Penn Township examines parking along Rowe Road following house fire on nearby street

Penn Township officials might prohibit street parking on a road after emergency services ran into complications when responding to a house fire last week.

Fire and EMS services extinguished flames that erupted Aug. 4 near the rear deck of a home along Timber Ridge Court in Penn Township. The home sustained significant damage, and firefighters from Irwin and Penn Township rescued a young girl from a second-floor bedroom.

Keith Macurdy, who lives on Timber Ridge Court, said he noticed first responders struggle to access his neighbor’s home because of vehicles parked along Rowe Road — which connects Timber Ridge Court to Route 130.

“Garbage trucks having to stop, emergency personnel having difficulty last week getting through — it’s basically a one-way road,” said Macurdy, who has lived in the township for 18 years.

The emergency response was facilitated by the proximity of Penn Township firefighters Tom Lamacz and Cory Gonder, who both work for the township’s public works department, police Chief John Otto said.

“If you ever want to understand the value of the volunteer fire departments in your community, this is a case to take a look at,” Otto said. “If you ever want to understand the value of allowing your men and women to leave the workplace and respond to fires in your community, this is the case that you want to look at. …

“We had zero time on this incident, and it was devastating, but it was not tragic, because we did not lose a little girl.”

The township commissioners discussed expanding its “no parking” ordinance to select roads — including Rowe — about a year and a half ago, township Secretary/Manager Mary Perez said.

The issue was dropped after a Rowe Road resident presented the commissioners with a petition, featuring a significant number of signatures from Rowe Road and Anthony Street residents, Perez said.

Commissioner Chuck Konkus reignited the discussion after noticing children walking out into Rowe Road near dusk to avoid parked cars along the street.

The commissioners will vote next week on allowing township staff to begin drafting an ordinance prohibiting parking along Rowe and other similar roads.

Konkus recommended the township gather input from the local police and fire departments, Penn Township Ambulance and the school district.

Spring Valley Road also would be up for consideration, Perez said. Elliott Co. and Triumvirate Environmental employees tend to park along the road near its intersection with Claridge-Elliott Road, she said, which sometimes forces drivers to veer into the opposite lane.

The township also would consider any roads with double yellow lines, Perez said, including Waugaman, Long, Valley Club, Burrell Hill, Saunders Station, Meadowbrook, Sandy Hill, Watt, Main Street, Bauchman, School Road South, Holland, Snyder, Walton, Campbell, Chestnut Lane, Sarver, Boxcartown, Penny Lane Drive and a section of Boyd, from Mellon Road to the Murrysville line.

“If you can identify where those roads are, it’s pretty common sense that you wouldn’t be parking along those roads,” Perez said, “which may be why they were never identified in the ordinance.

“But maybe some of them not so much, and we have to identify them.”

The commissioners will vote on the matter at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, in the municipal building, 2001 Municipal Court.