Municipal crews all across the commonwealth have been busy removing the plows from their vehicles, greasing up the lawn mowers and rolling out the hoses in anticipation of spring. But their \u201cto-do\u201d list don\u2019t stop at that.
\nThere\u2019s always the resin of winter still lingering behind after the first robin lands, signaling the arrival of spring.
\nPot holes, areas containing excessive anti-skid and clogged storm water drains are just a few of the problems municipal road crews all over Northern Blair County will be working on in the weeks ahead to assure a smooth transfer into spring.
\nAll neighboring communities \u2013 Tyrone, Bellwood, Birmingham, Antis Township and Snyder Township \u2013 are centering most of their attention on the roads.
\n\u201cOur most immediate concern is all the extra anti-skid that\u2019s scattered all over the borough roads,\u201d said Tyrone Mayor Patricia Stoner. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot in certain areas downtown and other parts of the community. All it is is crushed stone, but it\u2019s very dangerous to walk on. We\u2019re working diligently to get it all cleaned up.\u201d
\nAccording to Stoner, all the extra anti-skid is the result of dwindling salt supplies at both the local level and at PENNDOT because of the harsh winter. Both entities mix salt with crushed stone when salt supplies become low.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re encouraging residents to sweep that extra anti-skid toward the gutters,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cOur crews are now out a lot in the street sweeper and that will be able to pick all that stuff up.\u201d
\nStoner said the collection of the extra anti-skid not only benefits the community because it no longer poses a threat on the street, but it is also recycled and used to alleviate another problem that\u2019s being experience by all the communities \u2013 potholes.
\n\u201cWe had one of those kinds of winters that makes potholes come up everywhere,\u201d said Rick Caswell, road foreman with Bellwood Borough. \u201cIt seems like we\u2019ve been spending a lot of time filling potholes in the last couple weeks, but there are still more out there. We\u2019ll get them.\u201d
\nThe pothole repair work is also being done in Snyder Township.
\n\u201cMost of the bad roads are the hollow roads because they\u2019re made mostly of dirt,\u201d said Viola Dysart, secretary of Snyder Township. \u201cWe\u2019re well on our way to spring. We\u2019re taking the plows off and getting all the other equipment ready.\u201d
\nIn Antis Township, the potholes have been fixed, but now township crews are dealing with the same problem as Tyrone Borough – anti-skid.
\n\u201cIt seems to be all over the place,\u201d said Amato. \u201cWe\u2019re out there sweeping a lot of it up. It\u2019ll just take some time, but we\u2019ll get rid of it.\u201d
\nAmato said, remarkably, the roads aren\u2019t the biggest problem in the township. Right now, he said the garbage is what\u2019s being centered on.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re picking up trash, trash and more trash. People are unloading their trash everywhere,\u201d said Amato. \u201cThere are places in the township that people have decided on as their personal dump. It\u2019s wrong and if we find out who has been doing it, they\u2019re going to get fined.\u201d
\nAccording to Amato, an area of River Road, where the township recently installed a gate near Altoona Enterprises property, has been selected by someone who decided to dump shingles, old refrigerators and aluminum.
\n\u201cIt just looks terrible and we want it stopped,\u201d said Amato. \u201cThe state police in Hollidaysburg have already been contacted and agreed to send more patrols to the area. We do have a couple leads on this thing and police are investigating.\u201d
\nAmato said anyone caught illegally dumping on township property could receive a fine of up to $500.
\nIn addition to the garbage pickup, Antis is also busy installing storm water drainage piping and grading roads proposed for street paving.
\nThe roads, the trash and the anti-skid aren\u2019t the only problems, although they are the largest.
\nSnyder residents have already seen the township\u2019s street sweeper making passes on their roadways and crews all over Northern Blair are keeping their eyes opened for the next problem that lies ahead.
\n\u201cI think we\u2019re ready for whatever comes up,\u201d said Dysart. \u201cWe have a good crew that really knows what they\u2019re doing out on the roadways. We can\u2019t be everywhere at once, but we\u2019re taking care of things one thing at a time.\u201d
\nStoner echoed Dysart\u2019s sentiments.
\n\u201cWe have a great group of guys taking care of our community,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cThese people are very knowledgeable in what they\u2019re doing. They\u2019ve been doing this stuff for a lot of years and they know what has to be done.\u201d
\nStoner said in addition to the road work, borough crews have also spent a great deal of time preparing public places for use as the warmer weather moves closer.
\n\u201cThey\u2019ve already cleaned Soldier Park and should be making their way into Railroad Park here pretty soon,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cAfter that, they\u2019ll be in Reservoir Park, hopefully, getting it ready for May when we\u2019re thinking about a formal opening of the park with the new playground equipment.\u201d
\nLow-hanging limbs and downed branches seem to be the focal point in the parks now, and Stoner said once the weather warms up even more, crews can begin working on the road system at Reservoir Park.
\nSome communities are just beginning to get their plans in place. Officials at Bellwood Borough said sweeping is continuing, but a street project plan hasn\u2019t been laid out.
\nThe situation is similar in Birmingham Borough.
\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a council meeting last month, but will on the first Monday of April,\u201d said Lee Pryor, president of Birmingham Borough Council. \u201cThat\u2019s when we\u2019ll talk about the spring clean up that we do and cleaning out the drainage ditches and the roadways.\u201d
\nAccording to Pryor, the borough makes an assessment by looking and that roads and drainage ditches and determines what needs to be repaired.
\n\u201cThen we go from there,\u201d he said.
\nHe also noted the importance of the spring clean-up.
\n\u201cThe spring clean-up is always a big thing to reduce the amount of items to be disposed of that the garbage man doesn\u2019t take, like appliances, large tires, ect.,\u201d said Pryor.
\nDespite all the work that has been done and that\u2019s going to be done, Tyrone, unlike many other communities, have decided to keep its plows attached to its trucks.
\n\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen hard winters here before,\u201d said Stoner, \u201cand I think when you live in this part of Pennsylvania, you do experience hard winter. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve taken the plows off yet because we still don\u2019t know what may be out there.
\n\u201cI have confidence we can make this transition,\u201d she said. \u201cFirst thing you know, the flowers will be blooming and all will be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Municipal crews all across the commonwealth have been busy removing the plows from their vehicles, greasing up the lawn mowers and rolling out the hoses in anticipation of spring. But their \u201cto-do\u201d list don\u2019t stop at that. There\u2019s always the resin of winter still lingering behind after the first robin lands, signaling the arrival of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}