DICKSON CITY, Pa. — Dickson City officials are hopeful that the nickname "Lake Commerce" will soon no longer apply to the flood-prone Commerce Boulevard.
"Let's just keep our fingers crossed. Everything's moving. We got another month, month and a half, and hopefully, this will be history," said Borough Manager Cesare Forconi.
Scranton resident Christina Lynady is ready to put it in the past after spending more than three hours in standstill traffic in the Target parking lot on Monday with her two children in the backseat.
"I feel terrible. They are starving. They've had to use the bathroom. I've had to send them in alone because I was afraid to leave my vehicle or get out of line," Lynady told Newswatch 16 Monday evening while stuck in traffic.
Police blocked off exits and entrances to shopping centers in the area, backing up traffic for hours.
Despite pleas from Dickson City police on social media to avoid the area, saying, "You've been warned. Please don't call expecting an airlift out of the parking lots," not everyone got the memo.
"We'd get drivers through one light, and then they'd get backed up at another light," Forconi said.
"How can that happen? How can this occur? This is a situation where something has to be done," said Giles Limoncelli, who was also stuck in the parking lot.
Officials say something is getting done soon. The biggest hang-up was figuring out who was responsible for the broken drainage pipe on the road.
"Nobody wanted to take ownership of the pipe itself, and nobody wanted to take responsibility for the repairs because it's expensive," Forconi said.
A deal was nearly reached in the spring among developers, businesses, and the borough, but nothing was finalized.
"We didn't have a lot of rain this summer. So, you know, kind of out of sight, out of mind. Now, coming into the fall, everybody realizes, before we get to Black Friday, of course, we want to have the road open, and we want to have traffic moving smoothly," Forconi said.
Work is expected to begin in October and should last about a month.