DAMASCUS, PA — At the Damascus Township supervisors meeting on April 15, residents again expressed concern about the condition of local roads.

In March, a Damascus resident who lives on Shady Lane Drive in Beach Lake, said he felt Main Avenue, Shady Lane and Steep Hill Road were among the worst roads in the township.

“You can’t drive through there more than 10 miles an hour. The road is filled with potholes. I have a motorcycle and I wouldn’t think of going on that road with my motorcycle. It’s horrible,” Tony Ricci said. The board acknowledged issues with Shady Lane, but said there are greater problems with Holbrook Road, which a number of residents also complained about.

At the April 15 meeting, two other Shady Lane residents, Stanley Rolston and Kathy Phillips, voiced their concerns about the street. They had support from neighbors who were also in attendance.

Rolston told the board of some research he had done on the township. He said, “On one side of Shady Lane, there is a mile of township road with 38 houses on it. I don’t think anywhere else in this township there is a mile of township road with 38 houses, let alone if you go to the development on the other side [where] there is maybe two miles of township road with 62 houses, a total of 100 homes in all, and everyone in the township pays taxes. What we would like to know is what is going to happen? We need a plan of what to do, as to when you are going to do it, what is the manpower, the money and knowledge as to how to do the work to fix the road the right way.”

Due to the pot holes, Phillips told the board, “I’ve fallen on our road more than once because you have to watch where you are going. You can’t walk a baby in a stroller, you can’t ride a bike. We can’t do any of the things we thought we’d be able to on our road.”

The board members pointed out to the residents that they had planned on coming to Shady Lane that week, but with all the recent rain those plans had to be changed. The chairman of the board, Joseph Canfield, said, “We got two months of rain in a very short period of time. That sets the clocks back, again.”

Although Shady Lane and First Street, which is almost washed out, need repairs, the board reminded residents that there are numerous roads in need of attention. They named several roads including Rock Run Road, parts of Boyds Mills Road, which they had just fixed last year, and Jergensen Road.

The operational supervisor, Steven Adams, wasn’t in attendance at the April meeting, but his report for the last month was read by Supervisor Canfield. The report said, with frost thawing, crews had to contend with mud and icy roads for several days. Since the last meeting, there had been one snowstorm, and the road crew was able to patch pot holes, do other general road repairs and put stone down on several roads to shore up the soft spots.

At the March meeting, vice chairman Daniel Rutledge said, “Ninety-eight miles of road is a lot to take care of, and we are trying to do it without raising taxes.” The April meeting concluded with Rutledge reassuring residents that the board would address their issues.