A few Nesquehoning residents aired their opinion about an increase in truck traffic traveling Route 54 on weekends.

On Wednesday, David Kost and Harry Miller, who both live along Route 54, spoke about the truck traffic going to the Panther Creek Power Operating Plant, just off Route 54 in the borough, on Saturdays."Why is Panther Creek running trucks on Saturdays?" Kost asked. "There hasn't been any reduction in truck traffic during the week. I thought there was an agreement that they would only run Monday through Fridays. It would be nice if we could get two peaceful days."Council President David Hawk said that there is no formal agreement with the company on when they can run trucks.However, Councilman Frank Jacobs said that years ago there was a verbal mutual agreement reached between the town and company saying that Saturdays would be truck-free."They said they would be good neighbors," Miller added to Jacobs' comment. "They are not being good neighbors."Matthew Cochran, asset manager for Panther Creek, said that until this past weekend, the company was running trucks to bring in fuel on Saturdays because of traffic conditions on Interstate 81."The intent of that was to cover the delay we were seeing because of the traffic delays," he said.Cochran added that as of this weekend, truck traffic on Saturdays will stop because "we reached a limit (of fuel) where we feel comfortable enough that we will be able to go through the winter."Councilwoman Mary Fox asked if Cochran can tell contractors to also watch their speeds when coming through the borough because council has received complaints.Hawk thanked Kost, Miller and Cochran for coming to the meeting to discuss the matter."This is an appropriate way to do this," he said, noting that several members of council have received anonymous calls regarding the Saturday truck traffic. "They did not give a chance to reply. They did not call to discuss this or ask a question but to call to make sure I was awake."As councilmen, we expect to be accessible and have contact with the public to get their questions and complains and we welcome people doing that and this is a perfect forum or a phone call asking a question and discussing it, but to just make a call and not say who you are or give the councilman a chance to respond, that is starting to border on harassment."I welcome all in the future to call me and tell me who you are and we can talk about your problem," Hawk said.In related road matters, Miller asked who owns Tippets Road because triaxle trucks are going across it when it is marked with a 6-ton limit.Council said that the town owns it and has asked Lake Hauto Club to have residents use the main entrance when getting large deliveries.Miller said that was not happening."You go down there and that bridge starts shaking when they are going over," he said. "One day it is going to come down."Council said that it would ask Lake Hauto to put it in its newsletter to residents to remind them about using the main entrance to the development for deliveries.