Palmyra residents waiting to hear about sinkhole repairs [Lebanon Daily News, Pa.]

Oct. 31--PALMYRA -- Some residents who were evacuated from their homes along East Cherry Street in the borough after three sinkholes opened three weeks ago are still waiting to hear whether they'll be able to return.

Last week, borough manager Roger Powl told council that the borough was responsible for only one of the three, which was near an unnammed alley in the 300 block of East Cherry Street, just east of Grant Street. The other two sinkholes occurred on private property, he said.

The American Red Cross helped the families to find temporary housing initially. Last week, Kathy Smyser, regional communications manager for the American Red Cross, said the agency met with the families to provide them with referrals for more permanent housing for those who could not or did not want to return to their homes.

Residents from the four duplexes, totaling nine residences, were evacuated during a rain storm in the early morning on Oct. 11 after the sinkholes opened. Most of the units are rentals, but a few are owner-occupied, according to borough officials. The utilities at all of the homes had to be shut off during the emergency.

Police and emergency crews were initially dispatched to the south side of East Cherry and Grant streets at 6:56 a.m. after a resident reported that a sinkhole opened in an unnamed alley at the midpoint of the block. The homes affected were from 302-304, 306-308, 310-312 and 320-22. Police also received a report that a large sinkhole "shook" one of the homes. Police believe that could have been when the top portion of a chimney on 310 E. Cherry St. tumbled onto the roof of 308 after a sinkhole opened between the two homes.

In addition to this sinkhole, Powl said, two sinkholes opened between 300 and 302 E. Cherry St. and between 320 and 322 E. Cherry St. The largest of the three was the one located between 308 and 310 E. Cherry St., he said.

The borough repaired the sinkhole in the alley and repaved the roadway there, Powl said. This sinkhole was the only one for which the borough was responsible, he said. The other two sinkholes are on private property.

"As far as what the borough can do, we've done what we can," Powl told council last week. "We're waiting on the insurance companies to see what they're going to do for the (other) properties."

Powl said the sinkholes at 306-308 and 310-312 "wiped out the basement walls," and he wasn't sure whether those homes could be re-occupied. "It's up to the insurance companies," he said.

Residents of 320 and 322 E. Cherry St. moved back into their home last week after the borough repaired the sinkhole in the alley, he said.

Assistant borough manager Brenda Pera said the residents who lived at 312 E. Cherry St. found another place to live and moved last week.

In the meantime, Elizabeth Stoltzfus and her husband, Jay, and their five children are living with her parents. The family had been renting the house at 302 E. Cherry St. from her parents, Stoltzfus said Wednesday.

"We're working to get the house repaired," she said, adding that they were still waiting to receive more information from their insurance company. "We may not be able to move back in."

Donna Dove, who owns 306 E. Cherry St., said she and her son, Chris, were sleeping when they were awakened by the sinkhole that opened between her house at 306 E. Cherry St. and her neighbor's at 308 E. Cherry St. Since then, she and her son have been living in a hotel in Hershey.

"It's just a waiting game," she said Wednesday. "They're doing the (insurance) reports now."

Dove said she is not sure when she will hear the final determination from the insurance company. She said she is not sure she will be able to move back into her home because of damage to the basement wall.

The borough has been plagued by sinkholes for decades. In recent years, the borough has had some persistent sinkhole problems at East Cherry and South Duke streets, and at East Cherry and Franklin streets, a block away from the Oct. 11 incident. Powl said a sinkhole formed at Grant and Cherry streets during the summer when crews were repaving Cherry Street, but that was a first in that section of the borough.

"I looked back at the maps that we have, and this area hasn't had any sinkhole problems" prior to this year, Powl said.

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