Unanswered Questions
To the editor: On your Pike County road, if a fifty-thousand pound vehicle was coming at you, one and a half feet over the double yellow line in your lane, you would think the driver is somehow impaired and needs to be arrested right? This will be the conditions on Buist Road every day once construction vehicles for the Eagle Ridge subdivision start running. Can a traffic study simply ignore critical elements like this? The Dingman Township Engineer testified that this traffic study was deficient in addressing the geometry of Buist Road. The Dingman Planning Commission recommended Eagle Ridge be denied the use of Buist Road. However, both the Dingman Township Engineer and Supervisors ignored the incompleteness of the traffic study and Planning Commissions recommendations and allowed Eagle Ridge the use of Buist Road anyway. Isn’t it odd that in the name of safety, a township can fail my household’s new steps for being an inch and a half too short, but cannot help me when a fifty-thousand pound vehicle is a foot and a half in my lane barreling down at me? There are other issues besides road safety that need to be addressed. As I write this, the Estates at Eagle Ridge subdivision is trying to get permission from the Department of Environmental Protection to circumvent the existing “ perc test” policy. Again -- against the Dingman Planning Commission’s recommendation to reject the Eagle Ridge Sewer Planning Module for being deficient -- the Supervisors have granted them extension after extension. Why? There are also important questions that need to be answered about the Eagle Ridge Storm Water Management Plan. What are the effects on the Milford Springs and the EV rated Sawkill Creek? The stance I am taking regarding these issues is not anti-development. It is pro“rule of law” that is respectful of everyone’s property rights -- even the common taxpayer. If we allow aggressive developers and the governmental agencies in charge of their review to allow key safety and ecological steps to be ignored or poorly executed, then the Pike County we cherish will vanish. Our children deserve better clean water, safe roads vs. a developer’s expediency. Which is more important to you? Please support us in this ongoing struggle. Vito DiBiasi, Dingman Township