A driver went off Tupper Lake’s McLaughlin Avenue late Wednesday night, ran over a 30 mph sign and crashed into Debbie and Rob Wolbert’s garage. (Photo provided — Jim Lanthier)

As most are now aware, our garage at 242 McLaughlin Ave. in Tupper Lake was hit again by a drunk driver on late Wednesday night, April 25. I can’t take it anymore, and I am serious. I don’t sleep at night when we are in Tupper and now will not be able to sleep at all until something is done. When will this nightmare go away?!

This is now the fourth instance in less than two years in which we have had devastating property damage due to people under the influence of either substances, alcohol or both. In June of 2016, Bill Peets veered off the road and crashed into the west side of our residence, causing extensive personal and property damage. In October of this past year, Matt Bushey and his four passengers veered off the road going over 90 mph and crashed, first into our snowmobile trailer and then, airborne, into the right side of our new garage. Then on Jan. 26 of this year, Amanda Kelly veered off the road, through a snow bank and drove over our driveway wall, drove over a 14-foot pine tree and across our lawn. Now to this incident last Wednesday evening at 10:59 p.m., when Michael Valentine with a passenger veered off the road at an excessive speed, took out the town speed limit sign, drove through the ditch into, yes, again, our snowmobile trailer, then proceeded to roll over, crashing into our garage, on the middle and left side this time.

Before we bought this property and before we built our garage, there were numerous instances in which cars would drive off the road and onto the lawn, but this whole time, no one ever said, “Hey, maybe we need to look at why this is happening?” We did not know all of this when we bought our home.

Immediately after the October incident, I reached out to Pete Edwards, code enforcement officer, and asked about rules for setback to put out large rocks to landscape my property. Mr. Edwards advised me to reach out to the Franklin County Highway Superintendent Ed Marsh since our road is a county road. I had a very nice conversation with Mr. Marsh, and he in fact had stated that he had viewed our property and went to a town board meeting to discuss putting in a guardrail. I was delighted that steps would be taken, but Mr. Marsh stated that they would not be able to do anything until summer. I was worried and stated so, concerned that there could be another incident. Boy, was I right!

Fast-track now to this past Thursday morning. After getting word of this incident, my husband and I dropped everything and drove to Tupper at 6:30 on Thursday morning. My husband and good friends began immediately the cleanup of the mud, glass, car parts and building and lawn parts while I began calling for help! My first call was to the Franklin County Highway Department. I was told that Mr. Marsh was out with someone surveying roads and that he would call me upon his return.

So you tell me, is it a coincidence that less than an hour later, while we’re cleaning up a mess, a county vehicle just happens to drive by and Mr. Marsh is driving? No, not a coincidence, is it?! I frantically start waving him down, but he won’t stop, and when I persist, he stops in the middle of the road, I ask him to pull in, and he waves his head no and proceeds to take off.

Are you kidding me? He did turn around and came back, pulled in my driveway and rolled down his window saying, “What do you want?” I proceeded to say, with five witnesses in my driveway, “Do you not know who I am, that this is the same house where you were and we had an incident before and that you and I had spoken? When are we going to get these guardrails in? This is getting ridiculous.” He then stated, “You and I never had a conversation about guardrails.” I lost it! Yup, I did! Every vulgar word you can imagine came off my lips! I told him, “How dare you sit in that car and deny that you and I had a conversation, a nice one, in fact, about putting up guardrails?” I proceeded to remind him that in fact, he had been to a town board meeting and had spoken to folks there about putting in the guardrails. He then put me over the edge when he said, “I don’t have the money to put in guardrails.” Are you blank-blank-blank kidding me? How much is a life worth? I can’t mow my lawn, my husband can’t work in the driveway, and what about my grandkids playing outside? What are you waiting for, for someone to get killed before we do something? He stated he knew nothing about this incident and was just out surveying roads, but then he told the reporter from the Adirondack paper that he in fact was looking at our guardrails, so he is a sneaky, conniving person, lying to cover his tracks and make himself look good to a reporter but totally lying to me again with witnesses present.

Deborah E. Wolbert lives in Tupper Lake.