Spring Township Backs Harvard Blvd Rebuild, Wins $1M Grant

Spring Township's supervisors have backed a staff plan to tear up and rebuild Harvard Boulevard, moving the curbs in 2 feet on each side, a change the engineering director said would discourage speeding, and will explain the plan to the people who live there at a town hall on Nov. 30 at 6 p.m., according to the minutes of the supervisors' Sept. 25 Vision Meeting. The same minutes confirm a state Green Light-Go grant of just over $1 million to modernize traffic signals, which PennDOT's Aug. 4 award list spreads across 28 intersections, most along Shillington, Paper Mill, State Hill and Broadcasting roads.

Those minutes and the minutes of the Sept. 28 budget and regular meeting were posted Oct. 14 as scanned images, not text, so they cannot be searched or copied. Neither file is marked approved; the board was scheduled to approve both sets of minutes on Oct. 13, so the record could still change.

Harvard Boulevard

Director of Engineering and Planning Jason Reichert told the board Sept. 25 that the street needs a new roadway, curbs and sidewalk repairs, and that staff recommend a full reconstruction with curbs brought in 2 feet on both sides. The current cartway, the paved width from curb to curb, is 40 feet; he said a typical cartway is 33 feet, and a wider road encourages speeding and is more road to maintain. Moving each curb in 2 feet would leave 36 feet.

Staff recommended the township pay for the new curbs because it is the one moving the road. Each resident's planting strip grows by 2 feet, which the township will backfill and seed; after that, residents maintain the strip and their curbs, and property owners must fix sidewalks that need repair. Driveway aprons will have to be extended, storm drains will be moved and more storm features added, and the minutes note that trees are not permitted in the grass strip. The minutes say costs were discussed, including a grant the township received, but record no dollar figure. The minutes record that the board agreed with the recommendation; there was no motion or vote, and the minutes record no contract, cost estimate or budget figure.

The signal grant

The Vision minutes put the Green-Light-Go award at $1,026,617 with a 20 percent match of $257,154. PennDOT's award list gives a slightly different figure, $1,028,616.62; the township's match works out to 20 percent of grant and match combined using PennDOT's number. The list includes six Shillington Road intersections, three on Van Reed Road, and the Paper Mill, Broadcasting and State Hill Road corridors around the Broadcast District. The minutes file the grant under "intersection improvements and pre-emptive devices," the equipment that lets emergency vehicles trigger a green light.

The 2026 roadwork program is substantially complete at just under $1,275,000, the minutes say.

A trash ordinance with no posted text

On Sept. 28 the board adopted Ordinance 477, listed only as "Trash & Recycling Ordinance Revision," which the minutes say had been advertised. The minutes do not say what the revision changes, and as of Oct. 15 the township's ordinances page does not post it; the garbage and recycling chapter there still cites Ordinance 364 from 2008. Residents who want to know what changed will have to ask the township office, 610-678-5393.

The ordinance passed inside one roll-call vote on all 10 action items, which also:

• Approved bills of $314,399.59 from the general fund, $109,276.61 from the refuse tax fund, $148,527.43 from the Sewer District #3 fund, $128,555.89 from the capital fund and $21,527.19 from fire protection, plus smaller street-lighting and fire-hydrant fund payments. Supervisor George Stuck abstained on two checks and voted no on a third, Supervisor Michael Wertz abstained on the fire fund payment, and Supervisor Lauren Robertson abstained on one check; the minutes do not say what those checks paid for.
• Set the 2027 pension MMOs at $2,355,000. An MMO, or minimum municipal obligation, is the amount state law requires a municipality to put into its employee pension plans each year.
• Kept the 2027 summer playground program in-house with a $10 increase in registration fees.
• Approved a conditional offer of employment to Tracy Howell as full-time Recreation Program Coordinator at a starting salary of $63,000, approved a sewage-planning resolution for Lot 1 of the Reserve at Iroquois, and engaged Entech Engineering to start a work order for a garage addition.

The budget session itself was short: Township Manager John Groller reviewed past budgets, expected spending and 2027 department requests. The minutes record no totals and no proposed tax rate.

Other business

• The board accepted the Wilson Junior Soccer Club's late public-gathering permit for its Oct. 10-11 tournament, 4-0-1, with Chairperson Jesse Royer abstaining, and in a second 4-0-1 vote allowed the permit to issue only if all requirements were met and fees paid by Oct. 7; the board also had the permit revised to bar food trucks unless the vendors met the township's requirements by that date.
• After a resident's letter about speeding on Montello Road, staff will install oversized speed-limit signs there. Fire Chief Colin Hackman said Sinking Spring's new speed humps slow emergency trucks.
• Public Works Director Craig Conrad said ground-penetrating radar and seismic surveys of the Albert Drive sinkhole are done and results are due within about two weeks.
• Reichert asked for authorization to sign sewer documents with Cumru Township, mainly for the Gring's Hill Section 5 development, pending the solicitor's review; the minutes record no vote on the request. The board also received a communication from PennDOT's District 5-0 (the minutes write "District #50") about the Dwight Street Bridge that the minutes do not describe.

The Vision Meeting produced ideas rather than votes: solar panels on township buildings, electric light-duty vehicles, food trucks and a redevelopment subcommittee for Penn Avenue, bike lanes, and making Dwight and Howard streets one-way in opposite directions. Reichert said the final draft of the township's data-center ordinance has gone to the Planning Commission and the county, with a public hearing before adoption; see our Berks data-center tracker.

What happens next

The Sept. 28 minutes say the next meeting is Oct. 13 at 5:30 p.m. (the minutes call the date a Monday; Oct. 13 fell on a Tuesday), and the township's Oct. 13 agenda gives that same time and lists the next budget and regular meeting for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26. The board page lists a further budget and regular meeting Nov. 9 without a time; its standing line says regular meetings are the second and fourth Mondays at 7 p.m., so check the agenda for the start time. The Harvard Boulevard town hall is Nov. 30 at 6 p.m.; the minutes do not give a location. Our guide explains how to find any Berks municipality's meeting schedule.