Borough staff told the Rural Council on Jan. 16 that officials have asked the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to visit the Church Lane–McDade intersection to evaluate repeated crashes and possible safety measures.

Miss Bresnan, presenting project updates, said the borough has already reached out to PennDOT and is setting up an on-site meeting so engineers and local officials can observe conditions and discuss options. “We have already reached out to PennDOT to set that meeting up to express our concerns and hopefully expedite, you know, other improvements at the intersection,” she said.

Bresnan said the borough has provided PennDOT with police reports documenting previous crashes and has urged the agency to treat the situation as urgent. She told council members the borough’s recommendation is to meet on site so engineers can see how vehicles move through the intersection and better evaluate countermeasures.

Separately, Bresnan said the contractor for a nearby traffic-change project confirmed that a conversion to a one-way street will begin in February and that letters about the change were sent to affected residents. “We did get confirmation from the contractor that the one-way initiation will start in being February,” she said.

Mike Caso, who spoke during the discussion, said a PennDOT engineer will be sent to the site and urged that county and borough staff join the inspection. “One of their engineers is coming out… Any federal officials can come out, mister mayor, the manager. Anybody to see what these conditions are going to be,” he said.

Council members and residents discussed additional interim measures the borough has requested, including more speed enforcement and installation of speed cushions on approaches. Bresnan and others said the borough has asked PennDOT to consider additional speed mitigation on the state-owned road. “Our goal is really to make PennDOT understand that there is an issue here and put it on… the borough went through the action of install[ing] the speed slot on a state road. Our goal is that PennDOT will install the next one,” Bresnan said.

Council members and staff agreed to invite residents who have been directly affected to the PennDOT site meeting so they can describe conditions and hear agency responses directly. Officials said they will share the date once it is confirmed.

The council did not adopt a new policy at the Jan. 16 meeting; members instead directed staff to coordinate the PennDOT site visit and to notify residents when the meeting is scheduled.