Office Of The Mayor
Thomas M. McMahon
Mayor’s Report To City
Council
June 11th, 2007
Public Safety:
Vehicle Theft Prevention
Our first Greater Reading VIN etching program took place
on Saturday May 19 at the Fairgrounds Square Mall. We did
VIN etching on about 150 vehicles and most also enrolled
in the HEAT decal program (Help Eliminate Auto Theft), administered
by the Reading Police Department. The program was successful
and we expect to repeat it again in the fall.
My thanks to the Pennsylvania State Police, Muhlenberg
Township Police officers, volunteers from various insurance
companies and the Pennsylvania Auto Theft Prevention Authority.
(ATPA) for making it a successful day.
Graffiti Removal
We have now completed three sessions of the coordinated
graffiti removal team. Clean ups happen every other Saturday
morning in selected parts of the city for this trial period
and we hope to make this a permanent effort.
Participants include our Public Works Department, the city
solid waste coordinator, along with county community service
workers.
I want to again remind the public that they need to report
graffiti by calling into our citizens services center at
1-877-727-3234 (1-877- PAREADING). Our public works department
continues to remove smaller instances of graffiti, and we
encourage homeowners and business owners to help by removing
graffiti as soon as it appears.
Crime Reduction Efforts
The month of May showed a continuing trend in reduction
of violent crime in the city and we will have a six-month
report for council in July. Work continues on getting the
RFP for the camera system in place for implementation scheduled
in the later part of this year.
I want to publicly thank the mayors of Allentown, Lancaster
and Scranton for their advice as they are somewhat ahead
of us in this effort. We will be sharing experiences with
each other as well as best practices as we all continue
to fight crime in our cities.
I also want to thank the owners of the convenience store
on Perkiomen Ave who installed security cameras following
a visit there that Councilwoman Hinnershitz and I did two
years ago. They were able to provide us with details surrounding
an incident that occurred there at the end of May which
resulted in a stabbing. It is one more example of the way
business and citizens can work together with the city to
share information and make the city safer.
Chief Heim and I have visited several businesses and residents
in the city to review first hand the situation in neighborhoods
and to spotlight problem properties. While there still remain
several active areas, we have been able to focus resources
in some of the more difficult areas so that we get additional
positive results. The chief reminds citizens to place a
call to the police when there is suspicious activity in
the neighborhood or when police intervention is necessary
to resolve disputes among neighbors.
An article in the paper on June 5 reported the increase
in violent crime in large cities along with the decrease
in total violent crime in several smaller cities. The report
rightly notes that the homicide rate in Reading fell from
24 in 2005 to 8 in 2006. But the number of people shot actually
rose from 48 in 2005 to 67 in 2006. Over the past three
weeks, there have been a number of shootings reported, shots
were fired on city streets, victims have been quickly transported
to hospitals and doctors have saved lives.
The shootings are being done with handguns, handguns that
when used by criminals kill and maim people and terrorize
neighborhoods. I applaud the group that has published billboards
to stop the shootings and to report illegal guns. We all
need to do more on education and enforcement, not only to
protect innocent people from this wanton behavior, but also
to protect our law enforcement officers who are working
to keep our streets safe.
Congratulations to the graduates of the Reading Police Academy
which I attended along with Linda Kelleher. We had the honor
to swear in two new officers to the force, Jason Freeman
and David Lehman who have already begun work with the RPD.
Welcome to the Reading Police Department.
City Activities
The Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Bike racing, Pro-Cycle
Tour, was a huge success again for the second year in the
city of Reading. We estimated that about 15,000 watched
along the race course. I want to thank all who participated
in the planning and execution of the event, all the volunteers
who helped along the way to help control intersections,
the vendors, and WEEU radio led by the General Manager Dave
Kline who arranged for six points of direct broadcast, and
the Reading Eagle Company which provided on-line coverage.
I also want to thank city staff, the police for all the
help with traffic, public works for an outstanding job of
cleaning the course, and Cindy Kaufman our events coordinator
working to tie it all together. When we work together as
a community, it is amazing the things we can do.
Events like this bring people to the city from all over
the country, and the event was web cast all over the world.
We need to showcase the city every chance we get as in the
long run, the image of the city as a great place to live,
work and raise families, will be greatly enhanced.
The Miller Center at Reading Area Community College has
opened to give us a preview of the one of the finest performing
arts centers in the state of Pennsylvania. While the official
grand opening ceremony is in September few months away,
members of the Greater Reading community were afforded the
opportunity to see a performance of a world class dance
group in the world class facility last weekend. This theatre
is a great asset to the community and is due to the generosity
of Marlin and Ginger Miller. We thank them again for their
help in the city.
Penns Commons and City Park
Construction of the new playground at City Park will be
completed by the end of this month and we invite all the
neighbors to come out and celebrate this great addition
to the city recreation system. My thanks to Mike Zuber who
really pulls this all together for us.
We met last week with member of the Penns Commons community
along with the landscape architect team who will be doing
the first phase of the master plan for city park. When sketches
are available, we will brief city council and the rest of
the Penns Commons group before beginning on the next phase
of detailed design. A separate study is underway to renovate
the pond at the bandshell. We asked the architect to also
look at the traffic flow around the park and see if some
improvements should be made to the access of the park.
In light of the vandalism of the benches that took place
at City Park, we reviewed the cost to repair the extensive
damage and decided to remove the rest of them. Our plan
for the band shell concerts is to provide chair seating
for each concert from the city inventory, and later on to
see what can be done with a more permanent solution as the
master plan is developed. Work also continues on the band
shell to have it in good shape for the first bandshell concert.
Pagoda
The pagoda coffee shop is now open on Friday, Saturday and
Sundays from 10am-4pm and we are attracting quite a good
number of visitors. Light refreshments are available along
with information on our city such as restaurants, arts and
culture, sports and shopping, along with the history of
the Pagoda. Following the report of the architects who are
working on the design, we will have meetings at the Pagoda
with city council and the public to get input as we prepare
for the 100th anniversary of the Pagoda next year. Improvements
suggested to be studied are better parking, refurbishing
of the concrete steps to the picnic area below, landscaping
and traffic calming by the Pagoda.
In response to a question about the view from the Pagoda,
I am attaching a copy of a photo that was made many years
ago showing the viewpoint from the Pagoda. We are advised
by a local historian that the city was neglectful in letting
the trees shroud the view over all these years. (attached
copy of Pagoda viewpoint).
Parades
The Armed Forces Day parade and the Memorial Day parade
fall within two weeks of each other. Turnout has become
increasingly sparse, especially for the Memorial Day parade
due to so many other municipal parades on the same day.
I personally do not believe we give sufficient honor and
respect to our military personnel with only a few people
viewing the parade.
I would like to suggest that city council, the administration
and parade organizers meet together to find appropriate
ways to carry out the remembrances next year. Rather than
a sparsely attended parade, perhaps a community educational
event or series of events would be more appropriate. I would
appreciate city council comments on this.
Lead Contamination at Bernhart Park
A couple of weeks ago, we held a meeting with EPA and Muhlenberg
Township officials, federal, state and local elected officials
including city council and the administration concerning
lead contamination from Exide plant operations as it affects
Bernhart Park.
The meeting was productive and we hope the spotlight on
this problem will lead to a well defined plan, to be either
accepted by or imposed upon Exide by EPA, to cleanup the
area so we can again have unrestricted use of the lake and
park.
Many members of council expressed their frustration, as
did the administration that it has taken far too long to
get to a resolution to this problem. A second meeting later
this summer has been scheduled to review progress with EPA.
I want to thank Councilman Waltman for conducting the meeting
and for clearly laying out the history of the contamination
by EXIDE of the area surrounding their plant north of the
city.
Economic Development
Many of us had the opportunity to participate in the ground
breaking last week for the new melt facility at Carpenter
Technology which will employ over 100 people. Congratulations
and welcome to the new CEO Anne Stevens who returns to her
roots here in Reading after a distinguished career in the
automobile industry. We are glad to have her back and we
appreciate the confidence that she and her board of directors
has in Reading to increase their investment in our city
and to provide needed jobs.
This positive development is especially important in light
of the Brookings Institution report at a recent presentation
here in Reading showing that the city ranked 280 out of
302 in economic well being. Our unemployment rate over the
last decade has averaged 9.2 percent at a time that Berks
Co was 3.6 percent.
Jennifer Vey, the researcher from Brookings said that states
need to look at their tax laws to help solve the structural
deficit of cities like Reading, but that local leaders need
to take an active role in revitalization. On a percentage
basis, we lost more jobs than any other city in Pennsylvania
over the study period.
We continue to dialog with existing companies like Hershey
whom a delegation visited three weeks ago in Hershey. The
recent announcement by ICI paints of potential reduction
in work force will also have a negative impact and we plan
to meet with representatives of ICI this week to explore
options. I want to thank Senator O’Pake for reaching
out to the Governors Action Team as well as the Berks Economic
Partnership and Greater Berks Development Fund for offering
to help find ways to reduce the economic impact on the city.
Miscellaneous
I had the opportunity earlier this month, to welcome the
Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers to Reading
for their statewide convention, the first one here in 50
years. We were glad to have them here, and I want to thank
Rick Aulenbach, P.E. the principal of RPA Associates for
organizing it and making sure they had a good convention
in Reading.
Congratulations to the graduating class of Accelerated Degree
Completion Program of Albright College for which I had the
privilege to deliver the commencement address this past
weekend.
It is a credit to all of them most of whom are in their
careers already, to go back and finish college or to work
on advanced degrees at the same time as working and raising
families.
I want to thank Councilman Dennis Sterner who joined me
at 10th and Penn Elementary School this month to induct
three fifth grades into the mayors litter control team.
60 students participated and we provide with school with
about a half dozen reach tools for the students to use to
help keep the area free from litter.
Councilman Sterner spoke to the students and conveyed inspirational
words to help them remember how important it is for them
to help make the city cleaner.
I want to remind senior citizens that the applications for
the 50% discount on the low income recycling rebate program
are due June 15 (This coming Friday). Applicants can go
to the city recycling office on the second floor of city
hall, or call the Citizen Services Center at 1-877-PAREADING
to receive an application. There are eligibility guidelines
that the people at the services center can explain to you.
Thanks to council staff for organizing the reception June
3 for members of boards, authorities and commissions. It
was very much appreciated by all who attended.
We are always looking for people to volunteer for open positions
on the city committees. Please call the council office at
610-655-6204 for an application. Open positions are available
by checking the city web site www.readingpa.gov
Crime Alert Berks County is offering rewards up to $5000
to report illegal dumping. We continue to have a problem
with illegal dumping and we encourage citizens to call our
Service Center or to contact Crime Alert at 1-877-373-9913
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