As The World Turns In Allentown

As politics go in the little league of Allentown, which is anything other than the Pawlowski machine, Kim Velez was reinstated this morning by Judge Michelle Varricchio. According to Bernie O'Hare, who attended the hearing, Brennan's story was weak, and the best he could ask for was that the judge wouldn't use the term duress in deciding what had transpired. Brennan did concede that he was working for Mike Fleck, who represents Pawlowski, Guridy and Moto among others. Ms. Velez accepted last place on the ballot, rather than press to have the ballot positions redrawn. I used the term little league because The Morning Call put Michael Donovan's mayoral announcement on page six of today's paper. As an independent, I was treated in such a second class fashion in 2005, but then there was both a Democrat and Republican running, and I was third man. Hopefully, Donovan will get better positioning as the campaign unfolds. O'Hare will write a more detailed account of the hearing later today.

The Allentown Arena Sideshow

Years ago, when the circus came to town, it had sideshows. The purpose of these attractions was to make sure that by the time you left the circus grounds, your pockets were empty of any spare cash. In a similar fashion, the politically correct term of Community Benefit is being used to extract even more tax dollars. The Community College is proudly going to be operating the job training program, connected with the arena complex. I don't know who they will be training for what, but it won't be the doctors for the sports medicine center, at least I hope not. It won't be the bankers for National Penn Headquarters. Maybe they could train their students to smoke cigarettes, and help Joe Topper extract more CHIP tax from Pennsylvania for his mortgage debt service. A recent article by the Philadelphia Inquirer noted the decrease in state funds going to CHIP, but the reporter apparently didn't realize that the difference is helping Allentown's chosen few.  Alan Jennings is extracting developer fees for his small business incubator division, despite the fact that 7th Street is apparently already 90% occupied. CUNA,  and the other well intentioned who requested Community Benefit,  inadvertently gave  license for these sideshows. If the powers that be really wanted to feature minority business people serving low income clientele, they would have left Hamilton Street as it was.

The WPA Walk At Lehigh Parkway

A Walk In The Park began at the spring pond, adjacent to the parking lot at Robin Hood. I explained how I prevailed upon the park watershed manager in 2010,, Mike Gilbert,  to uncover the stones surrounding the pond, and trim back the brush from the miniature bridge. Mike has retired, and unfortunately, once again the pond stones are being overgrown. The group traveled east, along the bridle path on the north side of the creek.
Frank Whelan took over the show at the historic lime kiln, explaining plans for a railroad line which never materialized, during the Civil War era. We proceeded down the path, and from the bank surveyed  the condition of the island. I pointed out the location of the former bridge, and the size of the man made island before being elongated by silt. Last stop on that side of the creek was the recovered portion of the Boat Landing, which I excavated in 2009 with help from what is now the Allentown WPA Association.

 We crossed over to the other side of the creek, and began our stroll back on the it's south side. Another historic kiln graces the path, opposite the island.

 Last stop on our tour was the impressive double stairwell.  Originally there was a spring and small pond included with the structure, which has been filled in a number of years ago. I assure you that there was more to the story at each stop. Please join us when we explore the next park.

photos by Karen El Chaar, Director-Friends Of Allentown Parks

The Fountain Park Flood Wall

Last week I used this photo in regard to the water lease controversy. It shows the rear of the Allentown water plant on Martin Luther King Drive. Although I identified the railroad track as part of the former Barber Quarry Spur route, a mystery remained. The rail line itself was on the south side of the Little Lehigh Creek. It would past Schreibers Bridge, and end up past Union Terrace, behind the present day Hamilton Family Dinner. An inquiry to Mark Rabenold, local train historian, was in order. Wow... that's a rare photo, indeed! What you have there is the remnant of the siding that used to cross a short trestle/bridge over the Little Lehigh creek and once serviced the city's water works. You're right in that it came off the Barber branch. According to Dave R. Latshaw's article on the Barber branch in the 1988 Proceedings of the Lehigh County Historical Society.

"Initially coal was unloaded from hopper cars standing on a siding located along the south bank of Little Lehigh Creek and was carried across the creek by donkeys pulling two-wheel carts over a bridge built by Col. Harry C. Trexler directly behind the pump station. In later years a conveyor operated by electricity hauled coal from cars spotted on branch track to storage bins at the pump station. Circa 1910, the water department constructed a railroad bridge from the branch to the pump station. This bridge allowed the movement of coal in hopper cars directly to the boiler house....In August 1936, because flooding of Little Lehigh creek on occasion threatened the pump station and filtration plant, municipal authorities approved construction of a flood wall along the creek's north bank. In addition, a pit was built to allow dumping coal between the tracks and a conveyor then lifted coal from the pit to a coal pile on the east side of the boiler house." "Because only one car could be dumped at a time, the branch train pushed a car loaded with pea coal to the dump pit at least twice per week." "Railroad service to the water department ended in the 1946-1947 era."

The wall, which still protects Fountain Park from flooding, was another project of the WPA.

The Price of Criticism

Being a watchman is not without cost. I would have little motivation to labour with this blog, six and seven days a week, if I had to consider local government and the press off limits. I had requested pre-event publicity about the Parkway WPA Tour from The Morning Call. I sent the request to five staff members, covering all pay grades of decision. Although I received no replies, the paper demonstrated that they had both the resources and space for coverage, if they so desired. On Thursday, they dispatched a photographer to the park. Friday's paper contained about a half page spread, with two large photographs of a women and her dogs. A large vertical caption elaborated about huskies and next week's weather. This is National History Month, as another feature in the paper pointed out. Allentown's new generation, and it's new residents, know little to nothing about the stone structures which are the signatures of our park system. Roosevelt, the depression, the New Deal, and the WPA might have some relevance during History Month. Today's WPA Tour didn't suffer from the paper's boycott of me, about 30 people attended. I suspect the paper will catch up on our WPA treasures, albeit minus myself. Allentown has just appointed a new park director. Let us hope he develops an interest in the treasures of Allentown.
UPDATE: I would like to express my gratitude to everybody who came out yesterday, to both support and learn about the WPA structures. I know that because of the nice weather and fishing season, parking was a challenge. I would also like to express my gratitude to Friends Of Allentown Parks, for adopting the WPA cause. I look forward in the future to conducting another such Discovery Walk. This coming fall we will conduct another Allentown WPA Association meeting, to which I hope to attract more converts. Again, thank you.

WPA Treasures Tour of Lehigh Parkway

It was said that in the two years, 1935=1937, fifty years worth of work was accomplished in the Allentown park system by the Works Progress Administration. Tomorrow morning, Saturday April 6th, in cooperation with Friends Of Allentown Parks, we begin the tour on the parking lot, just over the bridge, at 10:00a.m. A leisurely stroll on the bridle path, on both sides of the creek will cover six sites and take about one hour, ending back at the parking lot.