Reads Listings: May 6 to 12, 2016

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Crestwood Student of the Month chosen

RICE TWP. &#8212; An incident on Laurel Drive in the township is causing concern over a road which hasn&#8217;t been fixed since a late February rain damaged it.During that rain, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/517652/liability-issues-dominate-rice-township-council-meeting" target="_blank">a patch of the road eroded, settling a pipe. </a>Township engineer Andy Pasonick, of PennEastern Engineers, described the issue as a rusted 11-ft steel arch culvert, where outflow water from Laurel Lakes meets the pipe.&#8220;It&#8217;s creating voids for settlement,&#8221; Pasonick said.Close to 45 to 50 houses are affected by the detour of the road and Chairwoman Marcia Thomas told those in attendance at the March meeting the supervisors knew of the issue but, because the township has no emergency funds, &#8220;they (residents) have no choice now; they have to reroute.&#8221;Township Supervisor and Roadmaster Robert Pipech, who served as Luzerne County&#8217;s roadmaster from 1996 through 2012, wants the issue to be &#8220;done right&#8221; in the event of liability issues.Residents have questioned if putting a temporary steel plate over the road would help, as might lowering weight limits so buses and trucks cannot drive across the road.&#8220;Who is going to be the watchdog to make sure just cars go over?&#8221; Pipech asked at the meeting. &#8220;It&#8217;s the supervisors that take the beating (should something happen on the temporary fix and a lawsuit occur).&#8221;Incident time questionedA recent emergency caused concern over the road closure. A woman in the Laurel Lakes portion of the township needed CPR on May 3. It took township police three minutes to get on scene, but it took EMS services 16 minutes.To Catherine Sikenpore, a nurse and neighbor of the individual who needed emergency services, the weight seemed like a lifetime. She attended the meeting to express concern about how long it took for the ambulance to arrive.&#8220;I have no concerns with how quickly the police responded,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It was just the ambulance.&#8221;Township Police Sergeant Harold Ehret explained the closure as a clock.&#8220;If the way into the lakes area (Aspen Drive) is 6, the incident happened at 12,&#8221; he said.According to Ehret, the officer who arrived on scene, Sikenpore and an off-duty state trooper were able to administer CPR until the ambulance arrived.&#8220;It takes time to get from point A to point B,&#8221; Ehret said.Mountain Top Community Ambulance runs its ambulance service from state Route 309 in Wright Township.Ambulance Association President Candice Smith said she has no knowledge of the incident.&#8220;(I) cannot comment on something I know nothing about,&#8221; Smith said, noting she would look into it.At the meeting, Ehret read from the police cruiser log:&#8226; Luzerne County 911 call created at 18:29:44 (6:29 p.m.)&#8226; Call was dispatched to the Mountain Top Community Ambulance at 18:30 (6:30 p.m.)&#8226; Rice Township police dispatched and en route at 18:31 (6:31 p.m.); the same time the ambulance began its route to the scene.&#8226; Police arrived on scene at 18:34 (6:34 p.m.), less than three minutes later.&#8226; Ambulance arrived on scene at 18:46 (6:46 p.m.); 17 minutes after the call was first created.&#8220;Everything that could have been done, could possibly be done, was done quickly,&#8221; Ehret reassured.At the meeting, it was made known that Mountain Top Area Community Ambulance Association owns a substation on Church Road, but with low volunteerism within association, the building has stood empty for some time.Road fixResidents of Laurel Drive and the Laurel Lakes community can get to their houses off Aspen Road but, instead of taking a shortcut to their house, they now have a three-mile detour around the lake.&#8220;It will be fixed,&#8221; Pipech said. &#8220;It takes time.&#8221;Pasonick said PennEastern was going to hand deliver the GP-11 permit to the Department of Environmental Protection late last week.According to the DEP website, the GP-11 is a general permit that regulates maintenance, testing, repair, rehabilitation or replacement of water obstructions and encroachments.&#8220;We&#8217;re fortunate &#8230; we&#8217;re only working with DEP (and not PennDOT or the Army Corps of Engineers),&#8221; Pasonick said. The township doesn&#8217;t need to work with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation because it&#8217;s a township road and it doesn&#8217;t need to work with the the Corps because it&#8217;s not a bridge or dam.State Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said there is no &#8220;set time frame&#8221; for how long it takes for a permit to be issued.&#8220;If the information is accurate and correct for more information it will take less time,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We don&#8217;t really time stamp it.&#8221;While the township is waiting for the DEP&#8217;s permit, it can get bid specifications on the reconstruction, advertise for bids and award the bid. Pasonick said, while the permit is pending, no construction work can be done.&#8220;Hopefully, we&#8217;ll have the permit before award (of bids),&#8221; Pasonick said.Pasonick expects to have specifications for the next meeting set for June 7 and to have the supervisors award the bids at their July 5 meeting.&#8220;State law requires two weeks for bids,&#8221; Pasonick said. &#8220;I would suggest because of scope of project, three weeks.&#8221;Pasonick is hopeful the three weeks will bring in more bids for the township to look over.&#8220;We are doing everything possible to have it reopened as soon as possible,&#8221; Pasonick said.<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Melanie Mizenkommizenko@www.timesleader.com and Brigid Edmundsbedmunds@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Melanie Mizenko at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TL_MMizenkoReach Brigid Edmunds at 570-991-6119</shirttailMeta></div>

Repairs still needed on Laurel Drive near Laurel Lakes in Rice Township