Commissioners approve resolutions for area projects
Resolutions for land acquisition in Lower Frederick and construction projects in Norristown and Pottstown were on the agenda at Thursday’s Montgomery County Commissioner’s meeting.
The motion to approve the acquisition of land in Lower Frederick for open space preservation carried Thursday at the Montgomery County Commissioners meeting after a brief presentation on the land by Jody Holton. The area in question is located in the western part of the county in the Swamp Creek corridor of the township next to the Sunrise Mill property and consists of 5.91 acres. Commissioners approved the resolution to purchase the land for a total of $125,000 for the purposes of preservation.
“It expands our Sunrise Mill Park property and will facilitate a trail from our Sunrise Mill property to the Stone Hill Preserve,” said Holton.
The land is aligned with recommendations from the Open Space Board and the County Parks, Trails and Historic Sites Advisory Board.
Commissioners also authorized a no-cost time extension for engineering services related to work on the Keim Street Bridge in Pottstown. Matt Edmond, section chief of transportation planning for Montgomery County, said the extension is needed after Traffic Planning and Design’s contract with the county ended last week.
“The project is taking a long time, unfortunately, to get through the section 106 consulting parties process. That’s a federal and environmental review process that involves public input and public outreach and is a requirement. Unfortunately it’s just taking longer than everybody expected,” said Edmond. “Even though the project is almost through the process, it’s still not quite there yet and therefore, a no-cost time extension letter is needed to prevent the TPD contract from expiring moving forward.”
Traffic Planning and Design requested the contract extend through June 30, 2019, to ensure that they get through all of the preliminary engineering.
Edmond also discussed the ongoing construction on LaFayette Street in Norristown.
The resolution approved by commissioners Thursday involved the authorization of a supplemental engineering agreement with Gannett Fleming for the third phase of the Lafayette Street extension project. The Lafayette Street Extension Project is an effort to improve highway access and mobility into downtown Norristown and Plymouth Township.
“We have part of LaFayette Street under detour currently. It’s been that way for a couple of months. The contractors have been working on the south side of the road but they’ve really been focusing their efforts on east of Dekalb Street,” explained Edmond about the project. “Most of the summer was spent rebuilding a culvert that exists ... Our contractor ripped the entire thing out and rebuilt it with a brand new culvert structure and that’s taken up most of the summer. That work should be winding down here in the next month.”
The total cost of the supplement is $75,354.13. The contract was also extended through June 30, 2020 to ensure it runs through to the end of construction.
Commissioners also approved Amanda Human to the Montgomery County Aging and Adult Services Advisory Council as well as Dr. Whan Soon Chung to the Montgomery County Drug and Alcohol Planning Council as a health care professional representative. Hakim Jones and Peggy Ann Scott were also approved for appointment to the Montgomery County Citizen Advisory Committee for the Office of Children and Youth.
Additionally, the meeting included the announcement of September as Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month and an introduction to Montgomery County’s Suicide Prevention Task Force.
“We have a really incredible task force in this county ... What we want our task force to do is not just be ideas that come down from the county office and say ‘this is what we’re going to do.’ We want community members to say ‘this is important to me and somebody help me make this something that I bring back to my neighbors, loved ones and friends,’” said Anna Trout. “All you have to do is be a human being that wants to help other people, and boom, you can be on our task force.”
The Montgomery County Suicide Prevention Task Force offers free and low cost training for any group. Suicide prevention training sessions are planned at the end of the month in Royersford and next week in Conshohocken.