Local News
UPDATE: Turnpike agency trying anew to toll I-80
MERCER COUNTY — After cooling its heels for a year, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is again pursuing a federal application to take over and toll Interstate 80.
Their application to toll was denied last September by the Federal Highway Administration, which said their proposed payments to PennDOT for leasing and tolling I-80 were never linked to the costs of running I-80.
The Turnpike Commission plans over the next two months to submit a fair market analysis comparing what they pay PennDOT in lease money to the leases of other tolling groups across the country, commission spokesman Carl DeFebo said Tuesday.
Plans to toll I-80 are part of a broader state law enacted to repair Pennsylvania’s crumbling roads and bridges. The Turnpike Commission was to be given tolling powers over I-80 and also increase tolls on the Turnpike, then pay PennDOT about $1 billion a year. But they had to get federal approval to toll a federal highway.
DeFebo claimed the federal government never rejected the tolling application, but just wanted reassurance that the deal with PennDOT was fair and in line with the private sector.
Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce chief George Gerhart, who is a vocal opponent of the tolling plan, said the state’s entire plan to pump money from I-80 into other projects around the state was turned down, leading to the widespread view that plans were dead.
“The guidelines require money collected from tolls must all go to that particular highway,” he said. “And the application indicated that funds were going to be distributed not only to (Interstate) 80, but to other projects in the Commonwealth.”
A Highway Administration spokeswoman said she would check on whether or not the tolling program would require all money to be spent on I-80, but did not have an answer readily available Tuesday.
Under the lease deal worked out with the state, the Turnpike Commission is paying out a full $900 million annually to PennDOT for road and bridge repair, DeFebo said.
If the Turnpike Commission doesn’t get rights to toll I-80, their payments will be cut nearly in half to about $450 million next summer. DeFebo added that the rate will be flat, and will not increase with inflation over 50 years while a toll on I-80 would provide steadily increasing funds.
He also argued that unless I-80 is tolled, the Turnpike will continue to bleed traffic and therefore revenues as motorists divert onto I-80. Tolling both major east-to-west highways is necessary to maintain a “revenue-generating machine,” he said.
The move remains deeply unpopular across the rural corridor of Pennsylvania that I-80 runs through, and all four of Mercer County’s state legislators are members of an anti-tolling group called The Alliance To Stop I-80 Tolling, said Gerhart.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie, D-3rd District, also opposes the tolling plan, she said in a statement Tuesday.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
State Superior Court has denied a local judge’s request to issue a precedential opinion in a rape case.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed had ruled that Chad S. Thompson, 24, formerly of Stoneboro, is a sexually violent predator, but Superior Court said in a 2-1 decision July 8 that an expert’s testimony was insufficient to back that declaration.
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Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
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Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
