{"id":286345,"date":"2026-09-15T08:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/286345\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T08:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:04:10","slug":"pennsylvania-leaders-work-to-find-funding-to-fix-south-strabane-sinkhole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/286345\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania leaders work to find funding to fix South Strabane sinkhole"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Strabane Township, county, and state leaders working to find funding to repair sinkhole, failed infrastructure<\/p>\n

\"Kalea<\/a>SOUTH STRABANE TOWNSHIP, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n

South Strabane Township remained under a disaster emergency declaration Monday, two days after severe flooding caused significant damage to homes, businesses, and already weakened infrastructure.<\/p>\n

A massive sinkhole, approximately 40 feet deep and 50 feet wide, formed in the back parking lot of the township fire station, just feet from the building. The sinkhole has become a major concern for firefighters who serve multiple communities from the station.<\/p>\n

The flooding and sinkhole have also affected nearby homes and businesses, including the property of Stu Schultz, who lives next to the fire station.<\/p>\n

“We’re just on the back porch watching the creek rise every single time. Even if it’s just a sprinkle, the creek still rises,” Schultz said.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, water poured from the fire station parking lot, opening up the sinkhole and sending water into Schultz\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

“The furnace at my house is busted, A\/C,” Schultz said.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Schultz has faced such issues. In June 2025, a sinkhole appeared<\/a> off Oak Spring Road during a storm, and a section of pipe collapsed on the opposite side of the fire station parking lot, sending water into his property then as well.<\/p>\n

“Whatever funding we need to get this resolved for the future — I mean, Saturday, when it was happening, it was a lake in front of Big Lots, and the water was just swirling. Nowhere for it to go. If this happens again, the fire home might collapse and then who knows what happens here at that point?” Schultz said.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Camera Bartolotta highlighted the broader scope of the issue.<\/p>\n

“It’s a huge problem. There are 11 municipalities that are involved all along this creek. We’ve got aging infrastructure. We have sediment accumulating,” Bartolotta said. “It’s, forgive the metaphor, a perfect storm.”<\/p>\n

Bartolotta and other leaders are working to secure funding for necessary repairs. She said there was a plan made to dredge and improve specific sections along Catfish Creek years ago that she hopes could help now in moving forward with improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to get to it. Where’s that plan? Some of it was not enacted because they said it was too expensive. Ask the residents whose basements flood five feet every time it rains like this. No, we’re going to get it done. We’re going to find a way. We’re going to see where we can start and who we can bring in — federal, state, county, the works,” Bartolotta said.<\/p>\n

Electra Janis, vice chair of the Washington County Board of Commissioners, urged patience while emphasizing the urgency of the situation.<\/p>\n

“Things do take time, but you have a lot of concerned individuals in the room. And give the fire department some grace. Be patient because they’re dealing with a lot right now. Support them in any way that you can. Go to their bingo night, their fundraisers. But just know that all the right heads are in the room. We\u2019ve acknowledged the problem. Mother Nature is not changing. But we can work together, get the funding, and get this problem solved for the community,” Janis said.<\/p>\n

Officials, including township supervisors, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency representatives, and FEMA officials, are planning to meet this week to address the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Strabane Township, county, and state leaders working to find funding to repair sinkhole, failed infrastructure SOUTH STRABANE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14254,13331,3575,676,119247,2857,28,30,29,82,36026,11488,119245,26299,68721,76590,119246,119244,2867],"class_list":["post-286345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bartolotta","tag-creek","tag-foot","tag-funding","tag-huge-problem","tag-infrastructure","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-property","tag-section","tag-severe-flooding","tag-single-time","tag-sinkhole","tag-south-strabane","tag-south-strabane-township","tag-state-leader","tag-stu-schultz","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}