Salem residents want proper permits, enforcement for concrete plant

On Dec. 18, Salem Township supervisors voted to approve the development of a storage yard and concrete batch plant for Daniels Concrete on Route 819, according to their meeting agenda.

The problem with that, according to neighboring residents, is owner Jim Daniels already has developed the property and has been operating Daniels Concrete there for several years.

“What’s already up there has been there for four years, and it is just now being approved,” said Lisa Segina, who lives down the hill from Daniels Concrete on Boggs Hollow Road.

Segina said after Daniels purchased the property in 2019, “he came to us and said he was going to move and store some equipment there.”

Salem does not have a zoning ordinance governing specific land use in the township, but Segina said she presumed township supervisors were ensuring that the business had the proper permitting in place.

In June 2024, more than four years after the Daniels Concrete property had been built up and begun operating, Segina and other adjacent property owners received a notice that supervisors were meeting to review Daniels’ request “for the development of a storage yard and concrete batch plant,” according to the notice.

According to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials, Daniels Concrete applied for a highway occupancy permit in mid-November 2024. And that application listed the wrong address, 1463 Route 819, which is Daniels’ nearby excavating business.

“The property owner has submitted a transportation impact study scoping application to determine how much traffic the access will generate and begin designing a new driveway,” PennDOT spokesperson Laina Aquiline said.

The property also is home to several buildings that have been constructed in the past four years, including one that is partially sitting in the PennDOT right-of-way.

Daniels Concrete did not return multiple calls for comment.

“Our issue is that the township and solicitor are not following the enforcement component of our existing ordinances with this business,” Segina said. “Another excavator up the road here in Salem, who didn’t have those permits, was threatened with being fined hundreds of dollars a day and being shut down. But this place doesn’t even have a highway occupancy permit.”

In a 2016 letter to Lutterman Excavating, located less than a half-mile south of Daniels Concrete on the same state road, Salem supervisors issued a stop-work order and threatened to fine Lutterman up to $1,000 per day until it secured the necessary local and state permits, including a highway occupancy permit.

Aquiline said whether or not a town requires that property owners obtain a highway occupancy permit as part of the local land development process, PennDOT requires one for any access to state roads.

“What does this say to anyone else who’s coming to the Salem planning commission?” Segina asked supervisors at their Dec. 18 meeting. “It says go ahead and build what you want, and then later, we’ll just approve it.”

None of the supervisors at the December meeting offered an explanation for why Daniels Concrete has been operating without the proper development approvals and permits. Township solicitor Gary Falatovich was not present at the meeting.

Planning commission member Connie Mattei said the first time anyone from Daniels Concrete came before the commission was this past summer, several years after the business had begun operation.

Supervisor Kerry Jobe said he understood residents’ frustration.

“At some point, you have to come to the local government for the proper approvals,” he said.

Jobe, along with fellow supervisors Bob Zundel and Ken Trumbetta, voted to approve Daniels’ site plan for the concrete plant, with a host of conditions that include a stormwater management plan to be reviewed by Salem’s engineer; obtaining county and state approvals for things such as on-lot sanitary sewer and erosion control; and the highway occupancy permit.

Supervisors also voted to grant preliminary approval for proposed changes to the property, which are slated to include construction of a noise wall around a concrete silo; moving the parking area out of the PennDOT right-of-way; taking down a 16-foot-wall and replacing it with a 4-foot wall; and seeking an exception for part of a building that is in the PennDOT right-of-way, Mattei said.

In the meantime, Segina said concrete trucks are running regularly to and from the plant during the week.

“He’s just skirting every rule,” she said.