SANATOGA PA – Some call it “the earthen hill.” Others, “the dirt pile.” Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Planning Commission member Nicholas Hiriak described it Monday (April 19, 2010) as “that terrible-looking mound.” Whatever name it’s given, an expanse of fill material at 3049 E. High St., Pottstown PA, has yet to be leveled despite public complaints.
Now Hiriak and other commission members know why. Call it a failure to negotiate.
The property at 3049 E. High St. remains ungraded after 3 months.
The mountain of earth that has been stockpiled on vacant land just west of the Turkey Hill convenience store was to have been razed and evenly distributed there almost two months ago. The hold-up, according to township Assistant Manager Allyson Elliott, is the lack of a signed agreement between oil-and-gas supplier Sunoco Inc. and property owner Charles Tornetta and Tornetta Realty Corp. of Norristown.
Sunoco owns the right-of-way, Elliott said, for a major gas pipeline that cuts through the middle of the property, perpendicular to East High Street. Tornetta needs, but has yet to obtain, Sunoco’s permission (formally called an easement) to further cover the pipeline area with fill and build commercial structures atop it, she reported.
No one was sure Monday, during the board’s regular monthly meeting at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga, whether the delay was caused by the parties’ inability to compromise or a tangle of red tape in some corporate cubicle. Neither Tornetta or Sunoco representatives attended the meeting, so commissioners could only speculate and, like other members of the public, complain.
“It’s at the gateway to the township, and it looks awful,” commission Chairman Geoffrey Dailey said. “I’ve had people call me and ask when it’s coming down,” he said of the more than 20-foot-high mound. “They’re concerned about this mountain, and they’re concerned that nothing’s happening.”
Equipment at the site has been keeping the mound below its maximum allowable height as truck deliveries continue to dump more fill.
Hiriak was a thesaurus of mound descriptives: “terrible,” “awful,” “ugly,” and “an eyesore” among them. “It just continues to grow,” he said, noting that a fresh dump-truck load had arrived earlier Monday.
The mound’s contents are intended to be spread over, and raise the height of, the property to highway level. The commission on Jan. 19 (2010) approved Tornetta’s request for a grading permit, with the understanding that the pile would be gone within weeks. As of Monday, almost 90 days had passed with the pile in place and getting larger.
“Is there a time limit” or expiration date on Tornetta’s permit?, Dailey asked Elliott. No, she answered, but the commission possibly could make a time for completion a condition of future work at the site, Elliott added … whenever that work starts.
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POTTSTOWN PA – On the 
