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By STEVEN PAUL DU BOIS; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, July 19, 1997 Page: 1A
LAUREL RUN — Behind the boulders along Laurel Run Creek, the earth is
hollow. Stomp your foot near the creek and the dirt crumbles. When a hard rain
falls, the water fills the hollow area and its force pushes the rocks into the
middle of the creek.
And the creek widens.
This is what Brian and Marie Correll have faced, time and time again, since
the flood of January 1996. The 3-foot-wide creek that accented their home at
3740 Laurel Run Road expanded into a 30-foot-wide monster that slowly, slowly
creeps toward their two-story home.
The Corrells want their land restored to pre-flood conditions, but haven’t
found many helping hands — not from the federal government, not from the
state government and not from the Laurel Run Borough Council, whose president
is Brian’s father, Edwin.
“He said there’s too much paperwork, and, I mean, those are his grandkids
that are most affected,” Marie Correll said.
The Corrells also complain that Edwin Correll put $929 from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency into the borough’s general fund instead of in
their hands. The money, while inadequate to make all the necessary repairs
estimated at $80,000, was intended as a temporary fix.
Edwin Correll denies he’s shirking his duties. He said he has filed an
avalanche of paperwork with various federal and state agencies to obtain
funding for his son. And he said the entire council decided to put the money
in the general fund until all possible relief is collected.
“It’s true my relationship with my son hasn’t been the same since my first
wife died,” said Correll, who has been council president for more than 30
years. “But it hasn’t hindered the council’s progress. Our problem is finding
someone to take responsibility.”
But Brian Correll, who only looked to the sky and muttered when asked about
his father, has asked that council Vice President Dan Gildea become the
borough’s point man on the issue.
The Corrells’ problems began in 1986, when the state Department of
Transportation fixed damage caused by the previous year’s Hurricane Gloria by
installing a new culvert and four gabion baskets — rock-filled fortifications
— in the creek, which runs under Laurel Run Road.
The Corrells argued that the work was being angled incorrectly and the
culvert was too small. Whether they are correct is anyone’s guess, but the
gabion baskets did fail 10 years after they were installed.
Three of the gabion baskets plunged into the water, blocking the waterway.
The floodwater pounded the banks, swallowing the Corrells’ fence and swimming
pool and eroding large chunks of the Corrells’ land.
The Corrells videotaped the flood. While sirens wailed in the rainy-day
chaos, their oldest son, Jason, on the tape, summed up the family’s plight.
“Look at our land; our land is dead.”
And the land continues to die.
“With every storm, we lose a little bit more,” Marie Correll said. “If they
don’t fix the creek, they’ll soon be fixing my house.”
Immediately after the flood, PennDOT lined the banks with some boulders,
but they continue to pop up in the middle of the creek.
“The people who are responsible will not accept responsibility,” said Edwin
Correll, referring to PennDOT.
Representatives from FEMA estimated the Corrells’ damage at $80,000. The
damage report said, “There is an immediate safety concern that should be
addressed.”
“Brian took quite a hit; he isn’t exaggerating,” Gildea said. “If I were
the Corrells, I probably wouldn’t have been so patient.”
But, according to representatives of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management
Agency, the Department of Environmental Protection and PennDOT, that patience
might come in handy.
“If the wall in question is personal property, it’s not eligible for public
assistance. If the wall is borough property, it’s eligible for public
assistance, but it’s a year past the application deadline,” said Marko Bourne,
press secretary for PEMA, which handles much of FEMA’s paperwork.
“We need for someone in the borough to make an ownership determination for
the wall in question; otherwise, this case is stopped clear in its tracks.”
Edwin Correll disputes PEMA’s analysis: “It’s not my son’s wall, it’s not
the borough’s wall, it’s the federal government’s wall. That wall was a
federal project from the ’30s when I was a boy.”
PennDOT and the state DEP both said they have done all they can do for the
Corrells.
But the Corrells say they never heard a word.
“I just want to get some answers,” said Brian Correll. “Yes. No. Under
consideration. I just want to know what’s going on. But I hear nothing.”
As the creek creeps closer to their replacement swimming pool, the Corrells
keep trying. Last month, they sent letters to Gov. Tom Ridge and U.S. Sen.
Arlen Specter, R-Philadelphia. And Edwin Correll said he and Gildea pledged at
Monday’s council meeting to work with state Sen. Raphael Musto, D-Pittston.
“There’s no way we could ever hope to sell this house,” Marie Correll said.
“We just want to know where we go from here. Cut the red tape and give me an
answer — and don’t tell it will be 20 years.”
TIMES LEADER/FRED ADAMS
Brian Correll stands on the rocks that have helped cause him $80,000 worth
of grief. Correll has been trying to get government money to fix damage to
Laurel Run Creek, which is cutting into his property.