Sheet of ice covers Reserve Township road after waterline break

RESERVE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A sheet of ice now covers a Reserve Township road.

Channel 11 News spoke with officials on Wednesday who confirmed a waterline break inside of resident’s home has sent water gushing onto the public road forcing the township to close several adjacent streets.

“There is the potential that there could be an accident,” said Reserve Township Police Chief Brandon Morgan.

The township like many across the region is experiencing a salt shortage.

“We are using a lot of salt we can’t continue to use salt on something that could have been prevented. We can’t even get the salt in right now, we have 160 tons on order since early January,” explained Township Manager, Jan Kowalski.

This week the township was forced to close Melvina Street, Mauch Street, and Carrie Street along with Cronmeyer Avenue. But when we asked township leaders about the break, they told us the repairs were not their responsibility.

“We’ve been kind of monitoring the situation, but now with the freezing weather it has become a hazard because the water is actually going out onto the street,” Kowalski said.

Kowalski told us the township found out about the water line break in November, and at the time they notified the homeowners that because the break started inside their home they were responsible for repairs.

But after weeks of waiting and consecutive days of freezing temperatures, the township said money is now going down the drain, and the wasted water will cost the township thousands.

“We are using an excess of 100 thousand gallons a day extra water right now that we can’t bill anybody for,” said Kowalski.

But when we reached out to the residents they disagreed with the township.

“How does that become our responsibility,” said Devin O’Loughlin.

We spoke to the residents who told us not only did they purchase the home only a year ago, but they’ve been working to fix their line.

“We have had several quotes we’ve tried to mitigate it ourselves we’ve tried to be good neighbors and tried to get things taken care of, but obviously with the winter weather, it’s hard to deal with,” O’Loughlin said.

Loughlin said they shouldn’t be responsible for repairs to the main line that serves other homes.

“The entire road has to come up, and the cost of equipment is expensive. You’ll have to get an excavator and create some kind of trenchless ditch, and that’s just what we are dealing with,” he said.

We asked the resident how much the repairs would cost, and he shared that the expenses would be upwards of $20,000, and he is also being fined daily.

“It’s hard to get ahead whenever you have a township breathing 30,000 dollars on your neck,” he said.

No repairs are scheduled to be made but we will continue to monitor this developing story.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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