After six years of cajoling, the owner of a Seisholtzville deli and market in Hereford Township, is getting his wish. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation recently informed two local legislators and Nate Amato Sr. that the intersection at Tamato's Deli & Market will include four stop signs.

            "Amen," Amato said Tuesday afternoon. "It's a long time coming."

            On Nov. 5, a PennDOT official informed Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24^th Dist., and Ryan McKenzie, R-134^th Dist., in an email that they plan on converting the intersection of St. Peter's, Hunter Forge and Seisholtzville Roads into a four-way-stop intersection. 

            "As part of our reevaluation we reviewed the crash history since the recent installation of the enhanced warning signage along with the pavement markings and determined that an all way stop at this intersection would be warranted," wrote Michael W. Rebert, a district executive in PennDOT's Allentown office, in the message to the legislators. "Once the permitting process is finalized, the signage will be ordered and scheduled for installation."

            According to Amato the plan is to install stop signs for both lanes of traffic on Seisholtzville Road. Similar signs are already in place at St. Peter's and Hunter Forge Roads.

            "The sooner, the better," he said Tuesday afternoon.

            Initially, the state agency determined that the addition of the stop signs was not warranted at the intersection. However, Mensch and McKenzie asked PennDOT officials to reconsider their findings in an Oct. 11 letter.

            A 45-year resident of the area, Amato has been especially concerned about the safety of the intersection since his deli opened in 2012. However, the intensity of his efforts to convince PennDOT officials to install the signs has increased since Dec. 21, 2017 when three collisions occurred. In one of the crashes, an 81-year-old suffered serious injuries. He died a couple of weeks later although his death was not officially attributed to the accident.

            "I lost track of how many times I've been turned down," Amato said. "I wasn't going to stop until they did it. It wasn't going to be a safe intersection until they did it."

            Sightline issues account for most of the crashes, according to Ken Navitsky, the district office manager for McKenzie. Navitsky and Chris Lubenetski, the chief of the Seisholtzville fire company, indicated during an August informational meeting hosted by Amato that a white house, located on southeast corner of the intersection, impedes the view of traffic on Seisholtzville Road as it nears the intersection from the east.

            "Most of the accidents that have occurred have been caused by vehicles trying to pull out past the house," Amato said four months earlier.

            Hereford's Board of Supervisors did not take a position on the issues at the intersection because it wasn't in their jurisdiction, according to member John Membrino. He said residents mentioned their concerns during public meetings. The supervisor said he believed that the four-way intersections are not safe, but could not provide any statistics to support his claim.

            "I don't like them," Membrino said. "I think they are dangerous. Often times, when you have multiple people at stopped at the same time, they are looking and waving at each other and no one is sure who will go through the intersection first."