It’s still unknown whether the 36th edition of Historic Old Annville Day will be held this year.
The event’s future was called into question after event organizers and Annville Township officials learned a waiver request to North Annville Township supervisors concerning an ordinance was denied at their Jan. 13 meeting.
Organizers of Historic Old Annville Day, an event that raises funds for charitable organizations while honoring Annville’s history, traditionally had all traffic rerouted from U.S. Route 422 onto Clear Spring Road in North Annville Township to state Route 934.
That option, however, is no longer available to vehicles hauling trailers longer than 43 feet.
Last August, North Annville Township supervisors unanimously voted to enact two ordinances along the two-mile stretch of Clear Spring Road. One ordinance prevents vehicles with trailers larger than 43 feet from traveling that road while the other lowered the speed limit.
The supervisors said then they were banning large-sized trailers due to safety reasons involving off-tracking following a traffic study they commissioned with an engineering firm.
Five months later at their January meeting, the supervisors decided to deny a one-day waiver request by the Western Lebanon County Regional Police Department, which has jurisdiction in Annville, to reroute trucks with large trailers onto Clear Spring Road for Saturday, June 14, the date of this year’s Historic Old Annville Day.
The supervisors restated at their January meeting safety concerns as stated in the trailer restriction ordinance for denying the request. A verbal discussion occurred at the meeting but no official vote was taken.
Friends of Old Annville, who run the annual one-day event in downtown Annville, then began and currently continue to explore traffic rerouting and other location options, according to event organizer Douglas Nyce.
LebTown spoke with Nyce about the group’s efforts to find rerouting alternatives and North Annville Township supervisors as a follow-up to LebTown’s coverage of their decision at their January meeting.
Adam Wolfe, North Annville Township supervisor, told LebTown that their decision does not prohibit most traffic from using Clear Spring Road, just those whose trailers exceed their ordinance.
“My understanding of the waiver request was to waive the trailer-length restriction for that one day,” said Wolfe. “But what I hope that people realize when they read your article is that most vehicles can use Clear Spring Road that day.”
Nyce said that would require multiple sets of fire police to ensure that prohibited trucks turned onto their designated detour route while assisting other traffic to turn safely onto Clear Spring Road.
Wolfe agreed with the multiple fire police officer assessment. He also noted a highway project on state Route 934 during the 2019 replacement of a township culvert at Hill Church Road as an example that required separate detour routes for vehicles and tractor trailers.
“I think it would be a two-fold operation to make it happen,” said Wolfe. “You designate a truck detour route and a vehicle detour route. What I am telling you from past experience is that you can separate truck detours and vehicle detours from each other. They would have to have fire police at intersections to direct the traffic the appropriate way.”
Nyce said while that solution is potentially viable – although more fire police than normal would be required to execute dual detours – an existing issue is where to send those prohibited trailers.
While it was mentioned at the meeting that Mt. Pleasant Road in South Annville Township was a nearby potential truck detour route, Nyce told LebTown he’s been informed that’s not a viable solution.
“Potential detours are what we’ve been looking at for the past two weeks, but there are a lot of reasons why they might not work. Mt. Pleasant Road has some tight corners so that if two trailers were to pass at one of those spots at the same time, that would be a problem,” said Nyce.
North Annville Township Supervisor Aaron Miller said that’s interesting considering that safety is the reason the township passed their two ordinances.
Nyce told LebTown that several other roads either have bridge-weight restrictions placed on them or some other logistical issue that makes them less than ideal.
Wolfe said he believed rerouting large trucks from Route 422 at Route 117 is another solution since that detour was previously used years ago after a sinkhole opened in front of the Palmyra Bowling Center.
“Killinger Road has a bridge there that does not have a high enough rating to handle heavier trucks,” said Nyce about why that road is problematic. “Route 117 is so far away. Tractor trailers that might enter (Route 422) between 117 and Annville would be an issue.”
Nyce said the distance between Route 117 and Clear Spring Road presents other issues.
A truck driver who might turn onto Route 422 on another roadway along the 3.5-mile stretch that separates Route 117 and Clear Spring Road may not know there’s a prohibited detour ahead and that Route 422 was closed to all through traffic in downtown Annville.
A separate solution, which involves allowing the trailer size waiver along with indemnification for insurance purposes, was discussed by North Annville Township solicitor Paul Bametzreider at the January meeting.
He was asked by township supervisor chairman Clyde Meyer for his legal opinion on the truck waiver request submitted by the regional police department. (Wolfe told LebTown that the supervisors only received the waiver request the morning of their January meeting.)
Bametzreider initially told the supervisors they could ask to be indemnified if they wished to grant a waiver for that day but later changed his advice to say the supervisors aren’t allowed to waive an ordinance they created. The latter comment occurred after Miller questioned whether they could legally waive an ordinance.
Bametzreider told LebTown this week that as he thought about it during discussion at the meeting that he came to the conclusion that the supervisors can’t waive ordinances.
“You’re at a public meeting and you haven’t had a chance to prepare for it, I was kind of thinking out loud. I thought about what Aaron (Miller) had said and I thought, ‘Well, no, you can’t,’” stated Bametzreider. “Thinking it through dynamically during the meeting and discussing it with the board, Aaron’s statement is correct: you can’t legally waive it.”
Whether a township can waive its ordinance is unknown at this time. Bametzreider said he’s not researching whether it’s legal but told Nyce that if their solicitor can find case law, he will present that information to the supervisors.
“I don’t feel it is my or the township’s responsibility, frankly, to look into whether there is legislation,” said Bametzreider. “I spoke with the person who organizes Old Annville Day, and I told him that if you look into this, if you can come up with a law to waive an ordinance of this sort, I will take that information to the township supervisors.”
LebTown also asked the press office of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors if North Annville Township supervisors could make an exemption to that ordinance.
Initially told the question was too broad, LebTown rephrased it to ask if any township in Pennsylvania has the authority to provide a temporary waiver for its ordinance. The revised question was not answered as of publication despite multiple email requests for an answer.
Wolfe and Miller both agreed that LebTown’s portrayal of what occurred at the township meeting during the truck waiver request discussion was accurate. LebTown asked Wolfe why he felt their solicitor mentioned indemnification as part of a possible waiver request but later said they are prohibited from offering waiver requests for any ordinance.
“I honestly don’t have a good answer for you on that. The one thing I can say for certain: The question of this one-day waiver for the ordinance on Clear Spring Road, was only posed to us the morning of our meeting. I received a call from a police officer with the Western Lebanon County Police Department,” said Wolfe. “So I told him we would discuss it that night at our meeting and I asked him to send me an email outlining their request. I forwarded it to Paul and the other two supervisors and that was the extent of the amount of time before the meeting to really dig into the matter.”
Wolfe added that the only conversation that happened between the supervisors is what was discussed at the public meeting. None happened prior to nor have any conversations occurred since about the police department’s waiver request.
Miller said only receiving the request that day didn’t provide adequate time for research.
“We didn’t even take a vote on this last-minute request because there was no previous conversation about it in a public setting,” said Miller. “Some of what you saw was the sausage being made because we were working through the process.”
Miller agreed with Bametzreider that his questioning whether they could legally waive an ordinance is what prompted Bametzreider’s reversal.
Nyce told LebTown that their solicitor is researching case law and the group plans to present that information if it exists. Additionally, he said a waiver for Clear Spring Road that contained an indemnification provision is an option that they would consider to keep the event at its current location, which is on the western side of Route 422.
Wolfe told LebTown he’s not certain he would support an indemnification clause with a waiver request, citing the precedent it might set.
“A question I would have for our solicitor is what if DHL were to ask the township to indemnify them for Clear Spring Road. Not only DHL but any company because a precedent has been set,” said Wolfe.
Nyce said he believes a one-day waiver request for set hours is not comparable to one that would be 24/7/365.
Nyce said organizers are exploring options beyond traffic detours, including moving the event around town. One option of several being explored is moving to Lebanon Valley College’s campus.
“Another suggestion is moving to the other end of the historic district and having it from Route 934 to the east side of town,” said Nyce, who added historic homes also are on the eastern side of Route 422. Tours of Annville’s historic homes is a hallmark of past events.
A final decision regarding traffic rerouting or a new location should be coming soon. Vendor applications normally go out this week to past exhibitors first and then opened to new ones if any openings remain, according to Nyce.
Nyce also informed LebTown that Friends officials were to meet privately last evening with local police department personnel and several Annville Township supervisors to discuss and finalize any viable detour options.
Any detour request to close a state-maintained road like Route 422 must be made to and granted by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, added Nyce.
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