WYOMING, Pa. — Many stopped along their errands along Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming Borough to watch the demolition of this house at the corner of Sixth Street.
"Oh, it was it was a very historical, beautiful home that we had here, but yeah, unfortunately, you know, it does come down,' said Damien Rutkoski, who has lived around the corner from this site the last 30 years and has fond feelings for the borough.
"We have a lot of people in the community that are close-knit close together, you know, great school district here and what a lot of great small businesses and a lot of you know community unity that's something big in Wyoming," added Rutkoski.
Many residents have come together to share not-so-fond feelings about this demolition and what's to come.
The borough tells Newswatch 16 that this will soon be a new location for a Sheetz gas station and convenience store.
A change.org petition was started online in August to try to stop it.
In addition to a petition online, there is also a Facebook group titled 'Wyoming PA vs. Sheetz, Inc.', and it has about 400 members who are very upset about Sheetz coming to this corner. Now I asked people in the group if they would like to meet with us and voice their opinions on camera. Many of them said they were not available, and at this point, there's really nothing to be done.
"There's two things that come to mind first, I feel really bad for the people that that currently live there. The residents, I see their point of view they can be upset, but I see all the business that can bring into Wyoming, Sheetz I mean, there's plenty people with jobs. I have a brother that's 15 years old, he's looking for employment there possibly in the next year. So I think it's gonna be great for the community. It's gonna bring in a lot of traffic, a lot of great jobs, but I do see the point of some of the residents here, too," said Rutkoski.
Others in the Borough are concerned with the potential impact of traffic pattern changes that may come along with the new store.
The new Sheetz store in Wyoming is expected to open sometime next year.