Police Commended, Bridge Limited, Architects Hired

Photos by Evan Brandt

From left, James Christie, supervisory senior resident FBI agent, Lower Pottsgrove Police Detective Sgt. Joseph Campbell, Police Chief Michael Foltz, Joseph Bushner, assistant special FBI agent after Monday night's commendation ceremony at the township commissioner's meeting.

Although not lengthy, the Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners meeting Monday night produced three items of interest.

FBI Thank Yous

The first was the recognition of township police Detective Sgt. Joseph Campbell and Detective Daniel Kienle by the FBI.

James Christie, supervisor senior resident FBI agent and Joseph Bushner, assistant special FBI agent, both from the Philadelphia office were on hand to hand out the commendations for work by the local police.

Here is some video of the presentation:



According to Police Chief Michael Foltz the commendations came about as the result of police investigation of break-ins of unlocked vehicles in Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick townships.

"One of those cars contained government property," said Foltz who demurred when asked what it was. "I can't say," was all he would say.

In any case, Campbell and Kienle canvassed the areas where the break-ins occurred and obtained security video from several private residences.

Images from the video were matched and shared on social media "and a suspect was identified. That snowballed into several suspects," said Foltz.

Within 24 hours of the first suspect being identified, all of the suspects had been apprehended and the "government property" recovered.

Bushner said he was at the FBI office in Fort Washington for seven years in charge of Montgomery and Bucks counties and had several interactions with Foltz and the Lower Pottsgrove Police.

"We enjoy a really good relationship with your police department and a lot of it is because of Chief Foltz," he said.

"We told them we've had a situation here with government property. They quickly scrambled the troops, got out there, found the people, interviewed them and the same day got a search warrant and the next thing, the property was recovered, so it was really a boon to us," Bushner said.

Later in the evening, all five of the township commissioners praised the police department and thanked them for their good work.

Weight Restrictions on Bridge

Engineer Chad Camburn had some surprising and unpleasant news for the commissioners Monday; namely that they own a 60-year-old bridge on Adams Street they did not know they owned, and it is deteriorating.

The bridge over Sprogel's Run is near the road's intersection with Buchert Road and is showed signs of crumbling concrete and rusting steel during a recent PennDOT inspection.

Warning poles have been erected to keep
vehicles from the edges of the Adams Street bridge.

He said the PennDOT inspector said because the water damage is coming from the top of the bridge, the only possible repair would be to strip off all the asphalt and insert an impermeable layer between the infrastructure and the pavement.

But that would get expensive and not be terribly cost-effective when compared to the price of simply replacing the bridge, Camburn said.

"It's lasted 60 years and that's about its lifespan," Camburn said.

The public works department recently posted markers to keep vehicles away from the bridge edges, where the structure is weakest, and the commissioners unanimously approved the posting of a 15-ton weight limit on the bridge.

Although it will not necessarily affect school bus traffic it will prevent most fire trucks from crossing the bridge, according to Lew Babel, Lower Pottsgrove Fire Marshal.

He said fire trucks can cross Sprogel's Run on the one-lane bridge a block away where North Washington Street meets Kaufman Road.

"It will also affect Pottstown fire trucks when they come to assist us," he said.

Camburn said the next step is to get the bridge on PennDOT's schedule, which will make it easier for the township to get grants to help cover the cost of replacing the bridge in the next 10 years.

Architect Hired for New Township Building

With another unanimous vote, township commissioners approved a contract with Alloy 5, the Bethlehem architecture firm that has been designing a new municipal building at the corner of South Pleasantview and East High Street.

A rendering of the new building, as seen from South Pleasantview
Road, that was presented to the public in August.

Township Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. said the contract covers schematic designs, preparing construction documents, bidding and overseeing construction and cannot exceed $396,514.

Once the commissioners settle on the size and design of the building, they have 90 days to vote on moving the project forward.

The public got its first look at the new building plan in August, when schematics for a 16,000-square-foot building with an estimated $8.2 million price tag was outlined for the township-owned lot at East High Street and South Pleasantview Road.

The current township building at the corner of Buchert and North Pleasantview roads was built in 1989 and is only 7,500 square feet.

The possibility of constructing the new building has been discussed for more than a year in the board's infrastructure committee and if the board decides to move forward with the plan, it is estimated it will take 18 months to complete.

And with that, here are the Tweets from last night's meeting:

Bridge Limits, Police Awards & Architect Contract