Lower Heidelberg farm owner ordered to remove perfectly good farmhouse

by Steve Reinbrecht

A Lower Heidelberg landowner must remove a beautifully restored farmhouse because he violated a deed restriction when he built a new house on the property.

The owner, Leonard Leibman, has publicized his plight with a sign at the property at 190 Evans Hill Road. He bought the bucolic 83-acre farm for $960,000 in May 2010 and has renovated a large barn as well as building a new home behind the existing farmhouse.

The trouble is, Berks Nature, a conservation agency, decided the new house violates the terms of a deed restriction from the 1970s, said Tami J. Shimp, vice-president of development and community relations.

Leibman was aware that the land was permanently protected when he bought the land, she said.

Leibman told me he fought to keep the house but put the sign up about six weeks ago when he realized he was beaten. Few have shown interest. He said he spent $90,000 five years ago to renovate the farmhouse, close to the road. He hopes somebody will pay him $20,000 for it and can move it or rebuild it somewhere. He said he spent $400,000 renovating the barn.

The farmhouse tenants moved out two weeks ago, reminding Leibman he'll be losing $24,000 a year in rent.

"They would have stayed there forever. They loved the place."

Berks Nature takes every restriction seriously, Shimp said.

“We commit to protecting it in perpetuity as the land owner requested.”

If the agency gave in on cases like this, it would compromise the entire program, she said. The Berks Nature board voted to uphold the deed, she said.

At first, Leibman said, Berks Nature staff assured him the second house would be permitted, so he paid $40,000 for the plans and tests required to build.

He filed a lawsuit when the conservancy reversed itself and prohibited the second house. But a lawyer told him the matter could take years to resolve, and Leibman wanted to move into the new house.

“We decided we’ll rip the house down and be done with it.”

Shimp expects Leibman to remove the house, and the sign seems to indicate his intentions.

Neighbors urge action on Lower Heidelberg house after teenager gets shot during party

By Steve Reinbrecht

The 16-year-old boy shot early Sunday morning after a party in a vacant house in Lower Heidelberg was released from the hospital and is doing OK, a neighbor said Monday.

A boy was shot after a party in this house
at 4219 Hill Terrace, Lower Heidelberg.

Before declining further comment, the young woman said the victim was a family member of hers, lives in Muhlenberg Township, and was shot in an arm.

As many as 150 people were at the party from about 1 a.m. until about 2:30 a.m., when fighting started outside and the boy was shot.

Neighbors reported hearing about six shots.

Township police arrested an 18–year-old man from Reading on Monday and charged him with attempted homicide, the Reading Eagle reported. 

Police have not identified the victim or said if they had a suspect. Township Detective Chris Stouch said Monday that he would be able to release more information Tuesday.

The house at 4219 Hill Terrace, the left side of a duplex, has a history of problems.

Sinking Spring residents vow to oppose PP&L power line

by Steve Reinbrecht

About 80 people sat or stood in Sinking Spring Borough Hall on Thursday to hear about PP&L’s plans to run a 69-kilovolt line through the borough and, officials say, fatally disrupt plans to improve traffic and shopping opportunities.

Appearing aghast, planner Sam Loth told the crowd that the electric company’s plans would flush eight years of work and $6 million of tax investment down the toilet.

Residents asked questions and vowed to fight the utility’s plans.

Borough Manager Michael Hart said he invited PP&L officials, who declined to come and said that they would arrange a meeting with residents. PP&L, based in Allentown, has about 10 million customers and saw $7.7 billion in revenues last year. 

In what they call BOSS2020, borough leaders have made plans to improve two bottle-neck intersections on Penn Avenue and make room for a downtown business district.

Residents and drivers will soon see concrete signs of the project, Loth said.

Sinking Spring says 69,000-volt line will clash with development plans

By Steve Reinbrecht

Here is a small town with big plans to fix up its business district versus a utility giant that wants to hang a new 69,000-volt line through it – which could snarl plans to improve some of the worst traffic in Berks County.

PP&L Electrical Utilities plans to build a new electrical line through the borough. Sinking Spring-area residents are invited to a council meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday night. I couldn't find an agenda on the borough website, but I expect the topic to come up.

Sinking Spring officials say the line would disrupt plans to redevelop the downtown, plans in the works for a long time and already at considerable taxpayer investment.

The line’s 100-foot right-of-way will go through downtown and affect revitalization and hundreds of residents, eliminating a wide path of development, Borough Manager Michael Hart said at a meeting in June, according to the Reading Eagle.

Poles that carry 69 kilovolts are typically wooden and 50 to 70 feet tall. The cleared right-of-way is typically 70-100 feet wide, according to Minnesota Electric Transmission Planning.

The line would cross Penn Avenue between Autozone and Paparone’s pizza shop, according to a map from PP&L.

New Wilson schools chief should answer to public

by Steve Reinbrecht

If Wilson School District’s last superintendent, Rudy Ruth, was a paragon of longevity, working for the district for more than 30 years, the new one is a job changer, working at four districts in the last 10 years.

I’m glad newspapers have reported about this important man, the new Wilson schools chief, Curtis Baker. I’m betting he might like to stay in Wilson and has answers to our questions.

Baker worked at his last job, as superintendent of the Moon School District, near Pittsburgh, for two years.

The Moon School Board voted to put him on paid leave in December.

Funny the Reading Eagle hasn’t mentioned that.

In any case, reading between the lines of coverage by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it seems a newly elected majority tossed Baker out because they didn’t like his ideas.

In response, Baker has sued the district and seven school board members, claiming a broken contract.

I’m more worried about plant invaders than Islamist invaders

by Steve Reinbrecht

There is a forest stretching through my neighborhood, all one kind of tree, an invader from East Asia that pushes out the local plants.

Bradford pear trees [Pyrus calleryana] are pretty. They brighten up our neighborhood this time of year. Also known as Callery pears, the tree is native to East Asia. Developers installed them among homes and businesses all over the United States.

But now, experts warn against planting them, mostly because they break catastrophically if not pruned when they are small. And they grow happily everywhere, spread by birds, especially starlings [another invasive] and robins, a native though opportunistic sort of bird.

On Saturday, robins, swarmed the thicket of pears in bloom south of the Wilson West Middle School. The trees are invading the area, some of it set aside as educational open space.

A huge swath of the trees winds along the Little Cacoosing Creek and then across Green Valley Road and along a power-line easement. The trees are thick and dominant.

They were full of robins Saturday.

But I wonder if other native birds and pollinators feel at home in the foreign species.

Bradford pear forms dense thickets that push out other plants, including native species, that can’t tolerate its deep shade or compete with it for water, soil and space, the National Park Service says.

Its success as an invader results from three things, the service says. It can produce copious amounts of seed that is dispersed by birds and possibly small mammals. Its seedlings grow rapidly in disturbed areas. And it lacks natural controls like insects and diseases, with the exception of fire blight.

Identifying these species when they are first spreading could reduce the eventual high cost of their control and eradication.

Berks County had no Keystone Innovation Zone credits in 2015

by Steve Reinbrecht

I want to know why the tech-entrepreneurial tidal wave that is obviously washing through many other small cities is passing Berks and Reading by.

In 2015, the state awarded almost $18 million to 239 companies across the state as part of the state's Keystone Innovation Zone.

They included companies in Johnstown, Erie, Williamsport, Harrisburg, Selingsgrove, Lancaster, Bloomsburg, Carlisle, with lots in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and Erie and Doylestown.

Reading has a KIZ. 

How much did Berks get?

Zero.

Two Berks companies got KIZ credits in 2014.

The Reading Eagle had a story on its website about companies in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties getting tax credits.

But even though the Eagle is the major newsgathering organization in Berks and Beyond, it doesn't mention Berks' failure to incubate tech companies.

Why, other than the Eagle knows how to LOOK like a newspaper but the newsroom leaders don't know how to produce a REAL newspaper? Or is it the newsroom leaders' compulsion to assure everybody that everything is fine in Berks, so buy a new car?

The KIZ is an incentive program that provides tax credits to for-profit companies less than eight years old operating within specific targeted industries within the boundaries of a Keystone Innovation Zone, the state says.

“The KIZ tax credit program significantly contributes to the ability of young KIZ companies to transition through the stages of growth.”