Blair County Family takes legal action for ‘broken’ driveway

FRANKSTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WTAJ) — Around nine months ago, we told you about a family that wasn’t able to use their own driveway. Well, nothing’s changed since then.

It was a nightmare even before they moved in.

“It’s been 320 days since we’ve had to tear out this driveway and put a new one in,” Steve Dale, the homeowner said.

The Dale family resides in Frankstown Township, and in a few more weeks, it will officially be a year since they haven’t able to use their own driveway.

“It’s just such a frustrating thing to put so much time and money into something that’s brand new. We’re just — we’re just so frustrated. We’re just so frustrated that this situation even happened. It shouldn’t have even happened,” his wife Rebecca said.

Last time we spoke with the couple, we learned that they paid around $25,000 to bring the driveway up to the town’s ordinances. They were told by the township that the driveway was causing rain drainage issues. Now, that price tag is at $38,000.

However, the fix left their driveway unusable. The family vehicles cannot even go up the driveway without scraping their undersides.

They’ve resorted to parking at the curb of the driveway, horizontally.

“Our daughter is going off to college today. My wife’s taking her down and she’s loaded the back of the vehicle with all of the stuff that she needs for an entire year at college and to have to make trip after trip after trip down here instead of being able to back the car up to the door and load it easily. It’s just a disgrace. It’s a shame and it’s sad to watch that happen,” Steve said.

Steve said that since October, people have asked if he’s gotten the driveway fixed, or if they’re giving up. The answer to both of those is no. It’s a battle they intend to win, no matter what it takes.

“Well, we do have an attorney who is preparing the documents. You know, I would like the township to reach out and say, hey, let’s just slow down and, you know, we have a crew over here. We can come fix this. And that’s fine with me. But, you know, how long are we going to wait? Well, that’s up to our attorney and how fast we can get things processed through the court system,” Dale said.

WTAJ visited the township’s office to talk with the supervisors about the driveway. They responded with this statement:

“We received a letter for intent to file suit. We cannot comment on any pending litigation.”

Frankstown Township Municipal Building

Rebecca knows that changes won’t happen overnight, but with winter on its way, she’s worried that the dip could cause injuries. Her daughter almost fell face-first into the snow last winter.

“They shut the forges off in November, like around Thanksgiving, so they don’t make macadam anymore after a certain point in November. And then it doesn’t start up again until the spring. So here we are again. If it doesn’t get done before that, this year we’re in the same situation we were last year,” Rebecca said.

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