PPL demolishes another home in southside neighborhood
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - An excavator takes down a wall at a home at Poplar and White Streets in Shenandoah on March 18, 2020.
SHENANDOAH – Another home in a southside neighborhood behind Burger King met the excavator of a PPL Electric Utilities contractor today.
This time, it was a home at the corner of South White and East Poplar Street, the former Szczyglak home.
Excavation Tech, Inc, of Schuylkill Haven, was conducting the demolition project Wednesday afternoon.
PPL acquired the home in late August of 2019 for $50,000 from the Szczyglak family, including Shenandoah Mayor Andrew Szczyglak, according to the Schuylkill County Parcel Locator. The Szczyglaks had owned the home since the 1970s, according to the parcel locator.
Since May of 2018, when the Sentinel broke the story, the utility company has been investigating and remediating environmental impacts of the former Shenandoah manufactured gas facility at the present site of Burger King.
The plant, they said, operated from 1879 until the 1950s, when it was subsequently demolished.
“The site is now a privately owned commercial property,” said Patrick Lester, PPL communications specialist, in 2019.
The utility company says its efforts are to evaluate the “extent of impacts from coal tar, coal tar residues and oils in the soil, and groundwater at the site and in the immediate vicinity.” Coal tar was a byproduct created by the former facility, which heated coal to produce gas.
“PPL is committed to public safety, the safety of our workers, and the protection of the environment,” Carol Obando-Derstine, Regional Affairs Director for PPL, told the Sentinel in 2019. “At this time, there are no known elevated public health or safety concerns associated with the historical MGP site. The Borough of Shenandoah public water supply is not affected by impacts from the MGP site.”
In early 2019, the company acquired about half the block bounded by Market, Laurel, Poplar, and White Streets, demolishing seven properties.
“I’ve had contact with them. They told us what they’re doing,” then-borough council President Leo Pietkiewicz told the Sentinel in August. “Coal tar leached into the ground, they did their testing, found out to the extent where it leached. They’re removing all that and will backfill it.”
“They will meet with us about specifications and what purpose we want to use it for,” Pietkiewicz added. “Can we use it for a park, or housing, but we would have to fund that part. They would set up the ground, when it’s finally reclaimed, to our specifications.”
The demolition today is the first by PPL on the Poplar Street side of the block. The remainder of said block remains privately owned, according to the parcel locator.
The block of White Street between Poplar and Laurel was closed to traffic during the project.
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