Kittatinny mayor, Gustavus Petykiewicz, was arrested on the charge of causing great bodily harm by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle following the announcement that Susquehanna Steel will be closing its doors.
“You’d be drinking too if you were me,” Petyykiwcz told police at the scene, according to the Sheriff’s report. The report also showed that Petykiewicz failed a sobriety test, had an open bottle of Vodka in the vehicle, and blew a .14 in the breathalyzer.
Neither Petykiewicz nor his wife, Gloria Petykiewicz, have provided any comment about the accident or the steel plant closure.
However, the president of the Kittatinny City Council, Denelda Penoyer, described the effects of the closure with much anxiety, calling it a “fiscal emergency” that will raise taxes to about $1.6 million and cut the city’s budget by 21 percent.
The collision happened less than 12 hours after the steel plant released a statement Friday night that said about 900 people will be unemployed by Dec. 1, causing what Penoyer describes as a “humanitarian crisis.” At around 1 a.m. on Saturday night, the 65-year-old mayor allegedly made a rolling stop before hitting the vehicle of 51-year-old Robert Doane, another Kittatinny resident, at the intersection of State Highway 117 and Fonebone Road.
Doane had suffered profuse bleeding from the head, broken ribs and jaw, and abdominal pain. He was airlifted by Flight for Life to Northeast Pennsylvania Hospital and Trauma Center, where doctors say that he is in “satisfactory condition” and will likely recover.
Doane was driving the speed limit while heading northbound on Highway 117 when Petykiewicz hesitated at the stop sign while going west on Fonebone Road, according to a witness who was driving behind him. The witness then said that Petykiewicz pulled forward and hit Doane’s vehicle on the driver’s side.
After being taken to Schuylkill County Jail, Petykiewicz remained silent and did not call an attorney. He was released at about 3 a.m. after his wife paid the $500 cash bail.
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said that he will see Petykiewicz on Tuesday morning for a preliminary hearing. The mayor may be facing a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.
The collision has added tension to the stress of the steel plant closure. Community members are waiting on the mayor’s plan for the loss of jobs that will result from the 40-acre site being demolished and sold for scrap by the end of the year.
Workers will lose their wages of about $28 an hour, according to the United Steelworkers Union that represents the plant workers. That wage is considered a family-supporting wage, which means that a potential 900 families will have a severely reduced income.
Workers may be able to be compensated for about six months after the closure, but they will not have any guaranteed income beyond that point, according to Penoyer.
“It terrifies me to think about what could happen to our community,” Penoyer said.
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