NEW CASTLE Neighbors not happy with plans for road

County officials say they are looking for an alternative route to the industrial park.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- There's a portion of New Castle's east side that is full of well-manicured lawns, dead-end streets and quiet solitude.
But neighbors fear that will change if an industrial park road is built along an abandoned railroad line that abuts their property.
Bruce & amp; Merilee's Electric Company owner Robert Bruce owns the rail line and wants to use it to connect U.S. Route 422 to a 15-acre industrial park he owns, which is behind the electric company offices off Pa. Route 65.
Currently there is a one-lane road from Pa. Route 65 that leads to a 200,000-square-foot building and the vacant land to be developed for the industrial park.
The new road, to be located in Shenango Township, would stretch about a half-mile from Route 422 to Bruce's land.
The property was once part of the B & amp;O Railroad Line but has been abandoned for at least 20 years, and neighbors said they never thought anything would be done with the land.
Stanley Pruchnic of Warren Avenue Extension even inquired about buying the land near his house but was told he would have to purchase the whole rail line.
He bought his lot at the dead end of Warren Avenue Extension in 1961 looking for a safe place to raise his nine children and place the one-story brick house he and his wife, Mary Lou, moved from Cascade Street. They got the house for free from St. Joseph's Church on the condition that they move it, he said.
The railroad line never bothered them, they said.
"It was one train a day, and it went real slow. It was something of an amusement for our kids," he said.
The residents' concerns
But now the Pruchnics are worried that their retirement years will be marred by big, loud trucks going in and out of the industrial park.
Their neighbor James Viggiano of Doris Street has the same concerns.
"If we wanted to live on a highway, we would have built on a highway," Viggiano said. His house is about 20 feet from the proposed road.
Neighbors say their quiet, dead-end streets are something of a well-kept secret in the city. Houses are often sold by word-of-mouth and generations of families live next to one another.
"We love our neighborhood. I'm in the city, but I'm not in the city because it's so quiet," said Nancy Scarnati of Warren Avenue Extension.
Scarnati estimates that the proposed road will affect 51 homes and two churches on Rose and Warren avenue extensions, Gale, Doris and Barkett streets and Lynn Street extension.
Scarnati's cousin Debra DeBlasio lives about a block away and said she worries about the elderly people living directly next to the proposed road.
"Most of the people who live along the proposed road are elderly, and their children are gone. We are a very family oriented neighborhood, and we are concerned for each other," she said.
Protesting the road
DeBlasio's husband, Rick, is president of New Castle City Council. The council recently passed a resolution opposing the proposed road, even though it is outside the city.
"This is a really nice neighborhood. I feel something like that [road] would be detrimental," he said. DeBlasio and other neighbors went to the Shenango Township supervisors meeting last week to protest the road.
Shenango supervisors and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will have the final say on whether a road is built, but neither has been contacted by the property owner about the plans.
Scarnati said neighbors are worried that work on the road will start soon.
Lawrence County Commissioner Roger DeCarbo said there is another path the road could take, but it would mean building a bridge over some wetlands and the total cost would be about $1.4 million. The original road is expected to cost only about $500,000.
DeCarbo said he has a commitment from state officials to supply the extra $900,000, either through a loan to the county or a grant to Shenango Township, and has asked Bruce to consider putting his money into the other route.
DeCarbo said the other route follows another abandoned railroad line near Willowbrook Road in Shenango Township and would open up about 30 more acres of land, not owned by Bruce, for development.
DeCarbo said he is hoping to meet with all of the land owners, township officials and the state to hash out the idea.
Bruce did not want to comment on the proposed road project.
Continuing effort
While the neighbors are encouraged by this news, they say they are working on their own strategies to divert the road and meet about once a month with Youngstown attorney David Betras.
Betras became involved because his mother-in-law, Carolyn Barkett, owns a large amount of property near the St. Elias Orthodox Church.
"Our fight is far from over," Betras recently said at a meeting of the neighbors.
He plans to contact fire chiefs in New Castle and Shenango Township to see if fire trucks will be able to access the road easily and contact other officials about possible conflicts with the road construction and environmental concerns.
His mother-in-law, who had been living in Los Angeles, but now lives in Youngstown, said she had always hoped to retire in the east side neighborhood.
"It's such a nice area. I wanted to keep it virgin. I feel there is some little area that has to be kept nice," Barkett said.