HONESDALE, PA — A mysterious U-Haul van parked for weeks on borough property and the prospect of not one, but two, crosswalks leading to Wayne Memorial Hospital’s planned canopy entrance each presented challenges at Honesdale Borough Council’s February 6 meeting.

The Wayne Memorial Hospital (WMH) land development project, part of the hospital’s planned expansion, includes one crosswalk between the parking lot and hospital entrance. Planning commission review recommended the addition of a second crosswalk. But PennDOT approval, required for any crosswalk, seemed so unlikely to be forthcoming that the hospital neglected to show even one crosswalk in its draft land development map.

Borough Solicitor Richard Henry advised the council to request two crosswalks and to specify in its application to PennDOT that the hospital will bear responsibility for all costs of compliance with the Americans for Disabilities Act, by far the most expensive aspect of any crosswalk.

Henry noted that a wider mouth to the north parking lot, also recommended by the planning commission, would increase need for a second crosswalk, and that both changes were designed to alleviate parking congestion near the emergency room.

As the council moved on to other matters, streets committee chair Bill Canfield asked if the council was aware that a U-Haul van parked on borough property for weeks had left deep ruts beneath its wheels. The council knew nothing about it. But Director of Public Works Rich Doney did. Doney said the decision to allow the van’s renter to park on borough property was a stopgap solution to keeping it off borough streets and out of the way of snowplows.

Per Doney, the renter is currently homeless and “pretty much living out of the van,” although initial contact with her occurred at a bed and breakfast where she was then staying. That led Canfield to question the renter’s ability to pay long-term leasing fees to U-Haul and be unable to pay rent or parking fees to the borough.

Doney asked if anyone had a better solution. No one responded, so he suggested the van might be parked in Super Duper’s parking lot overnight. “No way,” said Canfield. “It was parked there and was asked to leave. The store’s liability insurance doesn’t cover overnight parking. I would think borough liability insurance has a similar restriction.”

Doney assured the council that he and his crew could repair the wheel ruts. But a more humane answer to the larger problem of homelessness was not presented.