South Heidelberg store aims for family-farmer-horse-lover-homestead-DIY-rural-lifestyle niche

by Steve Reinbrecht

An unusual, to me, big-box chain store has opened in an old supermarket in a strip mall on Route 422 in South Heidelberg Township.

I didn’t ever visit Tractor Supply Company since it opened July 23 because I don’t have a tractor. 

But thinking about economic development in the area led me to look inside on Black Friday. The company says it has 1,500 stores across the country, but I have never seen one quite like it.

Out of beet-pulp horse treats? Get a 40-pound bag off the shelf.

Aisles are full of all kinds of tools and fasteners, so close to home. I hate driving through Sinking Spring to Lowe’s in the middle of a project.

Country music over speakers and country music for sale.

Big signs say things like “Clothing & Boots,” “Welding & Tools,” Truck &Trailer.”

Log splitters to fit any budget. Propane heaters, small to barn-size. Gun-cleaning kits. Generators. Bits and bridles. Fencing. Animal traps. Truck tool boxes. All sorts of tires and wheels, for carts, trailers, tractors, wheelbarrows ….

Hydraulic hoses. Everything you need to erect an electric fence. Pig food, and the feed bins to slop it into. “Young Rider” and “Modern Farmer” magazines. Gourmet dog food. Racks of clothes, with displays of camouflage and overalls.

One shopper told me she had been going to Myerstown for supplies she can now find here.

A man walking out the door with a roll of wire screening under his arm said he lives nearby and has shopped there many times since it opened.

“For things you can’t get at other places, like this.”

The manager said she was not permitted to answer any of my questions, not even, “How’s business?” or “What can I get here that I can’t get at Lowe’s?” She called HQ on my behalf and found out that I must not even take photos.

The company, based in Brentwood, Tenn., spent $500,000 on turning the former Shurfine supermarket, which closed in 2013, into the big-box chain store, according to a building permit filed with the township April 12.

In a boilerplate news release, TSC said it chose the spot at 4750 Penn Ave. just west of Sinking Spring because there are so many horse farms and family farms in the area. It said the store has 13 employees.

The website says it sells things to help people “maintain their farms, ranches, homes and animals,” citing “the ‘do it yourself’ trend.”

State has no plans to expand Wernersville Community Corrections Center

by Steve Reinbrecht

The state Department of Corrections has no plans to expand the number of residents at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center [WCCC] in South Heidelberg, a spokeswoman said last week. 

Township residents and local officials have safety concerns about the 260 or so men from all over Pennsylvania, just out of prison, who live at the center, a sort of half-way house off Sportsman Road. The residents often take BARTA buses to Reading and back.

South Heidelberg Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer has said the center should have fewer residents – and would be best limited to people from Berks.

About 18 percent of the population are from outside Berks. That's because the places where they live don’t have these kinds of centers, department spokeswoman Amy Worden said in an e-mail.

She said the residents, whom she calls “re-entrants,” are in the half-way house program to help them get education and work so they can succeed after incarceration.

Whitmoyer also thinks it’s inefficient to have the men so far from jobs and educational opportunities.

Worden said the center, a former state mental hospital, is well suited for the WCCC's operations. Center officials are considering offering more services at the center to reduce some of the outside traveling and to better serve the residents, she said.

Department officials met with Wernersville Police Chief William Schlichter last week to discuss community issues, Worden said. He wasn't immediately available.

She said the department has received complaints of WCCC residents gathering in small groups in the Wernersville area, that some have behaved inappropriately or loitered in businesses.

“Unfortunately some of the re-entrants have committed new offenses in the Berks County area.”

Worden acknowledged there have been 21 drug overdoses at the WCCC so far this year.

Worden gave these answers to my questions.

“The Department of Corrections is committed to ensuring the safety of communities in which our halfway houses are located,” she wrote.

What is the goal and purpose of the center?

The goal of the center is to successfully return re-entrants to their homes and their communities as productive, law-abiding citizens.

Why is the center established so far out in the sticks?

The physical plant at Wernersville Community Corrections Center was designed as part of the [Wernersville State Hospital] mental health facility. Given the design, it aligned well with the pre-release mission that preceded the current operation at WCCC.

Where do the residents work and get education?

Most of the re-entrants work in the Reading metropolitan area, while some venture further afield. For the most part, those re-entrants involved in education or treatment programming do so at WCCC or [other places] in Berks County. The majority of those receiving those services go off site.

We are considering delivering more services on site in order to reduce some of the outside movement and better serve the re-entrant clientele.

Why not limit residence to Berks, as the local police chief recommends?

We generally try to keep re-entrants as close to their eventual homes as possible. WCCC serves Berks and surrounding counties.

There is a need to provide services for those re-entrants from the surrounding counties that exceeds our current capacity in those areas.

We are constantly trying to develop options across the Commonwealth to better serve our population.

What are the restrictions on when residents can come and go?

The re-entrants may only come and go as needed for work, programs, to support their eventual home plans or the occasional emergency.

Their movements are limited in accordance with rules established by the DOC and the Board of Probation and Parole.

What is the legal status of the residents? On parole, free, still adjudicated?

The re-entrants are on parole but as such have the same status as those living “at home.” Within the limitations of the rules described above they have the same rights as you or I.

What complaints have you received about the center?

We have received complaints of too many re-entrants gathering in small groups in the Wernersville area.

We have heard that some re-entrants have gotten too familiar with local citizens and/or have used inappropriate language, behaved inappropriately or loitered in certain businesses.

And we have had complaints of drug use. Unfortunately some of the re-entrants have committed new offenses in the Berks County area.

Are there plans to increase the population there?

There are absolutely no plans to increase the population at WCCC.

How many drug overdoses have been reported there so far this year?

21 overdoses. (To put this in perspective, 600 re-entrants have been housed there total this year. This is a total number, not all at one time. They cycle through according to their sentencing.)

How many residents were transferred to WCCC when the Allentown center closed?.

Fewer than a dozen re-entrants were transferred as a direct result of the closing of Allentown CCC.

South Heidelberg police officers all have Tasers

by Steve Reinbrecht

All seven South Heidelberg police officers plus the chief now have Tasers – handheld weapons that shoot thin wires onto uncooperative suspects and knock them down with electrical shocks.

The eight weapons bring the force to modern standards, Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

Each Taser cost $900. The township spent $10,000, including batteries, holsters, and cartridges. The Fritztown Fire Company social quarters contributed $5,000, and the township expects to get a subsidy from the Berks district attorney’s office to offset the cost.

The weapons help protect the officers by giving them a method to subdue a non-cooperative person other than fighting him or shooting him, Whitmoyer said. Often simply the sight of the Taser calms an unruly person.

“Just seeing the red [targeting] light is a deterrent,” Whitmoyer said.

And the new Tasers come with “warning arcs” – flashing blue sparks zapping from the front of the weapon to show the suspect what he’s facing.

In general, opponents of the weapons cite that hundreds of people have died after being shot by a Taser, and that officers have been charged with using them when not necessary.

South Heidelberg bought X2 models, the latest available. They provide a backup shot, so officers don’t have to reload if the first shot misses or there are two suspects.

Police got the weapons in October, and haven’t used one yet, Whitmoyer said. The department will report and document every time they are fired, he said.

Whitmoyer said he was surprised when he took the job July 1 to discover his officers haven’t been equipped with the weapons. Officers in adjacent municipalities have them, he said.

Supervisors approved the purchase Sept. 8.

Man trapped, beat girlfriend in bedroom, South Heidelberg police say

by Steve Reinbrecht

A man terrorized his girlfriend for hours in a bedroom, at one point choking her unconscious, according to a South Heidelberg police complaint.

William M. Brown, of 132 Walters Ave., just south of Wernersville, was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses.

According to the complaint:

The woman called 9-1-1 from a neighbor’s home just before 2 a.m. on Nov. 1. She told police that Brown had trapped her in the bedroom and that she had escaped when she asked to go to the bathroom.

She had bruises and cuts on her face, neck and feet, and was taken to a hospital.

The victim told police that Brown, 38, described as 6-feet 7-inches and 275 pounds, had been drinking and got angry before dragging her up the stairs and keeping her in the bedroom. 

At different times, he choked her until she was unconscious, punched her in the face, told her he was going to murder her, and would not let her leave.

In October, Southwestern Berks – Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, Wernersville and Sinking Spring – had 35 calls to 9-1-1 for domestic problems, according to county records.

Six people filed for protection-from abuse orders. A PFA is a court order that someone – often an abusive domestic partner – stay away from the person who files it.

In general, many of the assaults in the township are domestic, South Heidelberg Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

In a terrible case in the area that got worldwide attention, Mark Short murdered his wife, Megan, and three young children, Lianna, Mark and Willow, on Aug. 6 before killing himself in their home in Sinking Spring. Megan had been planning to move out.

South Heidelberg chief wants fewer ex-prisoners in state’s halfway house

by Steve Reinbrecht

UPDATE: The state Department of Corrections did respond to my request for comment. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

The South Heidelberg police chief has safety concerns about hundreds of men, right out of prison, housed in the middle of nowhere [the eastern part of South Heidelberg] traveling back and forth to Reading on BARTA buses looking for work, hanging out with friends or perhaps buying heroin.

“A lot of residents have voiced their concerns over this,” Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

He's worried about dangerous drugs at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center, off Sportsman Road.

Residents have left the center recently and done bad things. They come and go all day long.

The WCCC had 278 residents Oct. 26, according to a state corrections department report. Two were murderers, six were sex offenders, 22 had been imprisoned for assault, and 69 for arson, robbery or burglary.

Some have been in trouble lately. Last Monday, Nov. 14, a WCCC resident returned from a work-related day pass with suspected drugs and paraphernalia, state police said.

In October, another man who had a bed in the WCCC, Harold J. McGurl Jr., 42, of Ashland, was charged with trying to slash a man to death back in his hometown after leaving the WCCC.

In August, another WCCC resident, Sean Patrick Gilgallon, from Lackawanna, was charged with robbing a bank in South Heidelberg and leading police on a chase and search.

Chief Barry Whitmoyer

Whitmoyer, who started as chief July 1, is concerned that the inmates bring drugs into the community, demonstrated by frequent overdoses.

Illegal Lower Heidelberg farmhouse is being dismantled

by Steve Reinbrecht

A farmhouse in Lower Heidelberg that had been completely renovated and occupied by happy residents is being dismantled after the owner lost a fight against deed restrictions.

In the summer, the owner, Leonard Leibman, posted a sign at the property at 190 Evans Hill Road asking for someone to remove the house. Berks Nature had demanded Leibman remove it after Leibman built a new house on the property. A deed restriction from the 1970s limits the number of buildings on the pastoral 83-acre property.

It looks like windows have been removed at least.

Leibman did not return messages.

Berks Nature spokesperson Tami J. Shimp said she has had no news about the property since I spoke to her in July.

Business' long search led to South Heidelberg

by Steve Reinbrecht

Three realtors spent three years looking. But it wasn’t one of them who found the right spot for E.G. Smith Inc. in South Heidelberg.

The company sells heating oil and propane and fixes HVAC systems throughout Berks County. It was outgrowing its space near the Wawa on Penn Avenue in West Lawn, so it needed a new location. E.G. Smith had purchased that 1-acre property at 3333 Penn Ave. in Spring in 1989.

But it was hard to find the right spot in Berks County, chief operating officer Scott Burky said. 

After the professionals spent years searching, he said, it was an employee’s relative who finally suggested the empty lot off Krick Lane, and the right spot was found, Burky said.

Its parent company, Rhoads Energy Corp., based in Lancaster, bought the South Heidelberg parcel in May 2016 for $190,000, according to county records.

The company moved into the new building at 1 Corporate Blvd. on Nov. 3. The 2-acre site is great, Burky said. It has plenty of room for a submarine-sized propane tank and is still central to most of the company’s employees, who mostly live in Berks. The project cost $1.4 million, according to a building permit.

Buying the land and building a new office building was a significant decision, Burky said.

“We don’t regularly build buildings.”

E.G. Smith, founded in 1923, has 12 people in offices and about 12 in the field.

Southwestern Berks voters choose Trump by more than 3 to 2

by Steve Reinbrecht

Voters in Southwestern Berks County strongly supported Republican Donald Trump for president, as they pulled for him in the Primary Election in April.

In the General Election on Tuesday, just over 9,500 people voted in Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, Sinking Spring and Wernersville, in unofficial Berks County tallies.

Just over 5,600 voters pushed the "Trump" button. About 3,600 chose Democrat Hillary Clinton. Libertarian Gary Johnson got 246 votes. Green Party candidate Jill Stein got 35 votes.

 

Sinking Spring farmer opposes PPL’s plans to run high-voltage line across his land

by Steve Reinbrecht

A farmer who owns land that PPL Electric Utilities needs to build a new transmission line in Southwestern Berks County has vowed not to sell the necessary easement.

“We’re fighting it,” said Harvey Brown, who owns 78 acres off Reedy Road, along the Cacoosing Creek in Sinking Spring. “We don’t want it to go over our land.”

PPL Electric Utilities says it needs the 69,000-volt power line, along with a 100-foot-wide right-of-way, to improve the reliability of the power grid.

Mr. Brown’s wife, Mary, said PPL’s plans have upset a lot of neighbors, some of whom are worried about health risks from living close to a high-voltage line.

“We don’t want to look out our window at it.”

The Browns stand with Sinking Spring borough, whose officials have said the line would wreck their long-developed plans for new stores and homes downtown.

And Randy Robitzer has said the line would destroy his 18-hole Village Greens golf course in the borough and make it hard to ever sell the land.

Mr. Brown said PPL officials talked to him about buying an easement a year ago but not since.

Mrs. Brown said she went door-to-door about PPL’s plans in nearby neighborhoods about two months ago and was surprised to learn that no one was aware of them.

“They’re being very sneaky about it,” she said of the power company.

PPL held an informational meeting Sept. 22 in Wyomissing to discuss the plans with residents. Mrs. Harvey said the meeting was ineffective. There were not enough chairs and no one from PPL spoke with a microphone to present the plans, she said.

“That was a big farce,” she said.

Mr. Brown said borough officials were upset with a headline in the Reading Eagle that suggested the fight couldn’t be won.

The Berks County Planning Commission has noted two concerns about the line's proposed location. First, using the proposed location may detrimentally affect the borough's “BOSS 2020" revitalization plans, according to a letter to PPL dated Aug. 26 from the commission’s executive director, Shannon Rossman.

Second, it would impinge on a proposed park around the historic sinking spring, on a parcel between Dunkin' Donuts and the railroad tracks.

"This spring is the namesake of the borough and a key part of their master plan," Rossman wrote.

The commission urged the company to work with the borough and others to reduce the effect of the line on the plans.