Inclusivity Can Be All Wet

Prior to the current administration, the parking lot along Cedar Creek behind the swimming pool was closed off when flooding was anticipated.  The new administration felt that gates sent a  message of unwelcomeness, and they were ordered removed from various locations throughout the park system.  These gates had been installed over the years to prevent damage from flooding, or to allow for proper snow removal during winter storms. 

When I first learned of their removal last year, I was offended by the waste of infrastructure.  Now I realize that it is actually a public safety issue.

This blog in the past has been critical of the Tuerk Administration's wokeness and obsession with being inclusive.  While I have become less critical about the mayor's agenda,  I will not hesitate to speak out when appropriate. 

The flooded car shown above belonged to a couple who decided to take a long stroll in the rain. Unfortunately the creek rose faster than their return walk, but at least they didn't feel unwelcome.

A Walk In The Park

In Conjunction with Friends Of The Allentown Parks, I will be conducting a tour of Lehigh Parkway's WPA structures on Saturday, April 6th, at 10:00A.M. The walking survey will last approximately one hour, beginning and ending at the Robin Hood parking lot. I'm expecting local historian Frank Whelan to join me, so between us, any questions concerning the  history of the structures should be able to be answered. With this blogger's past, concerning park policy, this walk represents a leap of faith.  I hope soon to be able to announce that preservation of these irreplaceable icons has moved higher up on Allentown's priority list.

City Without Spending Limits

The Destination Dog Park plans are elaborate. Although the pony for each pooch is an exaggeration on my part, the plans are elaborate, never the less. The park would cost close to $One Million dollars when completed. Our former park director got to include the plan on his resume, even if pooch doesn't get to play there. Seems that the designers probably never actually walked around the area, by Dixon and Mack Blvd. If they had, they would have realized that the ground feels like a sponge; it is a wetland. Well, the important thing is de plane, the plan. The plan was paid for by the Trexler Trust, trust in Weitzel. The Forest Stewardship Plan was created after yours truly, this blogger, leaked that the Administration was planning on logging South Mountain. After The Morning Call appropriated the tip without attribution, Weitzel covered for Pawlowski, and we now have a stewardship plan. I also take credit for having the light posts removed from the Cedar Park paths plan; I suggested that they should be careful when changing the light bulbs in the flood plain.* Weitzel and his expensive plans are gone. In a recent letter to the editor, Friends Of The Parks President Karen El-Chaar, lamented his departure as the loss of a visionary.

* My archivist reminds me that Weitzel denied that lights were planned for the path on the west side of Ott St.  What was planned, and discarded partly because of my efforts,  was the plan to turn the stone house by the rose gardens into a cafe,  and built a wedding pavilion across the creek from the rose garden.

Ignoring The Blueprint

Back in the early 2000's, when Ed Pawlowski was Community Development Director for Mayor Roy Afflerbach, Trexler Trust suspended it's support for the Allentown park system. The yearly park grant was put into an escrow account. It had been discovered that the Trexler park grants were being diverted, and used for the general fund of city operation. To prevent that sort of misuse in the future, the Trexler Trust in 2005 commissioned a master plan for the park system, suggesting what sort of projects would be an appropriate use of their funds. The comprehensive plan, from a Philadelphia land use planner, took inventory of the entire park system, making recommendations for each separate park. It concluded that Cedar Park was being overused, loved to death. In the meantime, back at Tammany Hall, Ed Pawlowski ran for Mayor in 2005, with some of his closest advisors being Trexler Trustees. The Park and Recreation posts were combined, and a new director was hired. Greg Weitzel, with a graduate degree in recreation, was fresh from building a destination playground in Lewisburg. With Pawlowski and Company distracted with their Transformation Schemes, Weitzel commissioned more Destination plans, ignoring the expensive Trexler blueprint. When Weitzel, like Elvis, left the arena last week, he took with him plans for a destination water park at CedarBeach.  Had he stayed, we would be competing with Dorney Park.  The Trexler Trust remains under Pawlowski's influence, ignoring their own mandates.

Guarding The Parks

I never imagined that as a boy growing up in Lehigh Parkway, that 60 years later, I would have to spend my time defending the parks. Especially defending them against the Park Director and The Trexler Trust. Weitzel thanked the Trexler Trust in his departing statement last week. He left town for a new job, with his resume enhanced by all the plans we paid for. Pardon me, but I have been saying for years that he was building a resume at the expense of our treasured park system. His Water Park plan was so over the top, that even City Council asserted themselves, an exercise they hadn't performed in years. Supposedly, Trexler Trust, still subservient to Pawlowski, was prepared to fund this absurdity. How sad that Fountain Park Pool has been closed for several years over $160,000 worth of repairs, when we just spend $80,000 for the Swimming Toward The Future Presentation. That study claims that it will cost $4 million to renovate our existing pool system. I believe that they exaggerated that figure, to justify their proposed $11 million Water Kingdom. I have learned that Allentown is conducting a nationwide search for a new park director. We would be better served by someone already working in, and familiar with our park system. We had enough grandiose plans and projects in the last five years to last us for many decades to come.

Weitzel's Water World

Although other accounts of last nights meeting may indicate that the Swimming Toward The Future plan was drowned by City Council, it's DNA lives in the new resolution.  Council thinks that somehow, they must get something from the $80,000 study.  It was not done in vain; Weitzel used it as part of his resume to secure his new job in Idaho.  Mike Schlossberg wisely pointed out that a future Council may misconstrue the passing of even a  revised resolution as essentially approving the contents of the plan. The Council will be changing dramatically. Schlossberg will be going to Harrisburg, with Schweyer not far behind. Julio Guridy, and his protege Cynthia Mota, indicated pleasure with Weitzel's Water World.   Francis Dougherty is the mad scientist who will nurture the DNA, until which time the monster can be resurrected. Dougherty is both the former and current Managing Director of Allentown. During his first term, he is the one who brought Weitzel to Allentown.

The politicized Trexler Trust is still on board with Water World. Weitzel's plan was his most ambitious to date. The destination water park would fill the entire section of the park near the Ott and Hamilton Street intersection. That plan should be formally rejected.  A new plan should be created which simply indicates that Allentown will conform with ADA regulations, and strive to open and operate our five swimming pools in a clean and safe fashion.

both pictures from Swimming Towards The Future presentation

Swimming Toward The Future

This evening, City Council's Park and Recreation Committee will consider outgoing Park Director Greg Weitzel's plan for our swimming pools. The plan has a name, Swimming Toward The Future. Weitzel is racing toward his future, leaving the city in three days, for a new position in Idaho. Although I'm glad he can add this proposal to his resume, hopefully Allentown will not add the plan to our debt service. Weitzel spared no expense on his resume; The plan costs over $80,000 to present, prepared by a consultant from Indianapolis. It would cost close to $12million to implement. Among other things, it involves moving CedarBeach Pool up the slope, and adding a destination WaterPark. Tonight, the committee will be submitted to this Administration's usual push and pull politics. They will be told of a poll indicating the public wants this plan. They will be told that the Federal Government will fine us if it isn't implemented. The photograph above shows the dedication of the Irving Pool in 1941. Weitzel's plan includes closing that pool, the only one on the east side. Allentown should continue the tradition of providing it's children with clean, safe pools, in each section of the city. The meeting is at 6:00 p.m.

Weitzel's Expensive Catalogs

Although Greg Weitzel is leaving in 7 days, before he leaves, he is attempting to bully a compliant City Council into destroying our swimming pool system. Rather than simply build some ramps and railings to comply with new ADA regulations, like pools all over the country, Weitzel's plan* is to close 2 pools, and turn the other ones into water parks. Although CedarBeach Pool has served the city for 60 years, he wants to move it up the hill and add water park features. He wants to close Irving Pool, the only one on the east side, and turn the spot into a spray park. He wants to close Fountain Pool, which serves the inter city children, whose mothers don't have vans to drive them to CedarBeach. He spent $80,000 on a consultant from Indianapolis for these recommendations, which could have paid for the handicapped ramps at several of the pools. Let me be blunt. Before coming to Allentown, Weitzel built a destination playground in Lewisburg. He established a relationship with the manufactures of playground and water park equipment. Much of his accomplishments in Allentown were purchased from their catalogs. Allentown should wish him well, and have him take those catalogs with him.
 *Devon Lash/The Morning Call/May 3,2012
old postcard: Fountain Park Pool

The Gems of Allentown

The press release announcing Weitzel's departure, describes the combining of Allentown's Park and Recreation Departments as an accomplishment; It was of course a disaster. Weitzel, with a background in recreation, turned some of the parks into an overused playground, while completely ignoring others. The combining of the positions, while sacrificing the historical park system, saved the city no money;Pawlowski meanwhile created a host of new positions at the top level of his administration. Unfortunately, the traditional guardian and benefactor of the park system, the Trexler Trust, became dominated by Pawlowski sycophants. The current major plan for the park system's future centers on cycling, creating a network of interlinking paths between the parks. With the exception of myself and a few others, there are no defenders for the historical system, what were the Gems of Allentown. Pawlowski has politicized the parks, like everything else. The Friends of the Parks, are in reality, friends of Pawlowski. When I, with appreciated help, dug up the buried Boat Landing  in the Parkway, neither Pawlowski or Weitzel had known it ever existed, nor did they care. The Morning Call never ran a story on the subject; A WPA built structure buried for over 40 years by a former Park Director. Let us hope that Pawlowski now hires someone with some appreciation of our classic park system.

Park Director Departing

molovinsky on allentown has learned that park and recreation director Greg Weitzel is planning to move on to new pastures. Although only here for five years, the scar he leaves on the parks will last for decades. Trained as a recreation specialist, he had no feel for what was the gem of Allentown, our park system. Obsessed with cycling, he paved all the paths in CedarPark, and added an additional path across the previous open space. He then purchased exercise stations and other novelties for his newly paved roads. Meanwhile, the irreplaceable features of the park system were allowed to deteriorate; The WPA stone structures are in a perilous condition. These assaults against our heritage were enabled from the politicization of the Trexler Trust, the main benefactor of the park system. The Trust is dominated by Pawlowski confidant Malcolm Gross. Although not a dollar was spent on the WPA structures, the Malcolm Gross Memorial Rose Garden, named after his grandfather, was completely renovated. When Pawlowski departs Allentown, we will be encumbered with the arena, a $200million dollar white elephant. Weitzel is leaving us with crumbling infrastructure in the parks, but a grand cycling network, inter-connecting all the neglect in our parks. Pawlowski, preoccupied and consumed with the arena project, and opposition to it, might appoint park superintendent Rick Holtzman as Weitzel's replacement. Expect The Morning Call to verify this story by Wednesday, but once again fail to credit this blog.
UPDATE:  Both Devon Lash of The Morning Call and Colin McEvoy of the Express Times reported  Monday afternoon, at the exact same time, 2:53pm,  that Weitzel is resigning.
Official Allentown Announcement

State Of The Parks

The Park Master Plan, done by a Philadelphia planning firm, and commissioned by the Trexler Trust in 2005, concluded that Cedar Park was being loved to death. Since then, construction and activity in that park has at least doubled. The mega destination playground attracts hundreds of children whenever schools out. The parking lot for the swimming pool is filled with cars for the playground. This summer, pool patrons will be forced to park on the grass. All the paths on the rose garden side of Ott Street have been paved, and a new path constructed across the former open space between the garden and picnic pavilions. Also, a new water line has been laid through that section to feed the demands of western Lehigh County, while the waste return will flow along side the Little Lehigh Creek, through Lehigh Parkway. The parks are just plumbing for the county and recreation for the city. In the Parkway, the entrance road has been made one way, and one side of the bridle path closed, because of the leaning WPA wall. Although $millions of dollars have been spent on over-using Cedar Park, not one cent was spent on maintaining the iconic WPA stone structures. In addition to the wall problem in the Parkway, the steps and pillars at Union Terrace are structurally endangered. While the park department goes ahead with plans to connect the various parks with more bike paths, the WPA steps at fountain park are deteriorating. Welcome to Allentown, where community, infrastructure and history are all ignored, while new projects are planned.

A Failure To Prioritize

In a recent Morning Call article, about making the entrance road into Lehigh Parkway one way because of a leaning WPA wall, the City defended itself citing priorities. That's exactly the problem in Allentown, misplaced priorities. While the irreplaceable WPA icons have been allowed to crumble, we have macadamized every walking path in Cedar Park. While we concentrate on a new bridge over the Lehigh River for the American Parkway, we allowed the 15th Street Bridge to rust away. Now, because the 15th Bridge is half closed, the historic Schreibers Bridge is being damaged by intensive traffic and heavy trucks. An article in yesterday's Morning Call concerns Allentown possibly overcharging the suburbs for sewage. The article fails to mention that both the City and The Lehigh County Authority have been cited for sewage overflow into the Little Lehigh Creek. and mandated by the DEP to upgrade the system. Both political entities concern themselves with expansion and cash flow while ignoring infrastructure and our quality of life; A failure to prioritize.