Hollo Road - The Saga Continues

** NOTICE ** Although there already is a disclaimer in the header at the top of this blog page, I need to expressly restate that fact. I want noone to mis-interpret that this rant is any way endorsed by, or is any official position of, the Borough of Tatamy. This rant is mine and mine alone. Now on with the story . . .

This afternoon I thought I'd drop a note to Bob Anckaitis, Palmer Township Manager, as a follow-up to our correspondence last week concerning opening the intersection of Hollo Road and ProLogis Parkway, with the hope that I would receive good news. Boy was I wrong.

In a previous post, I learned that Timm Tenges and the folks in Lower Nazareth Township required some sort of reassurances from Palmer Township that Palmer would assume responsibility for some future improvements that were required to support the projected increase in traffic as a result of some of the new construction going on in our area (Chrin project, Majestic, etc.). Palmer submitted to Lower Nazareth's engineering group everything that they asked for. It now appears that Lower Nazareth's Township Manager Timm Tenges is STILL not satisfied. Lower Nazareth is now requesting (perhaps bullying?) Palmer to enter into an intermunicipal agreement. What a crock. It's now painfully obvious to me that Mr. Tenges, and the Chairman of the Lower Nazareth Board of Supervisors Alan Dilsaver along with the rest of the Board of Supervisors don't care about the safety of the folks who risk their lives every time they want to turn left onto 248 from Hollo Road. I can't imagine what kind of intermunicipal agreement is required. Furthermore, I can't imagine why they won't take down the barricades while all this nonsense is worked out. I'm convinced that none of them use this road. If they did, they would know what pain in the you know what it is to try to get out. Nothing will be done until someone gets severely injured - or worse yet, killed.

Mr. Tenges - if you're reading this I would like to remind you and the rest of the Lower Nazareth Supervisors that you are most likely using public funds to signalize what amounts to be a private, dead-end roadway. May I suggest that until whatever beef you have with Palmer Township is worked out, that you turn off the traffic light. It's not doing anyone any good. I had to sit there the other evening - and thought why? Nobody was coming down ProLogis Parkway, but for whatever reason, the light turned red. Ridiculous.

I encourage all of my readers to launch an email/letter writing campaign to the officials in Lower Nazareth (their contact info is below). Explain to them the difficulty that we have trying to get onto Route 248. Explain to them the fact that the recently relocated Majestic plant brought with it a slew of vehicles, that, because ProLogis Parkway and an easy link to Route 248/33 isn't usable, they wind up clogging our roads making their way back to the Slate Belt. Remind them that they're most likely using public money to operate a traffic signal to control a private dead end road. Remind them that we're just plain fed up with their nonsense. I've already done so, and provided a link to this blog post.

Timm Tenges: manager@lowernazareth.com
Alan V. Dilsaver, Chairman: adilsaver@lowernazareth.com
Eric E. Nagle, Vice Chairman: enagle@lowernazareth.com
Ricky T. Johnson: rjohnson@lowernazareth.com
Robert S. Kucsan: rkucsan@lowernazareth.com
Patrick J. Murphy: pmurphy@lowernazareth.com

Lower Nazareth Township
306 Butztown Road
Bethlehem, PA 18020
610.759.7434

I have also forwarded copies of this post to my fellow bloggers, Ross Nunamaker (Nazareth News Over Coffee) and Bernie O'Hare (Lehigh Valley Ramblings), along with Joe Owens from The Express-Times with the hope that they too will post something on their sites to bring more attention to this matter.

Let's hope that this whole mess can be resolved sometime soon.

Hollo Road Update

Could it be possible that Hollo Road may be opening soon? I drove by there on my way to work this morning and the construction workers were moving the concrete barriers away from the new bridge over the Shoeneck (sp?) Creek and the "Road Closed" barricades at the corner of Hollo and Van Buren. Stay tuned . . .

** UPDATE ** 8/28/2008 10:10AM
I spoke with Palmer Township this morning. They indicated that their side still needs to be inspected, and they hope to have it open by the end of next week, or 9/5/2008. I'm still trying to get some information from Lower Nazareth, and will post something here if/when I hear anything.

Porsche Coming to Chrin Commerce Centre

Porsche announced last night at the Palmer Township Supervisors Meeting that they plan to build a 130,000 square foot facility in the Palmer Township section of the Chrin Commerce Centre. The building will also include a 15,000 square foot indoor test track for driving their latest vehicles and reviewing information with dealers. Formal plans will be submitted once Palmer Township rezones the area to allow projects such as this. Supervisors recommended 3-0 to send the recommended changes to the Planning Commission.

This facility will replace the planned Porsche facility that was proposed and approved along Newburg Road in Lower Nazareth Township. That deal fell through due to the large number of restrictions Lower Nazareth put on the industrial park.

While in Palmer, I believe that this is a huge win for the area overall. The Express Times has an article here. Stay tuned - I'm sure there will be more to follow.