N. Annville Twp. supervisors address multiple traffic concerns from residents

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A dump truck accident at a mobile home park in North Annville Township in mid-September and another general traffic concern dominated discussion at the supervisors’ October meeting on Monday.

Residents highlighted concerns about how Shanamantown Road is being used since Clear Spring Road was closed indefinitely due to faults in the railroad bridge’s infrastructure.

Clear Spring Road closed in early May after structural defects on the west side of the bridge were discovered during a biennial inspection on April 28 by Lebanon County’s engineering firm, Wilson Consulting Group.

Read More: Clear Spring Road in N. Annville Twp. closed indefinitely due to bridge defects

Residents were displaced from their homes after the truck crashed into two mobile homes.

The other issue discussed at the meeting concerned the potential creation of an ordinance to address excessive vehicular noises.

The dump truck accident occurred at 5:45 a.m. Sept. 16 while residents who live near those two intersections were asleep. Media reports from that crash indicate that the homes were shifted off their foundations by about three or four feet. 

North Annville Mobile Home Park owner Jestine Reider spoke about the need to address the intersection, noting that the residents who lived there don’t want to return to their homes.

“There’s a lot of trauma that is left from that incident, from the people that are living there. And they wish not to live there anymore because of the road noises,” Reider said. “Because I don’t know if your house has ever been hit by a dump truck carrying 4,000 pounds of sand, but it’s not a pleasant experience when you’re thrown four feet in the air, hit your bed, and then thrown back up in the air again and hit the floor. So they’re never going to live there again. They don’t want to live there again.”

Reider suggested some kind of barrier be erected to prevent trucks from crashing into her residents’ homes.

“That dump truck driver should have hit my garages. Why he didn’t do that, I don’t know,” Reider said. “Life would have been much more simplistic if he just would have hit them. But he didn’t. If there were barriers there, like concrete, and he wouldv’e hit that and just stopped, that could have helped. … It doesn’t have to be permanent. We can get some concrete blocks in, some guardrail, something.”

Dump trucks traveling to and from Delaware are using Shanamantown Road while Clear Spring Road is closed. The structural issue is slated to be repaired by Norfolk Southern, owner of the railroad bridge that crosses Clear Spring Road, just north of U.S. Route 422. 

A number of solutions to address traffic on that roadway, which connects Clear Spring Road to Bellegrove Road (State Route 934), were suggested, including a truck weight limit study.

A discussion also occurred about the definition of what constitutes a local business delivery, with some residents disagreeing with the township’s position that nearby quarries qualify as local businesses. Dump trucks traveling to and from the quarries are bringing in sand for delivery and returning with full loads of stone. 

Supervisor Adam Wolfe noted that a weight limit study on Shanamantown Road would have to occur before the township could create an ordinance, adding that would come with a cost to the township.

He also suggested contacting the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to utilize services they offer that are outside a weight limit study.

“My suggestion at this point would be to ask PennDOT’s local technical assistance program to come out with their services, which are free to the township, to do a safety and signage review of that entire little area there, the area at the intersection of Clear Spring and Shanamantown,” Wolfe said. “We’ll see what kind of recommendations they might make based on their findings when they come out and take a look at it.”

Supervisor Aaron Miller added that their services would take into account the existing detour for the bridge on Clear Spring Road that’s currently out of service. “And they should be able to give us, and that would give us permission basically to do additional things,” he added.

Reider suggested putting flashing stop signs up and rumble strips as a temporary solution to a problem that will be resolved once Clear Spring Road reopens.

“I don’t think this is necessarily about weight restriction,” she said. “This is the ability to stop. And coming down that hill, I don’t care if you’re in a vehicle or if you’re in a dump truck or if you’re in a box truck or if you’re in a UPS truck, it’s just hard to stop. If it’s wet, like it is tonight, you’re gonna slide in there.”

Supervisors unanimously passed a motion to contact PennDOT’s technical services department to review traffic on Shanamantown Road. 

Excessive vehicle noise regulation

Officials noted that most of the complaints the township gets about vehicle noise applies to Route 934 and Clear Spring Road, specifically from trucks using compression release engine brakes, commonly called “Jake brakes,” a supplementary braking system for large diesel trucks that uses the engine to slow the vehicle down by releasing compressed air from the cylinders. 

Township solicitor Paul Bametzreider said a potential noise ordinance would be applicable to all areas of North Annville Township.

“The PA code regulations, which you shared with me, apply to all township roads regarding noise on the township roads. It would be my interpretation of the Motor Vehicle Code that in order to to enforce these limits locally we would need to adopt a local ordinance so the chief could enforce it,” Bametzreider said. “But yes they would apply to all township roads. No traffic studies don’t need to be done for that.”

Bametzreider noted, however, a Jake brake ordinance is hard to enforce.

“J-brake ordinances are really hard to enforce, and they’re really hard to put into place if they’re legitimate, and then they’re even harder to enforce, so I would not recommend going that way,” he said. “My understanding is there’s no real guidance from the state as far as certification or calibration on them. I would assume if you had orders you’d have to put what number you want to go with, you know, what’s your range.”

Bametzreider added there’s a range in the state regulations that would be enforced if an ordinance was created. 

“There is a kind of decibel meter, right? I think it’s called the ANSI decibel meter, which is considered calibrated to such a level that it’s acceptable in a court of law. So you would have to have a meter of that sort in order to enforce it. You’d have to know how to use the meter,” he added.

Cleona Police Chief Jeff Farneski said prices range from $100 to $700 for a decibel meter for law enforcement, with most costing between $200 to $300.

“Again, there’s no guidance, like with our speed devices, it specifically tells you what you can have and how it’s got to be calibrated every five weeks and stuff. This doesn’t have any, there’s no guidance, it’s just whatever you guys come up with numbers or ratings,” Farneski said.

No action was taken by supervisors Monday.

In other board actions, the board voted unanimously to: 

• Make official the name North Annville Fire Company as the township’s recently merged fire company. 
• Pay monthly invoices for September.
• Announce that residents have until Nov. 20 to review the draft of the Cornwall-Lebanon regional comprehensive plan.  
• Approve the Sept. 8 meeting minutes, and the treasurer’s report with a total balance of all funds of $1.77 million.

North Annville Township supervisors meet the second Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. in the Union Water Works social hall, 2875 Water Works Way, Annville.