Tag: Trail Town

Ranking projects for Pottstown’s Heritage Action Plan

For those who have been following the development of Pottstown’s Heritage Action Plan or HAP, it’s time to rank the various projects and strategies that have surfaced. These rankings will determine the initial priorities for funding and completion.

To bring everyone up to speed… With funding from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Tom Carroll and I have been leading a cross-section of the community through a Heritage Action planning process on behalf of the Borough. The purpose is to produce a plan with a vision and marketing strategy around our heritage resources – arts, culture, history and recreation – so that we can entice hikers and bikers off the Schuylkill River Trail and into the downtown. We have identified our resources and ranked them, and are now at the point of prioritizing projects and strategies for the $25,000 we hope to receive in implementation funding from the SRHA in the coming months.

Anyone can be a participating partner! We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who care about the revitalization of Pottstown’s downtown. Here’s how to participate in the ranking:

Attached is a TRAIL TOWN COMPONENT RANKING  spreadsheet. If you have a few minutes over the next few days, please follow the instructions below and return your rankings by next Wednesday, May 11th to ptownHAP@gmail.com.

1.       Click on the link above to open the file.
2.       Rename file, adding your name, e.g. “Repkotrailtowncomponentranking.xlsx”
3.       Rank each component on a scale of 1 to 10; 1 being extremely important to 10, not important.
4.       In the suggested location column, add a suggested location if you are so inclined; i.e. “Bike Lane Striping” Suggestion: “Add bike lanes to Evans and Franklin Streets; connecting the North End to the Downtown”
5.       Return the completed ranking form as an attachment in .xlsx or .xls (EXCEL) format by Wednesday, May 11th to ptownHAP@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance for your input and ideas!

If you want to learn more, you can find previous blog posts and discussions here:
https://positivelypottstown.wordpress.com/category/trail-towns-tours/ or check out Pottstown Heritage Action Plan on Facebook.

Heritage Action Plan assesses resources & linkages

This past Monday, about a dozen members of the Heritage Action Plan working group gathered at the Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce to review the results of a recent listing and ranking of Pottstown’s heritage resources.  

The map below – created by Tom Carroll – shows the clusters of historical, arts, cultural, dining and recreational resources in and around the downtown. Some highly-ranked resources received “poor” ratings for physical condition.  It’s important to keep in mind that highly-valued resources, perceived to be in poor condition, may be excellent candidates for money or attention to draw the most benefit from them in our promotional efforts.

The map also listed major annual or seasonal events hosted in/by Pottstown every year. When these events are shown by the month in which they occur, it becomes apparent that the Borough and various other organizations are holding major events that draw visitors from throughout the region 8 months out of the year. Coordinating & enhancing promotion with downtown merchants and PDIDA could be one of several recommended strategies in the HAP. Creating additional events to fill in the other months would lead to a full year of “hometown celebration” programming.

As the working group moves toward defining Pottstown’s heritage marketing strategy and branding, history and the arts emerged as themes to pursue. Here were several comments/suggestions:

  • Start giving Historic Walking Tours on First Saturdays, led by MCCC students.
  • Consider giving Cemetery Tours, esp. for John Potts Cemetery, which is now not open to the public, and for Edgewood Cemetery. Coordinate with Pottsgrove Manor.
  • Look into creating a Historic Church Tour; several churches were highly-ranked.
  • Use banners (inexpensive) to designate High St. as an “Avenue of the Arts.”
  • Use banners to generate excitement & direct visitors to downtown. Add color! 
  • Coordinate with PDIDA & downtown merchants.

The group briefly talked about tourism/hospitality amenities that are lacking or need improvement. Safety and cleanliness had been concerns in our first large group meeting back in March. 

  • High school students will be cleaning up the downtown on the April 30 Clean-Up Day, and this should be the beginning of more frequent clean-ups downtown by student volunteers.
  • Need to do a better job of tapping volunteers in the community.
  • Involve high school students in creating marketing materials.
  • Need signage, banners, kiosks to get Trail users into the downtown – still must decide how many, what goes on them, where to place them and prioritize list.
  • Need more occupied storefronts, esp. creative-related, for critical mass to attract trail users.
  • Will need lodging for overnight visitors when Trail is complete.
  • Consider a winter carnival in February.
  • HAP partners must continue to have conversations & coordinate with County & PennDOT regarding road projects and trail linkages.
As one participant noted: “This is exactly what the ULI report was talking about.”
We expect to have another large group meeting in the next couple weeks as we solicit more input on a vision statement, marketing strategies, and trail town components like signs, kiosks and connecting paths. The public is invited to join in here or by emailing PtownHAP@gmail.com.


Schuylkill Highlands holding open house for economic development plan

The Schuylkill Highlands is one of seven “Conservation Landscape Initiative” regions in the state of Pennsylvania. It’s a place that includes the Schuylkill River watershed; it’s also a collaboration of people and partners who want to preserve the landscape and promote sustainable economic development.

The Schuylkill Highlands is holding an open house tomorrow from 4-6 pm at Morlatton Village and everyone is invited. See The Mercury’s articlehere.

The open house will showcase the findings, outcomes and recommendations for The Compatible Economic Development Plan: Valley Forge to Reading and The Hopewell Big Woods.

Carter van Dyke & Assoc., Campbell Thomas & Assoc., Susan Huffman along with the Task Force will exhibit their findings on:

– Place -Based Tourism recommendations
– What types of businesses are needed and where
– What types of infrastructure improvements are needed and where
– Next steps to enhance the visitor experience, encourage economic development in this region and preserve our natural, cultural and historic resources
– Next steps to plan for the influx of visitorship to our gateways and river towns as the Schuylkill River Trail is completed.

Pottstown’s Heritage Action Plan, which is in the process of being formulated by a wide range of local Partners, is one piece of the larger, regional heritage tourism/economic development puzzle. I’ll be there tomorrow and hope a few faithful readers and Heritage Action team members from Pottstown can get there, too!

When: Thursday, March 31, 4-6 pm. Come and go as you please.
Location: White Horse Inn, Morlatton Village, 31 Old Philadelphia Pike, Douglassville, PA 19518

Sunshine Day!

If you haven’t noticed – it’s a GORGEOUS day! This morning, after doing a yoga pose for a Team Tri-County for a Cure video down by the river, I took a jog along the Schuylkill River Trail, and it was just wonderful.

Give yourself some time to cut out of work early and get on the trail or into a local park or just out on the street on your bike. This is one of those gifts from above that you don’t want to miss!

And afterward, stop by the Tri-County Performing Arts Center for the Positively!Pottstown Happy Hour. It runs from 5-7:30 pm; the $5 cover gets you appetizers from Juan Carlos Fine Mexican Cuisine, cookies from Company Cakes and complimentary beverages. Then get your tickets and stay for The Crucible at 8!

And now, a fond remembrance for this beautiful day…

Creating public art through local partnerships

I just had to share this link to the website of Olde Town Grove City, PA. I got it from Stephanie Dittrich Conlon; she’s the creator of Community Buzz, which covers Berks County towns. Thanks, Stephanie!

It’s a great example of a bunch of local partners coming together to create public art around a parking signage project. It involves students from a residential treatment community, the borough’s Design Committee, the school district, an artist-in-residence, ArtsErie and other arts funders, Interstate Machine and Fabrication, Canadian National Railroad, Tower Presbyterian Church and the Borough of Grove City, among others.

Pottstown is now creating a Heritage Action Plan that will include similar partnerships to come up with a vision, goals and objectives to draw visitors from the Schuylkill River Trail to its downtown. Check out the Pottstown Heritage Action Plan page at Facebook and join the conversation!

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