Dec 2, 2004 By Joyce Koballa 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE TWP. – A typical day of outdoor fun ended just minutes after Dennis and Denise Adams’ three children ran out the door of their Kring Avenue residence in mid-November when they stopped inches short of falling into a 4-by-5-foot hole where they played in a sandbox several days before. “They said, ‘Oh, mommy, look there’s a big hole there,'” said Adams.

A hole that officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Office of Surface Mining (OSM) said resulted from mine subsidence.

Adams and his family reside in Hillcrest Mobile Home Park where they have lived the last seven years. While Adams owns the mobile home, Dr. G.B. Perez owns the property it is situated on.

Perez could not be reached for comment.

Terry M. Dalton, chief engineer for the Pittsburgh office of OSM’s Appalachian Regional Coordinating Center, said he signed off Tuesday on the necessary paperwork in order to have the hole filled within several weeks. “We need to get a contractor lined up now,” said Dalton, who inspected the hole on Nov. 23.

Since then, Dennis Adams said the hole has widened and is now about six feet deep.

Adams said he initially contacted Perez’s office about the hole, but had to call a second time before personnel said the doctor would have it filled in.

However, Adams wanted the problem corrected so the hole would not continue to cave. So he went a step further and reported it to the township supervisors, who then contacted the DEP. “The supervisors got the ball rolling,” said Adams who credited Supervisor Fred Robbins with coming to his aid.

Robbins, on the other hand, said the DEP told him it would be roughly eight months before they could fill the hole.

Robbins added the land located under the mobile home park used to be undermined by fire. It closed in the 1940s when the last of the flames were allegedly extinguished. “There still may some hot spots,” said Robbins.

Dalton said while that is true, he didn’t see any indication of burning while inspecting the hole. “There was probably on an old strip mine area in there, so that’s probably what we’re looking at,” said Dalton.

Dalton said once the DEP gets final approval from Perez, OSM can get started on the project, which entails excavating and filling the hole with stone before covering it with a filter fabric that would keep water from washing it away.

Adams and his parents have lived on Kring Avenue since Hillcrest was established in the 1970s.

Within that time, Adams recalled a similar situation where the ground crumbled under a mobile home several streets away that no one was aware of until the owner pulled the mobile home out.

Dalton said as of this year, the DEP responded to one other mine subsidence reported in South Connellsville.

Since the Adamses are afraid that the hole could continue to widen, Dennis Adams said his children’s outdoor leisure is now confined to his parents’ backyard while the hole is marked with rods and yellow caution tape.

In addition to the six-foot hole, Adams said the yard is dipping in two other areas, but has not caved in yet.