GIRARDVILLE, Pa. — Residents of Gilberton say coal and construction trucks constantly drive up and down Main Street and Mahanoy Avenue, spilling debris on the roads and cars.
"That road coming down 61 from Centralia into Ashland into Girardville is terrible, the bouncing. I'm in a wheelchair, and it just bounces my wheelchair all over the place," says Cheryl Latsko of Numidia Columbia County.
Lastsko comes to the area to help her brother. While driving through Girardville, she notices all the coal dust on cars, "If you take a clean car after the car wash, you might as well go back to the car wash."
Drivers say the coal isn't just creating a mess; it's also damaging their cars.
"If you ride like your left tire on the center of your right tire close to the curb, you can go uptown hardly with any problems, but then you always can't do that," said Lawrence Latsko of Numidia Columbia County
Some residents have seen crews drive by, working to clean up the mess coal trucks leave behind.
"I saw that they where they had that thing going, and a guy was coming, and they were rolling it up," said Carson Long of Ashland
A resident who did not want to appear on camera tells us she doesn't remember this many coal trucks coming in and out of Girardville back when coal was the main source of energy, "They rip the roads apart, nobody comes by to fix the roads, and if they decide to go down Second Street, you should see that road; they have to rip it up and re-do it again."
"I have faith in the people that run this stuff and that, and it is what it is now, but they'll clean it up, they always do." Carson Long of Ashland
Girardville officials say the borough is working to reduce the speed limit from 35 MPH to 25 MPH in an effort to slow down the coal trucks traveling through.