SANATOGA PA – There was a hint of reverence Thursday (May 20, 2010) in an otherwise quick discussion by the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners on, of all things, sewers.
All hail the mighty sewer, an otherwise little-discussed engine of economic development.
Most folks don’t think much about sewers, Manager Rodney Hawthorne will be the first to admit, and whatever they think is usually distasteful. Sewers cost a lot of money to install. Their installation often tears up a neighborhood for a short time, inconveniencing its residents. And sewers carry … well, what sewers carry most folks don’t like to think much about either.
But, as Hawthorne explained to board members when they met for a second time this month in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, a sewer can be the Holy Grail of economic development. In Lower Pottsgrove’s case that certainly will be true, Hawthorne said, at the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has approved the township’s plans to install a huge new sewer pipe, called a force main. It will be a foot-and-a-half wide, to carry an awful lot of what sewers are known for down to the borough of Pottstown’s treatment plant. The township also will install upgrades to two of its pumping stations, to keep the sewers flowing smoothly.
Approval is important, Hawthorne noted, because it represents “the first step in the process to open up land at the interchange for development.”
Property within the township’s borders at the interchange is expected to accommodate up to 1.5 million square feet of commercial development in coming years, Hawthorne said. Current plans envision hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, retail stores, and nursing homes. With those will come, eventually, new residential developments nearby.
First, though, come the sewers. Commissioners duly noted the DEP’s acceptance of the township sewer map, formally known as a “537 Plan,” and commended the township staff’s efforts to apply for a state grant to help pay for the pipe and pumps.
There’s nothing like getting someone else to foot the bill, commissioners agreed, for things most folks don’t like to think much about anyway.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of May 20):
- Call Goes Out For Ringing Rocks Construction Bids
- Lower Pottsgrove’s Reviled System Generates Reverent Talk
- In Lower Pottsgrove, Legal Paperwork Out The Gazoo
- Cracks, Crumbles Mean Trouble In Township
Photo from Clipart.com
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Many years back the Pottstown Sewere plant was planned and oversized in anticipation of capacity were now getting ready to utilize.
Foresight in infrastructure design is seldom heralded but this effort decades past was truly yeomans work on the part of the Pottstown government and we are benefiting today.
With that in mind let’s be smart about what and how we change our township towards the future and se some foresite and planning that will be of beenfit to us downstream. Shortsighted approvals, quick decisions lead to issues. Let’s plan it out and think it through so we can benefit and our children will have something more than highways and stripmalls to live near.
Force developer to plant greenspaces, tree’s and walkways. The future deserves to know we thought of them back in 2010…