Much like its neighboring municipalities, Franklin Township has its share of potholes to maintain.

Recently, someone painted “Fix Me” on Cherry Hill Road in an attempt to get attention for its current condition.

However, Fred Kemmerer, chairman of the township’s board of supervisors, noted that Cherry Hill Road is a state road that is maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Kemmerer said the township is 15 square miles, and added it has 62.84 total road mileage. Of that 62.84, 45.7 is strictly township roads, while the other 17.08 is considered state road and is therefore the state’s responsibility.

He said much like former township roadmasters Willard Ahner and Robin Cressley, the township’s new roadmaster, Kim Hunsicker, does the road maintenance on the 45.7 miles the township has.

“After plowing and the winter season is over, March is the time where they’ll go out and do cold-patching to get them to the point where the asphalt plants open up,” Kemmerer said. “Those calls that come into our office and via email at our township, those are addressed within one day, sometimes to a week turnaround time that they try to tend to those.”

Kemmerer noted that March is when the township starts fielding those emergency fixes, and that once April rolls around is when they would do something that would be considered a permanent fix of the potholes.

“We have a group that will go through and set up for the permanent fix,” he said. “The end of April into May, asphalt plants start opening up, and that’s when we start going out to do these fixes.

“Every second of free time that we have outside of collecting garbage, the massive cleanup of the township building, we’re out mowing grass and doing potholes. We do start permanent fixes of potholes with asphalt from April into May; after May we will do our actual paving projects.”

Kemmerer noted that the township is one of the few municipalities in Carbon County to actually have its own paving program.

“We try to utilize our liquid fuels (money) as best as we can, anything that deals with the roads, we do a lot of tarring and chipping,” he said. “The previous roadmasters set the bar, so we have everything in house, we invest a lot of money into equipment to provide service of road maintenance.

“Each year, we allocate a fund toward future purchases of equipment. This township does a really good job.”

Kemmerer said it’s all about proper communication.

“The process is communication to the township secretary,” he said. “And it does get passed on and take down their concerns, and the roadmaster will address it in a timely manner.”

To report a pothole on a state road, contact PennDOT at 1-800-FIX-ROAD.