Township, school board mark completion of Pennbrook basins
Both boards tout project as ‘win, win, win, win’
North Penn School District and Upper Gwynedd Township officials spent part of Thursday afternoon outdoors, viewing and commemorating a long-discussed project that is finally complete.
School board members and township commissioners posed together for photos on the wooden walkway running along a newly constructed retention basin at Pennbrook Middle School.
“It’s a great project. It helps the neighbors, it helps the Wissahickon (Creek), it recharges the ground, it helps with stormwater (regulations) — it’s a win, win, win, win,” said Township Manager Len Perrone.
Starting in 2015, township and district officials have discussed, planned, and overseen the construction of three retention basins near the intersection of Hancock and North Wales roads: One basin sits on township property on a cul-de-sac on the east side of North Wales Road, a second on the school property between Hancock and school parking lots, and the third on North Wales Road south of the school’s driveway entrance.
Officials from both boards met at the southern basin Thursday afternoon, marking the formal completion of the joint project. The walkway has been built, final grading changes have been made, and extra plant material approved last month has now been planted.
“You work together, you hammer it out, and you get great results. This is just fantastic, this is the way it should be,” school board member John Schilling said.
Perrone said the goal of the basins was to address flooding in the area, but the project also will help the township meet state Department of Environmental Protection regulations for stormwater quality, which qualifies the project for two grant opportunities: $305,000 from DEP’s Growing Greener Watershed Protection program, and an additional $274,000 state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Watershed Restoration and Protection grant. Those two grants plus a $45,000 donation from Merck, helped fund nearly two-thirds of the total project costs, according to Perrone, who thanked the district, Merck, the two grant agencies, and PECO for their assistance and use of a right-of-way.
As they admired the basin and posed for group photos, North Penn Superintendent Curt Dietrich asked Perrone how the basins handled the heavy rains that swept through the area earlier in June, and Perrone said the neighbors who had frequently complained about flooding during heavy rains before the basins have been silent.
“I can tell you, we’ve gotten no downstream complaints since this was built. Not a single phone call,” Perrone said.
School board President Vince Sherpinsky said while teachers have not yet officially been able to show their students the basins, the long-term plan is for the vegetation planted in the basin to grow into flowers and attract wildlife that can be educational.
“We’re hoping in a few years, this is going to grow into flowers and a lot of other things. It really worked out well, and it shows you what can happen when local governments work together to solve problems,” Sherpinsky said. “We have the land, they had the need, we cooperated with them, and in the long run it worked out best for everybody. That’s what we hope for.”