Road rule irks L-L parents

CAMILE FIOTI Times Leader Correspondent

LEHMAN TWP. – More than a dozen parents of Lake-Lehman High School’s Cross Country team protested the supervisors’ decision Monday to prohibit group running along township roads.

Board Chairman Dave Sutton said complaints about students running along Mountain View Drive and other hilly township roads prompted the decision. Sutton said he is concerned about the safety of the runners who many times run four to six across the road.

Darlene Tomayko said her daughter, who is on the team of nine boys and nine girls, practices running three to five times a week. The team starts running with about 15 kids and then breaks up into smaller groups.

Sutton said he told district Superintendent Jim McGovern back in the spring that the teams weren’t allowed to run along the roads, adding that the piles of snow along the berms made it even more difficult for the runners to stay off the roads. He said all Lake-Lehman teams, except cross country, stayed off the road.

Sutton, who is also the executive director of The Back Mountain Recreation Center, said the team could run on the trails within the center’s 130 acres.

Supervisor Ray Iwanowski also asked the parents why the team couldn’t run around the school’s 100 acres. Keith Austin, who’s son is on the team, said that wouldn’t be as challenging. “That’s just not the way you train for the sport,” he said.

Sutton told the parents the board, which has the support of McGovern, would be forced to pass an ordinance requiring a permit and insurance coverage for the township provided by the school, if they continue running along the township roads as a team.

The school teams would have to receive township approval, as do other organized sporting events such as the Penn State Triathlon, he added.

Near the end of the meeting, Lake-Lehman School Board member Jim Welby entered the room. He said he just left school board meeting and that some of the parents from the township meeting approached the board at that meeting about the township ruling.

Welby said he would contact Sutton on Tuesday to discuss a possible solution or compromise.