Fed up, Pa. resident calls neighborhood meeting

By Mary Grzebieniak

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Roberta Penwell-Kellish will not be driven from her community by unruly teens and drug houses.

She told Mahoning Township supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting that some people have told her the only solution to growing problems in her Hillsville neighborhood is to move. But she recounted that her grandparents came from Italy to Hillsville for a better life many years ago, and her family has lived her ever since. “I am not throwing away 150 years of heritage …” she said.

She has called a neighborhood meeting for 7 p.m. Aug. 20 at St. Lawrence Church Hall on Main Street to try to find solutions. A Pennsylvania State Police officer will be there to answer residents’ questions.

Penwell-Kellish listed eight problem properties on Churchill Road, Overlook Drive, and East Main Street where disorderly youths congregate, and other problems, such as fighting, domestic violence, and drag racing, are a continuing fact of life.

“We need help. We have a cancer that is growing in our town,” she said. “Why can’t we control a streetful of kids?”

She recounted how a 79-year-old woman in the neighborhood was recently accosted by an intoxicated 18-year-old boy performing a lewd act while she was sitting on her porch.

Northwest Lawrence Regional Police Chief Jim Morris questioned why the state police, not the local department, has been invited to the Aug. 20 meeting. Penwell-Kellish told him he is also welcome.

Morris said one problem is that residents are not calling 911 when problems occur but instead calling supervisors. As a result, the complaints are not being logged, he said. But police are well aware of the problems in the area and have in fact been called 85 times since Jan. 1 to Churchill Road and Overlook Drive, he said.

Solicitor Lou Perrotta noted that the township has a disorderly house ordinance that can be used in some situations and that some of the behaviors Penwell-Kellish described are chargeable offenses. He stayed after the meeting to speak privately with her and others.