For almost a year, Mahoning Township resident Joe Curran and his neighbors have come to meetings to ask supervisors to help them resolve the problems they are having with drainage in front of their homes in the Jamestown section of the township. Both supervisors and residents met with PennDOT officials before the current paving being performed on Route 209, but in the end Curran told the supervisors it did not seem to accomplish a thing.

"I'm here again because PennDOT is not doing their job. It's (the drainage area) totally level and probably worse than it was before," said Curran. "There's an older lady who has plywood at the bottom of her steps to divert the flooding. I'm disappointed they didn't do what they said they would."Township chairperson John Wieczorek said he believed the pipe that is supposed to divert water under the roadway is blocked and should have been fixed before they paved it. Supervisor Frank Ruch who visited Curran's neighborhood said he is of the opinion the pipe collapsed under the roadway.Curran told the board all of the water from both the east and west side of the highway is running down the alley continually aggravating the situation. He did tell the supervisors that it really did not rain since PennDOT was there but using a garden hose they could see how the water flowed.Supervisor Travis Steigerwalt said he thought fellow supervisor George Stawnyczyj met with Tom Roble of the agency and thought that the board should talk with him about the situation and try to put some pressure on him. Wieczorek said he believed it was time to find someone higher up to deal with the issue.Curran said PennDOT's solution to the problem in front of his home was to dump a couple wheelbarrows of millings in front of his home. "They didn't even bother to roll it." Ruch interjected that Curran was giving them too much credit. "It's pretty bad down there," Ruch said to Curran, "The wheel barrow they used must have been small. You are giving them the benefit of the doubt."Last month Stawnyczyj voiced his displeasure with the perceived slights the township experienced from PennDOT. He pointed out the repaving that was done in Lehighton as part of a grant was full of errors which PennDOT seemed to find the money to correct, but heatedly pointed out they couldn't fix a drainage problem their roads and maintenance caused in Jamestown.At that meeting Stawnyczyj further said the township requested the millings from the paving to help remedy the situation only to be told that PennDOT recycles them, but he alleged the millings from the Lehighton project were not recycled, but rather dumped on a farm for some other purpose.Supervisors told Curran they would continue to pursue the matter, but were skeptical that PennDOT was willing or planning to do anything more since the paving was completed.