by Steve Reinbrecht

Drivers will face paving construction on Penn Avenue in Sinking Spring for about three more weeks, Pennsylvania American Water spokesman Terry Maenza said Monday.

The paving project had been expected to wrap up at the end of last week.

During the final week of paving, near Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds, crews will switch to overnight construction to minimize the traffic impact, Maenza wrote in an e-mail.

Weather could further delay the project.

Watch for road construction through Sinking Spring for 4 weeks

Drivers should expect delays [more so] through Sinking Spring for four weeks as Pennsylvania American Water paves lanes where the company replaced aging pipes last year, according to a release from the company.

No work is scheduled 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., or 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., during the project.

In the first phase, starting this week, crews will repave Penn Avenue between Wynnewood Avenue and Cacoosing Avenue.

That phase is scheduled for weekdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Two lanes will remain open in each direction.

In the second phase, crews will pave between Cacoosing Avenue and Mull Avenue overnight to minimize traffic disruptions.

Overnight work is scheduled 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Eastbound traffic will be restricted to one lane.

The project is expected to last four weeks, weather permitting.

Last year, Pennsylvania American Water installed nine fire hydrants and laid nearly 4,200 feet of 8-inch and 12-inch ductile iron pipe along Penn Avenue, replacing pipe that dated to the 1950s as part of the $2.5 million project.

Overall, the company invested more than $24 million in capital improvements in its Berks County water systems between 2010 and 2016.

Pennsylvania American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, is the largest investor-owned water utility in the state, providing water and wastewater services to 2.3 million people.

Blending butane in Spring Township will add to tanker-truck traffic in Sinking Spring

by Steve Reinbrecht

Update – Feb. 7

An average of 80 trucks a day drive in and out of Sunoco Logistics’ facility in Montello, near Sinking Spring, according to Jeff Shields, a Sunoco Logistics spokesman.

The terminal stores and distributes refined products, predominantly gasoline, diesel and heating oil, he wrote in an e-mail.

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

More tanker trucks will be driving through Sinking Spring, according to plans for a butane-blending facility that Spring Township supervisors approved last month.

Sunoco Logistics wants to build the butane system in the middle of its existing tank farm, between Mountain Home and Fritztown roads, adjacent to Sinking Spring.

This matters because more trucks will further clog roads in Southwestern Berks – especially because tanker trucks with petroleum products must stop at the area’s five rail crossings.

So how many tanker trucks use local roads to come and go with their fossil fuel loads?

A local official laughed when I told him nobody was calling me back from Sunoco Logistics, which I called and visited to ask how many tanker trucks use its terminals in Montello.

“They don’t want anyone to know,” he said.

Sinking Spring officials are hoping to convince state and federal officials that Sinking Spring is a bottleneck for vital commerce – in this case petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, propane and heating oil.

Officials hope the distinction helps the borough get a federal grant.

A study years ago counted 100 trucks a day, Berks transportation planner Alan Piper said, and he expects the number has grown. He helped me find state data from 2016 that show, in general, almost 3,900 trucks -- anything larger than a pickup -- drive on Penn Avenue between Columbia and Route 724 on an average weekday.

Fuel oil trucks chug through town all day long before making deliveries throughout the region. Sunoco, Gulf and Amerigas have tanks in the area. Tanks, pipes, and other infrastructure cover about 100 acres.

The complex in Montello is Sunoco Logistics' eastern pipeline system headquarters, as well as a trucking terminal and a major midstream terminal for refined products.

Sunoco's pipelines out of Montello provide gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil to large markets in Pennsylvania and New York. Sunoco Logistics, which has extensive tanks, pipes and other equipment in the Montello area, plans to build a pipeline called Mariner East 2. 

The new pipeline would nearly quadruple the amount of petroleum product gushing through pipes in Sinking Spring, to 345,000 barrels a day. A barrel is 42 gallons.

In November, Sunoco paused the project, blaming the delay on problems getting permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

In any case, in January, Spring Township supervisors granted Sunoco Logistics final approval to build a station to add butane to gasoline in the middle of the property it owns between Mountain Home and Fritztown roads in Spring Township, just across the border with Sinking Spring. Trucks would bring the butane, which would be stored in a 90,000-gallon tank.

Southwestern Berks’ orange snow fences are ready for action

by Steve Reinbrecht

Public works crews have installed orange fences in South Heidelberg and Lower Heidelberg to keep snow from drifting on the road, which impedes travel and makes it harder to plow.

Krick Lane in South Heidelberg

South Heidelberg is working to identify areas where snow drifts can be a problem, township manager Sean McKee said. The public works staff began installing the stakes and fencing in the fall.

North Church Road in Lower Heidelberg

Upcoming road work in Sinking Spring is designed to make walkers, cyclists safer

by Steve Reinbrecht

Crews will improve parts of Penn Avenue in Sinking Spring to make it safer and easier to walk or ride a bike along the borough’s main road.

Work is likely to start in March, borough manager Mike Hart said Friday.

The biggest chunk of the project is laying a 1,100-foot sidewalk along Penn Avenue, between Wynnewood and Park avenues, where the road abuts a cliff full of rocks and exposed roots.

Across the street, workers will install a sidewalk around the stone toll-house there, where the walk abruptly narrows at the landmark.

Up the hill, a crew will bump out the sidewalk into the street at the northwest corner of Hull Street, which will especially benefit people going to St. John's Reformed Church.

The peninsula, like those at West Reading intersections, is designed to give pedestrians a vantage and a shorter distance to cross.

The borough wanted to put them at all four corners, but there were drainage problems, Hart said.

Finally, the road will get new stripes and signs.

The borough got grants for the $354,000 project.

It awarded the contract to Reamstown Excavating Inc.

Lower Heidelberg plans to close bridge. Does anybody care?

Update Feb. 1: It may take another month to close the bridge, Lower Heidelberg Supervisor Deborah Scull said Wednesday. The township must notify the Wilson School District, BARTA, other municipalities, and first responders, she said. The township will order signs and find a permanent barrier, she said. No one has complained about the plans, Scull said.

by Steve Reinbrecht

Lower Heidelberg officials plan to close the bridge on Palm Road because they and Heidelberg officials can’t settle a years-long dispute over how to pay to fix it.

Maybe nobody cares.

PennDOT estimates that about 100 drivers a day use the bridge, which connects Route 422 and Wooltown Road, crossing Spring Creek in the westernmost part of Lower Heidelberg.

Lower Heidelberg wants Heidelberg to pay half the cost to repair the bridge, while Heidelberg has offered to pay 30 percent.

Heidelberg Supervisor Dave Randler said he doesn’t care if the bridge stays closed permanently. Few people live on half-mile-long Palm Road, and a parallel route, Big Spring Road, runs a few hundred yards west.

Why spend taxpayer money when an alternate route is 60 seconds away, Randler asked. He would rather spend the money on other bridges in the township. He expects it would cost about $100,000 to fix the span. Heidelberg has budgeted $30,000 for the project, Randler said.

Lower Heidelberg Supervisor Deborah Scull said she does not have a cost estimate.

The bridge was built in 1973. PennDOT considers it structurally deficient.

The townships share the bridge, though Lower Heidelberg is the “custodian.”

The two municipalities have been talking about repairing the bridge since 2010, both supervisors said.

PennDOT's bridge inspector has told Lower Heidelberg to provide repair plans or close the bridge by the end of January, Scull said.

PPL won't build power line through Sinking Spring

by Steve Reinbrecht

PPL Electric Utilities announced Thursday that it has changed its plans for the location of a 69,000-volt power line that had been slated to go through Sinking Spring.

"I'm tickled pink," said borough Councilman Brian Hoffa. 

Many officials and residents opposed the plan, fearing it would destroy Sinking Spring’s plans to attract grants and investment to improve traffic congestion and create a housing and shopping district. Property owners seemed united in not wanting to sell.

That the line will avoid the borough completely was a better outcome than Hoffa expected.

It's a strong signal that the borough's ambitious project has true momentum, he said.

"We're getting tons of support."

From PPL

Instead, the power company will install the line underground in Spring Township, primarily under streets, including Van Reed Road and North Dwight Street, according to a news release.

Initial plan in Sinking Spring

Officials from Sinking Spring, Wyomissing, Spring Township, and Alcon, and state Sen. David Argall and state Rep. Jim Cox opposed the project

Here is the company’s news release, verbatim: 

PPL Electric Utilities shifts location

of proposed transmission line in Berks County

Vital reliability link will be built underground

PPL Electric Utilities has shifted the location of a planned transmission line in the Sinking Spring area of Berks County and will also build it underground.

The utility Thursday (1/19) said a planned overhead 69-kilovolt transmission line initially proposed in Spring Township, Sinking Spring and Lower Heidelberg Township will instead be built underground in Spring Township, primarily under streets including Van Reed Road and N. Dwight Street.

Without the new line, thousands of customers in the region could potentially face long outages in the event of a transmission system problem.

“PPL continued to study the above-ground route over the last several months. Based on that review, the underground option evolved as the best balance of all the factors we consider when making vital investments like this,” said Stephanie Raymond, vice president of Transmission and Substations for the utility. “The project will help ensure that the long-term performance of the grid meets the needs of our customers.”

The company has involved local and state officials, as well as residents, in power line discussions.

Placing the new line underground does not signal a change in philosophy for PPL, whose transmission lines remain primarily above ground. “Each project is unique and each must be considered in light of technical and line route factors,” Raymond said.

PPL will hold a public open house this winter to discuss details of the new underground route. The time, date and location of that open house are still being finalized. Details will be communicated by mail and through local media.

Little Sinking Spring dives deeper into development commitments

by Steve Reinbrecht

Sinking Spring council members took a big step Thursday – voting 5-2 to accept a $1.1 million state grant to help it raise money for its ongoing traffic improvement project at the stretch where Shillington Road and Penn, Columbia, Cacoosing and Mull avenues converge.

Two members voted no, concerned about how the borough of 4,100 will pay the $684,000 it has to put up as a match. Sinking Spring raised taxes this year, hitting a property assessed at $200,000 with a $136 increase.

One “no” vote, council member George Butkus, said he supports the revitalization project but not building a street parallel to Penn Avenue, designed to ease congestion and create a shopping district..

He said he is concerned about the cost of that part of the project and how the borough will pay for the grant match. The hope is that property tax revenue will boom after developers improve the 20-acre area.

“The benefit to the tax base is not as assured as it needs to be for my vote,” Butkus said.

Denise Stine said she voted “no” because she is not sure the project is needed now, and because PPL Electric Utilities’ push to hang a 69,000-voltpower line on 100-foot poles through the middle of it all could put the “kibosh” on the borough’s plans.

In another move to raise money for the project, Sinking Spring has started putting together a tax deal called a TIF under the state’s“tax incremental financing” program.

The Berks County Redevelopment Authority would borrow $5 million to help acquire properties to make way for the new street parallel to Penn Avenue.

Officials from the borough, Wilson School District and Berks County would need to agree on a plan to forgo taxes generated by new development for a while.

That money would be diverted to repay the authority.

Such tax schemes have powered road improvements around Cabela’s in Tilden Township and the Exeter Commons Mall in Exeter Township.

The borough has received a $784,000 grant from PennDOT for the next phase.

The first part of the project was redeveloping the former Boscov’s parcel at Route 724 and Penn Avenue.

In the next phase, the borough demolished properties this fall to make room to straighten the intersection at Columbia, Caccosing and Penn avenues.

Dispute snags Sinking Spring demolition progress

by Steve Reinbrecht

A dispute between a Sinking Spring property owner and the borough is holding up demolition that will clear the way to improve traffic flow through a major intersection.

Crews have knocked down the old borough hall and Lesher’s Servicenter to make room to straighten the intersection of Columbia, Cacoosing and Penn avenues.

The borough needs to demolish one more building -- a house it owns at 3920 Penn Ave.

The problem is that the adjoining house at 3922 Penn Ave. is more complicatedly connected to the target building than was expected. The house at 3920 was built first. When 3922 was built, the builder did not make a proper support wall, but notched 3920’s existing wall to hold up 3922, according to Borough Manager Mike Hart.

“It was not normal construction,” Hart said. Now 3920 can't be removed without threatening 3922's stability.

Scott A. and Vanessa Dreibelbis bought 3922 for $89,900 in July 2010, according to Berks County records. No one was home there Wednesday morning, and the Dreibelbises could not be reached.

The borough has offered to build a new, proper wall for the Dreibelbises, but they have declined, Hart said, instead asking the borough to buy the house.

The borough won’t buy 3922 because it’s not needed for the work and the borough can’t afford it, he said.

Demolition at the intersection started in September. The work is part of an ambitious plan to build a new road between Route 724 and Columbia Avenue, and build homes, offices, shops and restaurants.

Sinking Spring revitalization committee: This is going to work

by Steve Reinbrecht

The world needs to know that Sinking Spring is serious about its ambitious redevelopment plan, in the works since 2009, borough officials said Thursday.

Getting that message out – that the $80 million project will succeed and improve traffic, grow the town’s tax base and make life better for all Berks Countians – will help the project get over current hurdles, they said.

At their monthly meeting in Borough Hall on Thursday, members of the BOSS 2020 revitalization committee voted to send a report to Borough Council about the project’s goals and accomplishments.

The project has obvious momentum. It has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in county and state funds. The first phase resulted in the Spring Market Center on the site of the former Boscov’s store. In the next phase, crews demolished half a dozen buildings on Penn Avenue this fall to make room to straighten the intersection where Cacoosing and Columbia avenues meet Penn Avenue.

Another sign of the project’s traction is that PennDOT has asked consulting engineer Bob Ludgate Sr. to file intersection plans so the state can include them in its ongoing $13.6 million project to resurface Route 422 from Route 724 in Sinking Spring to Wernersville.

But there are obstacles to BOSS 2020.

For one thing, some council members are questioning the cost of the borough’s participation. The borough plans to raise taxes next year.

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.

Consultant: Sinking Spring needs expert legal help to fight PPL

by Steve Reinbrecht

The consultant in charge of fulfilling Sinking Spring’s revitalization thinks it’s time to hire a specialized lawyer to spearhead the fight against PPL Electric Utilities’ plans to run a 69-kilowatt transmission line through the borough.

The borough will hold its monthly revitalization meeting tonight, Thursday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m., and the topic is sure to arise, said the consultant, Sam Loth, shepherd of the BOSS2020 project.

The public is welcome.

The power company says it needs the line, and a 100-foot-wide easement under it, to make the local electrical grid more reliable. The company is not considering options.

Borough officials say the line would destroy their plans to fix intersections and build shops and housing. The project has had more than $5 million in investment, according to Loth.

PPL has backed off from similar proposals in other places, and perhaps an experienced lawyer could find out how others have beaten a giant utility, he said.

Based in Allentown, PPL has about 10 million customers and saw $7.7 billion in revenues last year.

“Spend the five grand it’s going to take to hire a big-gun lawyer,” Loth said Wednesday.

The borough has many people lined up with it. Opponents of the PPL plan includes the borough council, planning officials, dozens of residents and state Rep. Jim Cox and state Sen. Dave Argall.

Landowner Randy Robitzer says he won’t grant an easement to PPL through the golf course he owns on the route.

I've had trouble reaching council members, but one told me he opposes PPL's plan.

“The borough most definitely should try to stop this. It will directly affect our redevelopment efforts by taking away valuable land,” Councilman Brian Hoffa told me in an e-mail Oct. 6.

“Obviously, as a member of council and a resident directly across from the proposed power line, I do NOT want to see this power line installed. This will be a severe detriment to our redevelopment efforts as well as spoiling a lot of nature-scape,” he wrote.

After accidents, Wilson School District changes rush-hour traffic rules

by Steve Reinbrecht

Drivers will have to mind new traffic rules starting Tuesday when parking or dropping off students at Wilson High School.

The goal is to help prevent “Mad Max” scrambles at parking lot exits, according to a note from Superintendent Curt Baker. Click here for a map.

The biggest changes will be at the entrance into the high school’s big parking, where Curtis Road crosses Dwight Road into the high school’s big parking lot, opposite St. Peter’s UCC.

In the mornings from 6:50 a.m. to 7:55 a.m., drivers will be allowed only to enter. 

In the afternoons from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., drivers will be allowed only to exit.

No changes will apply to events held outside the school day.

“We will also have staff deployed to attempt to calm the ‘Mad Max’ rush to exit.”

There have been at least four vehicle crashes on school property since school started Aug. 29, Baker wrote.

Drivers dropping off students also have changes.

“We will be attempting to reduce the double parking/stopping that is currently taking place on Grandview Boulevard in the mornings,” Baker wrote.

Drivers are encouraged to drop students off at another place -- on the Whitfield side of the Lower House.

Drivers dropping off students at the Lower House should enter the lower parking lot off Dwight Street and follow the cones around the upper half of the parking lot. 

PPL doesn’t have easements for Sinking Spring power line

by Steve Reinbrecht

PPL Electric Utilities does not have the easements it needs to run a 69-kilowatt power line through the middle of Sinking Spring, a move that borough leaders say would scramble their plans for redevelopment. An easement is an agreement with an owner to use land for a certain purpose, such as a utility line or access.

The company is still in talks with landowners – including a farmer, the owner of the Village Greens Golf Course, and the borough -- about getting easement rights, PPL spokesman Joe Nixon said Friday.

In a letter to Sinking Spring borough dated Sept. 9, Jessica Long, PPL regional affairs director, said the company has made a final decision on the route. Based in Allentown, the company has about 10 million customers and saw $7.7 billion in revenues last year.

If negotiations fail and the company decides to use eminent domain to force a sale of the easement, it would have to apply to the state Public Utility Commission. 

Similar cases have had different outcomes this year.

In April, a Northumberland County judge’s ruling allowed PPL to pursue eminent domain for a 12-mile, 69-kilovolt power line near Meiserville.

The judge denied preliminary objections filed by landowners, according to the Daily Item of Danville.

In 2013, another judge had ruled in favor of landowners contesting the project. The Public Utility Commission overruled that and moved to allow PPL to exercise eminent domain to force the property sales. Commonwealth Court upheld that decision in 2014.

On the other hand, PPL canceled plans to build a transmission line in Cumberland County, the Central Penn Business Journal reported in March.

Just like the plan in Sinking Spring, that plan, calling for a 69-kilovolt line, generated controversy among landowners and neighbors, the Journal said.

The company said the move reflected "a new perspective" on the power system's needs, according to the Journal.  In a letter, PPL wrote that it had cancelled that project "as the result of continued evaluation of current and future electric grid needs in the Cumberland County region.”

Plans are tentative for when work would start on the Sinking Spring line, Nixon said. They call for four months of construction, starting at the end of 2017, Nixon said.

Sinking Spring officials say it will ruin their downtown renovation plans, which already has attracted millions of dollars. The line would have a 100-foot-wide [50 feet on each side]. The electric company has vowed it will not interfere with the borough’s plans to relocate streets, Nixon said. It is still talking with borough officials about exactly where to place poles, he said.

PennDOT, the state, Berks County and Sinking Spring have together spent more than $5.3 million over 8.5 years on the project. The borough's plans call for 450,000 square feet of commercial, office, retail and food operations, about 100 housing units and $60 million in private investment.

Home owners along the proposed line have said in meetings that they are worried about the line’s effect on their property values.

PPL hosted a public meeting about the plan Thursday night.

“It was a great turnout,” Nixon said, adding that 165 people had signed in.

The borough’s two representatives in Harrisburg – state Rep. Jim Cox and state Sen. David Argall – have opposed PPL’s plan.

In a June 29 letter, the lawmakers wrote:

“Locating a high voltage power line in the center of an existing community makes no sense to us … . We must insist that PPL reject this proposed plan.

“Our ongoing efforts to revitalize the downtown of this growing community will be endangered if this proposed transmission line is built. We are prepared to seek a legislative solution to this problem, if it becomes necessary.”

On Friday, a woman who answered the phone in Cox’s office referred questions to Argall’s office. A woman in the senator’s office said a representative had been at the meeting, but she didn’t call me back.

I wanted to ask the lawmakers if this is a done-deal or if they have a way to sway the utility without costing the borough extensive legal bills.