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| Parkesburg Borough Council President Mel Keen updates members of the the Octorara Regional Planning Commission on the Borough's West Bridge Street and train station projects. |
Notes from last night’s Octorara Regional Planning
Commission:
Parkesburg Borough Council President Mel Keen spoke about
PennDot’s plan to upgrade the train station including the following points:
- The
advantages of placing the station east of Culvert Street between Culvert and
Route 10. The advantages of the new
location are 1) the availability of open space on both sides of the track for
future parking lots 2) the possibility of building a pedestrian path over/under
the tracks linking the town’s two business districts.
- There are
no road blocks standing in the way of this getting done.
- The
tracks and signaling have all been upgraded.
- A fence
preventing pedestrians from walking across the tracks will run from one end of
the borough to the other is planned.
- The
project is being funding by the stimulus money turned down by Florida.
- PennDOT
and Amtrak are developing designs and will come back to the borough with their
ideas toward the end of the year. Three
different location scenarios are being considered. They’re taking all the information of the
three scenarios doing engineering and coming up with renderings for all three
options.
West Bridge Street – Moving forward slowly. We’ve done everything we need to do. PennDOT is working to get the last part of
their part of the program done.
Coatesville and Downingtown train stations will be upgraded
as well.
The velodrome in Coatesville is expected to have a big
impact on local businesses. The Chester
County Economic Development Council offered to do a presentation of the
expected impact for Parkesburg Borough Council.
The idea of a Parkesburg Bypass from Route 10 to the
industrial park west of Parkesburg similar to the one built around Strasburg
several years ago was discussed. The
idea isn’t realistic because the road would require a bridge over the train
tracks.
Representative John Lawrence spoke about Tastykake being
bought out by a company in Georgia.
Company will keep the plant in Oxford open. Dansko is expanding. Nottingham Inn property bought by Herr’s, who
is doing a 100% refurbishing of the building.
As we’re trying to draw businesses to our neck of the words
the two areas we want to focus on are 372 and Route 1. The train station and the 30 bypass together
with the 372 industrial park make this area attractive.
Larry Lavenberg, Vice President of Atglen Borough Council,
spoke about Atglen’s efforts to upgrade their water plant and the planned
SEPTA feasibility Study.
