I’m starting a hyperlocal news blog about the Lower Heidelberg area

By Steve Reinbrecht

I’ve decided to neglect this blog, “Berks County needs better journalism.”

I’ve decided to start a new blog called “News in Southwestern Berks County.”

Please check it out if you live here or have an interest in watching a media startup project. If you like it, please recommend it.

I’ll try to report on Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, Sinking Spring and Wernersville, which together have about 20,000 people.

I think the area deserves more media attention. It’s one place in Berks that bulldozers are scraping up topsoil to build new houses.

Sinking Spring has big plans – and has made progress – to rebuild its sclerotic road system. That will open up the western part of the Route 422 corridor to more businesses and make the borough more attractive to restaurants and shops – which we need out here.

Wilson School District has a great reputation but could always use more media scrutiny. Do you know the school board directors? I hope to get to know them through this project.

I won’t cover fundraisers or parades or festivals, even though I think such public events are great. I wish the organizers of such activities would send a few paragraphs and a couple of photos to me. I’d post them as “citizen journalism.”

I'll try to cover meetings but most importantly follow issues as they get resolved. And I'll try to maintain a police log and announce new businesses.

Hyperlocal news can be hyper-boring, and I’ll admit I have a rare, wonkish fascination with the most granular level of where government meets private life. I was trained in the importance of covering stuff that seems only important when it goes wrong -- municipal government, land development, traffic regulating, trash pickup, I believe that our public schools, roads, law enforcement, and land-use decisions depend on the quality of our elected officials, when just a handful of votes can matter.

Please check it out if you live here or have an interest in watching a media startup project. If you like it, please recommend it.

Sinking Spring residents vow to oppose PP&L power line

Please see my new blog, "News about Southwestern Berks County."

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. Crews will demolish the former Lesher auto repair shop at the sharp corner of Cacoosing Avenue and Penn Avenue, and the former borough hall at the even sharper corner of Penn Avenue and Columbia Avenue. Then the intersection will be transformed into a normal 90-degree-angle type of intersection.

The plan is to eventually straighten the octopus-like Penn Avenue-Hull Road-Route 724 intersection and shift eastbound traffic heading to Shillington onto Columbia Avenue.

The borough has acquired the necessary commercial properties and plans to acquire about 16 residential properties, Loth said.

The power company would clear a right-of-way, perhaps 100 feet wide, Loth said.

At the meeting, resident Jan Roland said she is organizing opposition to the PP&L plan. The power line would loom over homes and playgrounds and be unsightly, especially because existing utilities are buried, she said. Residents are worried about reduced property values, purported health issues from living near high voltage, possible sinkholes, toppling towers and major disruption to the borough’s development plans.

Loth said PP&L only needs the line as a backup.

“It’s not something they even need right now,” he said.

Borough officials said state Rep. Jim Cox and state Sen. David Argall support the project and have a stake in it because they have obtained state funding, Loth said.

This week, the state announced a $1.1 million grant for work on Columbia Avenue.

In any case, the PP&L project would need approval by the state Public Utility Commission, and there are formal and informal ways to object, said solicitor Charles Haws.

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, accordingto the Minnesota Electric Transmission Planning.

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

PP&L spokesman Joe Nixon said earlier that the company has been in regular contact with the borough throughout the project.

The company thoroughly evaluated other routes for the line and concluded this route has the least impact on the “natural and human environment” and lowest financial impact on ratepayers, according to Nixon.

Company officials plan to continue to discuss the project with representatives from the borough, Nixon wrote in an e-mail in response to my questions.

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

Please see my new blog, "News about Southwestern Berks County."

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.

In all, the transmission line will stretch about two miles from an existing line in Spring Township to an existing line near the Berkshire Mall substation in Wyomissing, according to company spokesman Joe Nixon.

Building such alternate lines lets the company reduce the number and duration of outages, he wrote in response to my questions.

The company has been in regular contact with the borough throughout the project, he wrote.

“We will continue to work with them to the extent practical, but it is too early to speculate on potential solutions.”

On Reedy Road near Whitfield Road, north of Sinking Spring.

The company thoroughly evaluated other routes for the line and concluded this route has the least impact on the “natural and human environment” and lowest financial impact on ratepayers, according to Nixon.

Company officials plan to continue to discuss the project with representatives from the borough, Nixon wrote.

Of course puny mortals need to step aside when giant infrastructure has to go through their property. But through a whole town’s detailed plans for development?

I hope the utility officials continue to be open about how they are meeting their needs while keeping the project progressing.

A public meeting is a good place to start.

Also, you can send comments to Doug Grossman, a PP&L supervisor, at DJGrossman@pplweb.com.

And state Rep. Jim Cox has supported the project and should hear about this.

You can call his local office at 610-670-0139.