SANATOGA PA – When Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township workers armed themselves with tape and chalk during September 2008 to mark what they expected would become a trail in Sprogels Run Park, 75-1/2 Timberview Dr., it was hoped the path and its unique boardwalk over and around several natural features could be built in a year or less.

A sign on Timberview Drive marks the start of open space that is Sprogels Run Park.

Occidental Chemical Corp. and the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation donated a combined $75,000 in grants to make the project happen, but the economic recession intervened. Township funds also allocated for construction were either conserved or used elsewhere, officials said later, and the trail’s completion was put on hold.

It may again get a green light tonight (Monday, March 7, 2011) when the township Board of Commissioners gathers at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, for its first of two March meetings.

Board members are scheduled to consider advertising for contractors to bid on building the boardwalk, and installing signage and other amenities. Their meeting is open to the public; a board agenda can be downloaded from the township website, here.

Sprogels Run Park consists of 22 acres off Kepler Road in the township that “Positively Pottstown” blogger Sue Kepler has described as “simply a beautiful wooded playground.” Its most prominent feature is the run itself, a stream that crosses Upper and Lower Pottsgrove as it heads south to empty into the Schuylkill River.

Also on the commissioners’ agenda:

• Approval of earlier announced changes to the pension plan for the township’s uniformed police officers;
• Reappointment of volunteer members to two its Civil Service and Parks and Recreation commissions; and
• Discussion of another proposal to re-name Armand Hammer Boulevard, which runs through both the township and the borough of Pottstown from East High Street south to Industrial Highway.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ March 7 meeting):

• Sprogels Run Park Project On Commissioners’ Agenda