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Gallitzin residents upset with Peoples

Property owners say company has been slow to make promised fixes

GALLITZIN — Daily, Gallitzin residents call the borough office to complain about a recent natural gas project that has left roads and yards in disrepair.

“Some days, a lot of people are upset,” an office staff member said.

Gas-related complaints have been a constant since the completion of a recent Peoples Natural Gas infrastructure expansion in the Gallitzin area.

About 120 residents transitioned to natural gas service, Luke Ravenstahl, the gas company’s vice president of sales and marketing, said early this year.

And now that work is completed, property owners expect their roadways and yards, which were damaged during construction, to be repaired.

“They were supposed to come back in the spring to do the restoration,” Gallitzin Mayor Raymond Osmolinski said.

However, as Osmolinski drove through the borough Thursday morning, he pointed to areas where yards were in disrepair.

“It’s going to be July come Saturday,” he said last week.

As he drove, workers could be seen in the back of trucks equipped with bales of hay. Osmolinski said he’s watched as hay and grass seed were thrown from the truck in attempt to fix yards.

Bumps were noticeable, when the mayor drove over sunken road patches, some an inch deep.

Osmolinski admitted borough officials need to schedule paving projects but blamed the deep patches on natural gas construction.

“The roads are in bad shape,” he said.

Borough secretary Irene Szynal said she too received a call from an upset resident, though she has also heard from others happy with the new service.

“They were here for maybe a couple of days,” Szynal said last week of repair crews. “Now they haven’t been here for awhile.”

Matt Szalankiewicz, Peoples’outside sales representative, did not deny that repairs are behind schedule, but he attributed that to recent heavy rains.

Restorations began June 26, he said.

“We are definitely committed to restoring the community,” he said.

Szalankiewicz could not provide a timeline for repairs but said the project contractor — Superior Utility Excavating of Greensburg — will “be on task until it’s all done.”

This is not the first time that Peoples has disappointed new customers in the Gallitzin area.

In early March numerous residents attended a face-to-face meeting with People officials, who heard complaints about a monthly tariff, which residents claim they were not told they’d have to pay.

In Gallitzin, residents who recently switched to natural gas pay a delivery rate of $7.14 per each 1,000 cubic feet of gas. In nearby Cresson, customers pay little more than $3 for that amount.

Gallitzin service is contracted through a subsidiary company called Peoples TWP. The subsidiary charges a higher delivery rate, which officials claim was necessary to expand in the area.

Despite some contention, Peoples Community Affairs Director Barry Kukovich said officials are not worried that prospective customers will be swayed from hooking up to natural gas.

“Everybody gets a cost savings,” he said, explaining the higher Peoples TWP costs are still cheaper than the price for oil and propane.

Expansion projects continue in the Nanty Glo and Colver areas.

Kukovich also addressed restoration efforts, saying planned paving could save the borough and its taxpayers in the long run.

“We can be spending a million dollars and more just on streets and sidewalks that the community would never be able to pay for,” he said.

Szalankiewicz said the company is committed to building positive relationships in the community.

“We apologize for any delay,” he said. “We really hope (customers) find value in the service we are providing.

Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.

That work only began after some “needling,” Osmolinski said, calling the technique “sloppy.”

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