm was a tornado.

A National Weather Service survey team concluded that winds of up to 80 m.p.h. from a thunderstorm ripped through an area north of Damascus. There were numerous trees snapped and uprooted along the storm path, which began south of Abrahamsville and moved east and southeast along Marks, Boyce and Steiner Roads, Conklin Hill and then to Whitmore and River Road, Brooks said.

The rest of the area sustained winds between 50 and 70 m.p.h., Brooks said.

Cheryl Sykes, who lives on Steiner Road, had the roof torn off her home and Betty Grady who lives on the same road had her porch roof destroyed.

“I’m trying to get the county to declare Damascus a disaster area and then seek assistance from Pennsylvania SEMO to help pay for this damage,” Brooks said.

Brooks sent the information on to the county, with the hope that the county will turn the evidence over to the state and get some assistance to the affected homeowners.