Park dedication honors Marcus Rosenberger
Rotarian was original ‘ice cream man’ at Sundaes in the Park concerts
Another part of Souderton Community Park is being dedicated to honor a person for years of public service.
SOUDERTON >> Another part of Souderton Community Park is being dedicated to honor a person for years of public service.
The namings come as the borough begins a multiyear plan to make renovations and changes to the park. Souderton-Telford Rotary is assisting in raising money for the work. Other organizations helping with the project include Concert Sundaes, Indian Valley Arts Foundation and Penn Valley Church.
In June, Souderton-Telford Rotary announced the clock section was being named in honor of former Souderton Mayor Charles H. Allebach, Jr., who was mayor from 1970 to 2007.
At the Aug. 4 Concert Sundaes in the park, Leon Moyer, the Rotary’s Park Project chair, said part of the park is being dedicated to Marcus Rosenberger. The exact section to be dedicated to Rosenberger will be decided next year after some of the new work is done, Moyer said.
Joined in the Maurice W. Foulke bandstand by borough officials and fellow-Rotarians, Moyer said Rosenberger has been involved in the bandshell since the mid-1980s when the bandshell was first planned. Rosenberger also has been part of the Concert Sundaes Committee since the beginning, Moyer said, and led the committee for 25 years. Concert Sundaes just completed its 32nd year.
Rosenberger has been a Rotary member for almost 50 years, since February of 1970, Moyer said.
“Marc Rosenberger has been a Rotarian following our motto — Service above self — and he has done it very well,” Moyer said.
Others, including the architect and builder, were at the core of the bandshell having been built, Rosenberger said.
“It was not me alone. It was everyone,” Rosenberger said, adding that all the people with him on the stage also were part of it.
Backstage following the presentation, Rosenberger said the bandstand was initially built for the borough’s centennial, after which Concert Sundaes was started.
“Actually, I started as the ice cream man on the committee,” he said about his Concert Sundaes involvement.
Rosenberger is part of the family that owned the former Rosenberger’s Dairies in Hatfield.
The original ice cream cart for Concert Sundaes is still being used, Rosenberger said.
A different local service club each week sells ice cream at Concert Sundaes as a fundraiser for the organization.
The Aug. 4 show was the final one this year in the 10-week Concert Sundaes schedule.
Rosenberger said he’s been to almost all the Concert Sundaes over the years.
“He was here every week this year,” his son, Jeff Rosenberger, said.
Jeff Rosenberger said he accompanies his father to the concerts.
“It’s community,” he said of Concert Sundaes.
Information on the park plans is available at the soudertonpark.org website.
At Souderton Borough Council’s Aug. 5 meeting, the board approved having documentation prepared for a $500,000 general obligation loan through Univest Bank and Trust Company to serve as interim financing for the park project.
The loan is for 10 years, but can be paid back early if contributions make that possible, Borough Manager Mike Coll said.
The interest rate for the first seven years of the loan is 3.4 percent, after which the rate resets based on the prime rate at the time, he said.