North Manheim Township resident Rich Huber says the narrow road that runs through Mount Carbon borough to his home has been a problem for years.
He and others have asked borough officials to maintain Bakery Road, which leads to Martha Lane, where they live.
“So when we're dodging potholes and trying to get down the road without damaging your car, it becomes an issue. When you're just asking them to fill in the potholes,” said Huber.
Huber says most of that roadway sits in Mount Carbon. But Huber says he and others in the township have been forced to take care of that road themselves.
“We take care of the potholes, the underbrush, the growth in the road. We have just been doing everything for, I would guess, about 20 years now,” said Huber.
Mount Carbon is Schuylkill County's smallest community, and its leaders tell Newswatch 16 there's just no money to fix the road with the borough barely scraping by.
The borough council president says one of the biggest roadblocks in getting state funding is that Mount Carbon has been without a government since 2017.
The problem is there aren’t enough people who want to serve Mount Carbon in a governing role.
A council was established last year to pay bills.
John Raess is the council president.
"Started paying off what we had to, to keep the lights on, to keep the water coming for the fire plugs to address the fire company, make they were with money for service, and then COVID hit,” said Raess.
Another problem is without a formal government, Mount Carbon hasn’t had a proper audit of its finances in years.
And without an audit, there can be no state funding to fix Bakery Road.
Meaning these residents, who don’t even live in the borough of Mount Carbon, will, at least for now, likely have to continue maintaining it themselves.