PECO Green Grants Support Local Park Projects

Inspiration for the design of the planned Steel River Station

in Pottstown's Memorial Park

Revitalization projects in Pottstown and Limerick are among those that will benefit from a PECO Energy grant program.

A total of $150,000 in grant funding from PECO's Green Region program, the company’s municipal open space and environmental grant program, will benefit a total of 20 communities.

Through PECO Green Region, PECO has awarded more than $2 million to nearly 300 projects since the program’s inception in 2004. The program is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to support environmental initiatives across southeastern Pennsylvania, including open space preservation, improvements to parks and recreation resources, and environmental conservation, according to a press release.

In Pottstown, a grant of $7,500 will provide part of the 20 percent match for a $200,000 grant being sought by the Colebrookdale Railroad to improve connections with the new "Steel River Station" it is building in Memorial Park.

“This project will connect the visitor- and trail-user-oriented recreation amenities of the new Steel River Station to Pottstown's Memorial Park -- one of the region's largest and most asset-rich downtown parks -- and to the regional trail network," according to Kirsten​ Werner, senior director of communications for Natural Lands, which helped PECO assess applications.

"This connection brings critically-needed hospitality and visitor functions to the park and the trail system. This connection also enables the station to function as a hub for what the borough would like to market as a district of attractions in and around the park. Funds are sought for an ADA-accessible pathway, a small but critical component of the roughly $2 million Steel River Station project,” Werner wrote.

Monday night, Pottstown Borough Council authorized the full grant application to be made to Montgomery County's "2040 Fund," which was set up to support initiatives aligned with the county's Comprehensive Plan, adopted in early 2015.

In Limerick, a grant of $10,000 will help to pay for an update to the township's open space plan.

"Limerick Township adopted an open space plan in 1996 to guide the township's future decisions on developing parks and preserving open space. The last update to the open space plan was 2006," Werner wrote. "Limerick Township will undertake a second update to set a new strategy toward the preservation of open space and the natural resources of the Limerick community."

Here are a few of the other grant recipients:

• Chester County: East Bradford Township, East Fallowfield Township, South Coatesville Borough, and Tredyffrin Township 
• Montgomery County: Borough of Jenkintown and Upper Merion Township
• Delaware County: Borough of Prospect Park, Marcus Hook Borough, Marple Township, and Rutledge Borough

“The municipalities and nonprofits receiving grants are putting their energy into the environment, and we’re proud to support these initiatives as PECO remains committed to increasing the environmental sustainability of the communities we serve across southeastern Pennsylvania,” Mike Innocenzo, PECO president and CEO said in a press release from the company. 

“Each of these projects will positively impact the region as they create new green spaces, revitalize vacant lots, beautify trails, and much more.”

Getting Land Preservation Out Into the Open

Fuzzy Photos by Evan Brandt

Eric Jarrell, section chief of community planning for the Montgomery County Planning Commission, illustrates all the area of interest investigated in the draft Multi-Regional Greenways and Stewardship Study during the meeting Wednesday of the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee.

Perhaps the first and most important thing to remember about environmentally sensitive areas, greenways and the like, is that many of those acres are under private ownership.

As a result, there is only so much that governments and non-profit preservation agencies can do directly to ensure the protection and proper function of critical woodlands, wetlands, meadows and streams.

Now in its third year and in preliminary draft form, a study that looks at such properties in 26 municipalities over 195 square miles in western Montgomery and northern Chester counties, looks to maximize that protection at a minimum of cost.

This map shows public parks, preserved

farmland, conservation lands and even

'Main Street Greenways' in purple.

"We can't just buy every property of value," said Eric Jarrell, section chief for
community planning with the Montgomery County Planning Commission.

Jarrell was in Pottstown Wednesday to update the Pottstown Area Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee on the progress of the study since its introduction in November of 2015.

The massive undertaking, assisted by the non-profit preservation group Natural Lands and the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, will be in final form by the end of the year.

Not only will it contain "best practices" for specific habitats and landscape types out in the undeveloped area, but also specific ways to improve specific greenways in boroughs, villages and downtown areas, said Jarrell.

Such efforts will also help in stormwater management efforts, he said.

But it can't cover everything.

One improvement Jarrell said the study is

like to suggest, is to use vegetation to 

replace some of the "ocean of asphalt" that

surrounds the firehouse in Gilbertsville.

For example, the study group looked at 38 public parks, but there are about 300 that it didn't. So father than try to devise a specific plan for each park, it will outline the "best management practices" for areas near streams, called "riparian buffers," woodlands and the like.

And those practices will not just be for municipal or protected lands, but also those in private hands as well. Jarrell said when complete, owners of those properties believed to have important or sensitive natural features will be invited to learn how to better manage them for maximum natural benefit.

They won't be pushy, he said in response to a concern raised by New Hanover Supervisor Kurt Zebrowski. "I think we'll have our hands full just trying to meet the needs of those landowners who respond and want our help," Jarrell said.

A separate guide will be produced for the management and improvement of Main Street greenways, said Jarrell, as well as guidelines for mustering a force of volunteers who can properly undertake such tasks as plant trees and remove invasive species.

Hopefully, private landowners may be able to take advantage of such volunteer groups as well.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Managing Greenways and Open Space

Greenways and Traffic, Both Are Being Studied

Photo by Evan Brandt

A map of the region being covered in the Multi-Regional Greenway and Stewardship Study. It includes municipalities in the Pottstown Regional Planning Group, the Upper Perkiomen Regional Planning Group, the Central Perkiomen Regional Planning Group and the Indian Valley Regional Planning Group, 36 municipalities total

It takes a long time to study and categorize features in 36 different municipalities.

Especially when you are looking at different terrains, habitats, flora and fauna, as well as coming up with ways to best maintain them.

But that's what Natural Lands and the Montgomery County Planning Commission are doing in an effort that is now three years old, and still not complete.

The idea is to get an inventory of greenspaces in the four regions, public and private, and come up with guidelines on how best to maintain them.

The Pottstown regional planners got an update on that effort last night, and learned that the park in each township and borough studied were carefully selected for habitat, landscape and terrain type -- wetland, meadow, forest -- so that the stewardship guides would apply to any parcel of greenspace with similar characteristics.

The planners also reviewed a list of 21 roadways or intersections which are candidates for study by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, removing some, adding others.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting: