Nearby municipalities plead for end to parties

Representatives of West Reading, Lower Alsace Township ask council for help with riverfront, mountaintop gatherings

The large and raucous gatherings at Reading’s mountaintop and riverfront recreation areas affect the quality of life for residents in neighboring municipalities, Ryan Lineaweaver, president of West Reading Borough Council, told City Council on Monday.

“We’ve been dealing with hours of deafening music, flowing unabated across the (Schuylkill) river and into West Reading and beyond, sometimes daily,” he said.

Lineaweaver’s pleas for help from city police and council were echoed by West Reading Councilman Philip Wert and Lower Alsace Township Manager Don Pottiger.

For years, the noise problem was concentrated in areas on Mount Penn, primarily in the vicinity of the Pagoda, Lineaweaver said, and residents of Lower Alsace and Mount Penn continue to suffer from the disturbances.

But since 2019, Riverfront Park, south of Reading Area Community College, also has become a popular destination for loud partying and picnicking.

The approximately 7-acre stretch, owned by the Reading Redevelopment Authority, draws hundreds on a typical weekend day, he said.

Lineaweaver said the music blares from the waterfront for hours, even on weekdays, and only stops when rain risks damaging the valuable stereo equipment, which he estimates can stretch up to 10 feet in width.

The problem, he said, has prompted numerous letters from borough residents, pleading with West Reading council members to do something.

Lineaweaver said the riverfront problem puts the futures of communities on both sides of the river at risk and affects their ability to attract new investment, new residents and new businesses.

“We’re not here to point fingers but to partner with the city,” he said. “I want to encourage that spirit of partnership as we move forward towards building a better relationship between our two communities.”

Lineaweaver said a meeting between the city and borough police chiefs has been scheduled for July.

“While we’re aware of the constraints currently endured by the city’s police department,” he said, “there has to be an answer to what amounts to the flippant disregard for the rule of law and the slow degradation of our residents’ quality of life.”

The two city police officers assigned to patrol the riverfront area Sunday night were overwhelmed by the hundreds of vehicles and people, Councilwoman Donna Reed said.

“There’s just no way they could effectively deal with that,” she said.

Numerous concerns

Lineaweaver applauded the efforts of Reed and City Councilman Chris Daubert, who met with members of the borough council to help form an action plan.

Daubert, who represents District 1, said he often hears the music from his home on the west side of the Schuylkill River, but he is more concerned about safety than noise.

“My honestly biggest concern is that someone is going to get hurt down there,” he said. “We have to get a handle on this. We have to work together as a body and

with our friends from West Reading.”

The hundreds of moving and parked cars, dirtbike racing and unregulated swimming in a swiftly moving body of water with no lifeguards add to a recipe for disaster, Lineaweaver said.

There also could be health issues related to potential contamination of the river.

“There’s contamination and radiation everywhere,” said the Rev. Evelyn Morrison, who also spoke. “So when those people who are in a beach front down at the river, when we educate them and let them know that they’re swimming in contaminated water, maybe, just maybe they won’t want to go there anymore.”

Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz said she would like to see the river water tested for bacteria levels and pollution.

“If they are toxic and contaminated, we need to start putting up signage that is warning people,” she said.

Wert said in addition to the issues raised by Lineaweaver, he is concerned about the effect the riverfront partying has on the award-winning regional bicycle trail that runs through Riverfront Park.

“I don’t know if we are looking at it as the gold star recreative asset that it really is,” he said, noting recreational amenities can attract tourists, residents, businesses and investments in the region.

Among Reading’s greatest assets are its valley location between two mountains and the river running through it, Goodman-Hinnershitz said, noting these natural areas must be properly managed.

The Mount Penn Preserve multi-municipal partnership among the county, city, Lower Alsace, Mount Penn and Lower Alsace Township is a good start, she said, but more needs to be done to protect the city’s natural resources and those who use them.

“The things that we wanted to have to attract tourism … they’re also attracting the wrong type of tourism,” she said.

The increased popularity of the riverfront site has done little to end the ruckus on the mountaintop.

A gate recently installed by the city at the Pagoda appears to have reduced the noise issue in that area, Pottiger said. However, he said, the problem simply migrated to the scenic overlook on Skyline Drive at List Road.

Pottiger spoke as a representative of the Lower Alsace supervisors, asking for city cooperation in addressing the problem.

“We all have a vested interest in our municipal borders,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. “And I believe that it is imperative to work together in solving these. We’re stronger if we work together.”