Refund for restitution? Burgettstown man who painted street seeks answers
John Cherok II spray-painted a reminder on Main Street in Burgettstown to motorists to follow the speed limit and then paid the borough more than $500 to have his vigilante-style attempt at traffic enforcement removed.
Two years later, the graffiti is still there, and Cherok wants his money back.
“Everybody can see that the damage to the roadway is still basically there,” Cherok, 57, told council Monday during a meeting. “I want my $536.88 – I’d like to have it back. And if not, I’d like to know where it went.”
Officials didn’t immediately have an answer for him.
“That’s a police issue,” said Councilwoman Janet Castellino. “We can’t get involved here. They fined him. He has to get that fine back from them. And if you go to Mt. Lebanon and paint on the road, you’re going to get a bigger fine than that.”
Cherok, who lives and owns a store in the borough, said he painted “SLOW 25 MPH” on the 1600 block of the street in 2014 after two near-misses with speeding cars there.
He was charged by McDonald police with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct and agreed to pay the restitution in three installments through early 2015 in exchange for having the charges withdrawn.
An invoice from the borough Cherok brought to the meeting shows officials calculated the amount of restitution based on the cost of paying two street employees for 16 hours of work, plus expenses for black top sealer and other tools and supplies.
Borough officials and Cherok disputed how much time actually went into that work.
Cherok said an acquaintance – whom he described in an interview as an employee of a nearby restaurant – told him a single borough worker spent a “short period of time” on the project, contradicting the invoice.
Councilwoman Sammi Wank said she couldn’t answer for the road crew, which wasn’t represented at the meeting, “but I know there were several attempts that they made to get rid of that paint.”
Former Councilwoman Phoebe Sucia recalled workers having difficulty with the repairs and told Cherok officials had planned to ask him what kind of paint he used “because no matter what they did, they couldn’t get it off.”
Cherok said no one from the borough ever asked him.
Borough solicitor Lane Turturice called the dispute “a legal matter,” and added, “I think Janet’s right, it’s a police matter.”
In other business, Wank reminded owners and occupants of properties within the borough they are required to maintain sidewalks fronting their property.