Among the many aspects of society impacted by the pandemic, road work is definitely on the list.
The covid-19 pandemic shut down many paving companies earlier this year causing them to fall well behind schedule.
It means smaller places like Springdale Township are forced to wait to fix roads that have gotten “really bad,” according to Anthony Rozzano, president of Springdale Township’s board of commissioners.
“I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about the roads,” he said. As soon as you pull in off the main road, in the first 100 feet there are a bunch of potholes.”
Unfortunately, the township hasn’t been able to find pavers that can fix entire roads.
“The large paving companies are booked solid because they had to stop the work they were doing,” said Rozzano. “As things have finally opened up, everything that they had booked for this year, they can’t do. They’re going to be doing that next year.
”So that means I would have to wait two years for a large paving company.”
So rather than wait that long, Rozzano said he’ll settle for fixing portions of roads.
“If I can find smaller companies that can do the entrance ways, the first 100 feet or so, that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “Since I have the money available, I can do more roads by doing portions. I hope I can get that done by the end of the year and I’m letting people know that I’m doing the best I can.”
Rozzano said it’s been difficult for him and the other commissioners because many township residents have grown impatient.
“I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about the roads,” he said. “A lot of people don’t understand that this is one of those things that’s out of the township’s control. I wish I had more money, but we’re making the best out of a bad situation.”
Nothing has been done on the roads in this township for the past 20 years, according to Rozzano, who is in his fifth year as a commissioner.
“I’ve been saving money for the past four years to invest in the roads. Unfortunately we’ve got close to 50 roads in our township, and we don’t have millions of dollars to invest. So, I’m putting this money where it’s needed the most.”
That’s not the only township improvement project officials are looking at completing by the end of the year.
“We’ve got some abandoned homes that need to be torn down,” Rozzano said. “We’ve got a grant from the county to tear down three homes by November. We’ve got another grant to tear down three more homes next year.”
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