Recovery of project site questioned
Jerome Grashion is riding his motorcycle up his driveway to get his mail. In his way, however, is an enormous yellow machine, so Grashion takes a slight detour. That machine is part of the crew that is carving the Mon-Fayette Expressway right around Grashion’s property, and Grashion has issues, not with the project itself, but with how the project has left the front of what was once his property.
“This hill looks like a four-mile slate dump,” Grashion said, pointing to the gray mound sitting in front of him. “It looks this way from here (Redstone Township) to Brownsville, but everything is covered going the other way from here to Uniontown.”
Grashion said the hillside that is being filled in, which faces his property, is not being covered with topsoil or other non-combustible material, and therefore any grass grown will be patchy, if there is any, he said.
Grashion first noticed the problem around the beginning of May when he and his wife, Loretta, retuned home from Florida, where they live five months out of the year.
“I was a coal mine inspector for many years, and I always thought companies had to reclaim sites they dug up,” he said with a smile. “If this were a coal mine, I would have issued a citation.”
Grashion also said he is concerned about the slate deteriorating in the future.
According to Grashion, representatives from New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co. of Bedford, which has the construction contract on that portion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, told him they did everything according to plan and it is up to the turnpike to make any changes.
Grashion said he went to the construction crew and project managers first and then contacted state Rep. Peter J. Daley (D-California) and state Sen. Richard Kasunic (D-Dunbar) regarding the matter.
Joe Agnello, spokesman for the PA Turnpike Commission’s western regional office in New Stanton, said his office was contacted by Daley’s district office in Brownsville and are in touch with Grashion and trying to resolve the problem.
“We want to see what the problems are and are looking into putting down some topsoil to promote grass growth,” Agnello said.
“We want to try and be a good neighbor.”
Over the sounds of the machines, Loretta Grashion said they are trying to be good neighbors as well.
“We are not against progress and are not trying to be troublemakers,” she said.
“But they push you, and then you feel you have to do something about it.”
Loretta Grashion added that she and her husband expected the noise and the dust, but thought they would at least have a nice hillside when the dust settled.
Jerome Grashion, who is retired and enjoys spending a lot of time in his yard, said unless the fill is covered with clay or topsoil, he is going to have to look at the “slate dump” for the rest of his life.
“We have supported this project from day one, from the initial meetings through today,” he said “But, this has to devalue my home, and I just want it covered.”