Truck traffic dispute in Palmerton

Concerns about roads led to a confrontation at Palmerton Borough Council last week, with one man being escorted out by police.

Councilwoman Holly Sell opened up the floor for anyone who wanted to address the council, and Palmerton resident Howard Zellner was the first to speak up.

“What are we going to do about these trucks from Jersey destroying the roads?” Zellner asked.

“I’ve been here how many times about these trucks and nobody does anything about it,” Zellner added.

Mayor Chris Olivia pushed back on that claim, saying that the borough tickets the drivers.

But Zellner wasn’t satisfied with that answer. He continued to challenge the council.

“When’s the last time you guys actually did something about the trucks, without somebody getting hurt? How many people flipped over? How many trucks flipped over out that way? What did you guys do about that? Nothing. So, I don’t even want to hear your (expletive),” Zellner said.

At that point, council President Terry Costenbader told Zellner to leave. He was escorted out by a Palmerton Borough police officer.

After Zellner’s exit, Councilman Kris Hoffner spoke up on the borough’s behalf.

“We, as a borough, have had numerous meetings with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection regarding the truck issues, regarding the Northface property,” Hoffner said.

“We as a borough are doing everything that we can, including citing hundreds of trucks over the years for being overweight,” Hoffner added.

Following the dispute, a discussion about the condition of the roads, particularly Mauch Chunk, the fill being brought into the borough by Phase III Environmental and public health ensued.

Phase III Environmental is the company conducting the reclamation project at Northface Business Park, located on the former New Jersey Zinc company property that borders Route 248.

The company has been cited by DEP, which identified 37 deficiencies in which Phase III “failed to adequately sample regulated fill before placement at the site, receive fill before the 10 working-day DEP review period, and/or received fill without DEP approval.”

Costenbader told the crowd that the borough also sent a letter to DEP, requesting it hold off on renewing Phase III’s permit.

When questions arose about the content of the fill Phase III has brought in, Costenbader said that the borough wasn’t involved in the process of giving the company its permit, and that it does not monitor or regulate Phase III’s actions, DEP does.

“We weren’t even in this permitting business, or we would have had them post a bond on this whole thing,” Costenbader said. “But this community and municipality had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

See a map of DEP’s Phase III deficiencies at tnonline.com.