It's Not Enough To Just Campaign

It's not enough to just campaign for an office, you must work and advocate for those things that are important for the district's future. Please sign the petition to save Wehr's Dam, in Covered Bridge Park. The petition can be found on my facebook page, thank you.

Translating Molovinsky

My WPA walk this weekend was held in conjunction with Friends of the Allentown Parks, a city affiliated organization. Although I could organize and publicize the walks without Friends, we have a mutual interest. It's director, Karen El-Chaar, appreciates my knowledge and advocacy for the WPA, and I appreciate her potential influence to move the stone structures to a higher priority in the city's budget. This year, as we moved from site to site on the tour, I was rather blunt about the city's failure to maintain or appreciate the various structures. On each occasion, Karen politely rephrased my words more diplomatically. By the end of the tour, I was referring to her as my translator.

A Rewarding Weekend

molovinsky on allentown had a rewarding weekend. Pride badge number 1 is my pleasure to announce that the young woman who was bullied, and consequently lost her chance to achieve membership in the National Junior Honor Society, is now a member. Because of the girl's tenacity, and her mother's unwavering support, they did finally prevail upon the school system to revisit her tests for that marking period. Needless to say that girl aced them, and now has her certificate, truly earned under adverse circumstances.

Several years ago on this blog I printed excerpts from a 1920 journal, on a very long shot that some details might be heard out in cyberspace, and resonate with someone. Long and behold, out of nowhere, came a reply this weekend.

On Saturday I once again had the pleasure of showing a new group the former WPA structures in Lehigh Parkway. It remains a shame that the park department doesn't recognize the treasures with which it was blessed between 1935-1937.

Special Invitation To South Whitehall Commissioners

I'd like to especially invite the South Whitehall Board of Commissioners to my WPA tour tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, it's mostly a tour and history lesson about wonderful structures which previous park directors and officials allowed to be destroyed or filled in, for someone else's agenda. Tomorrow's tour is a repeat of the tour I gave last year, minus one feature. Last summer the Wildlands Conservancy gave the exact speech to Allentown City Council, which was used again on you this past Wednesday. Although the companion dam for the Parkway's WPA bridge was only 14 inches tall, demolishing it reaped the Conservancy a sizable grant, and administrative fees used for their salaries. The tour starts at the Robin Hood Bridge Parking Lot at 1:00pm, Saturday June 7, and ends up back there, in less than an hour.

photocredit: Wehr Dam by Gregg Obst

Endangered Site's Tour

On Saturday afternoon, at 1:00pm, I will lead the endangered WPA Site's Tour. The dam shown above, will not be on the tour this year. It has joined several other previous gifts by the WPA to the City of Allentown, which have been either discarded or destroyed. The tour takes less than an hour, and is a leisurely stroll along the creek, starting and ending at the Robin Hood Bridge parking lot.

The Park's Poor Priorities

About five years ago I started advocating for the WPA structures throughout the Allentown park system. Three years ago I organized a group which surveyed the structures in all the parks. At that time, I published a picture of the top wall at the Union Terrace Stairwell, on St. Elmo Street, which showed one stone missing. In the last two years, as you can see from the current picture, several more stones came loose, and mortar is missing from entire stone cap of the structure. In these past five years not one cent has been spent on the stoneworks. Two expensive patterned concrete walkways have just been completed on Trexler Blvd, leading from the west end to Cedar Park. The new park director, John Mikowychok, informs me that about $30 thousand has been allocated to repairs on the Fountain Park Stairwell. Unfortunately, over half the funds will be used for a consulting engineer. Needless to say, the park would be better off with all the money used for a stone mason. No disrespect to the engineer, but these structures are way beyond his paygrade; Just fix the things like they were.

This Saturday at 1:00pm, I will lead a tour of the WPA Structures in Lehigh Parkway. This is a repeat of last year's tour. I hope some city officials take the opportunity to join us and learn about these irreplaceable structures, with which they have been entrusted.