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Taking a stand: Neighbors try to do what authorities couldn't
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STOP AHEAD: Anna McCollums of Hillsville, Pa., uses a flag to stop a truck entering the Carbon Limestone Landfill operated by Republic Services. She and a group of concerned citizens are using flags to make trucks leaving and entering the facility stop at the stop signs.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
HILLSVILLE, Pa. — When Joseph Nestasie and a small band of his neighbors didn’t get satisfaction from authorities regarding a Main Street intersection, they took matters into their own hands.
Nestasie, Anna McCollums and a handful of others stand with flags in hand, for a few hours each day, where Main intersects with a private road leading to the Carbon Limestone Landfill.
The landfill is in Poland Township, but to get there, trucks use the entrance just across the Pennsylvania line.
“We’re just stopping the trucks,” Nestasie said. “We’re not allowed to direct traffic.”
“We’re tired of the accidents,” McCollums added.
A flashing light and a large stop sign mark the intersection, directing trucks headed to the Republic Services-operated landfill to stop. But Nestasie says many don’t. “All I want is for them to stop,” he said. “On Friday, an out-of-state truck came through and blew through the stop sign. That’s a 6-foot stop sign. Ray Charles could see that stop sign.”
Main Street traffic doesn’t have a stop sign at the intersection.
In August 2008, Mark McConnell II, who lived on Main, was traveling through the intersection to pick up his girlfriend and take her back to college when he was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on the private road.
“Something needs to be done there,” said his mother, Vickie, who still lives on Main.
She and her husband have mostly avoided the intersection since their son was killed. They do tend to the cross and flowers placed there in his memory.
The McConnells can see the intersection from their house and frequently see trucks go through the stop sign, Vickie McConnell said.
“When I go out to get my mail, in the five seconds that takes me, I see a truck run through the stop sign,” she said.
Nestasie and McCollums say there have been many accidents, but the 2008 fatality was the last straw.
Nestasie collected signatures on a petition, asking Mahoning Township supervisors to station security personnel at the intersection 24-hours a day.
Vito Yeropoli, supervisors chairman, said that because it’s a private road, the township can’t make the landfill do anything. They had discussions with landfill officials, and rumble strips were placed in the pavement to slow trucks.
Mike Heher, landfill manager, said that it took awhile to find a company to do the rumble strips.
Nestasie believes they are an inadequate solution, referring to them as a “Band-Aid.”
Heher said the landfill has tried to address the issue, erecting both the flashing light and the stop signs.
If anyone sees a truck go through the intersection without stopping, they can give the license plate number to Heher, and he’ll contact the trucking company.
“If they do it again, we’ll ban them from the site,” Heher said.
Yeropoli said that discussions continue with the landfill to ask them to make deeper rumble strips.
Nestasie says he’ll be there with his red flag until the problem is corrected.
“In the summer time, we’ll have more volunteers,” he said. “We’ll be here as long as it takes.”
denise_dick@vindy.com