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Local Artist Ed Terrell brings 3D Street Art to Reading

When Ed Terrell looks at the streets of Reading he doesn’t see broken up pavement or overgrown weeds, he sees an opportunity to inspire. In his new venture, Ed has adopted a portion of the Spring Street sidewalk in front of the Center Park Art Gallery to display his 3D art.

With a little over a week in the making, Ed and Center Park Art Gallery Curator Donald Thomas have spent the past days and nights painting and managing the site. Donald told us he was looking for something to wow people as they drive by, hoping to inspire residents to stop and view more of his outdoor art gallery. The outdoor art gallery faces Pear Street where residents and community members alike are encouraged to walk through.

Donald’s plans are to eventually wrap the sidewalk down Pear Street (to the end of the property line) with 3D sidewalk art. The goal is to collaborate with other local artists to combine Ed’s work with the rest of the side walk creating one long piece of art.

While onsite, we found several local residents taking notice of the changing sidewalk. Those who walked up were very interested asking questions and taking photos. Although its not completely finished, both Ed and Donald were more than happy to pose and take photos with people crossing the wooden rope bridge.

Located at the intersection of Spring and Pear Street we highly recommend you visit this unique piece of outdoor art. While your their, don’t forget to get your picture crossing over the wooden rope bridge too. We’d love to see it, use the hashtag #rdg3dart to share.

Reading Branch NAACP Tours Berks 911 Operations Center

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Members of the Reading Branch NAACP visited the Berk County 911 Operations Center to learn about the infrastructure that keeps the community safe. Stacey Taylor, President of the Reading NAACP lead the group, which started with a presentation by Brian Gottschall, Director of Emergency Services, followed by a tour of the dispatch floor by Senior Watch Officer Todd Boughter.

“I’ll never take 911 for granted” said Taylor. That was the reaction from the group as they walked through the dispatch floor. The disbelief is typical as very few Berks residents take an interest in how the 911 system functions.

For example, the dispatch center handles administrative calls for a few local police departments during their off hours, Todd Boughter mentions that residents have called in from time to time asking for a specific officer or detective.

Believing they are calling the police station callers are sometimes surprised to find out they are calling the operations center instead of their local station.

A few statistics from the night

  • 100 Full Time & 40 Part Time Employees work for Berks Emergency Services.
  • 22 Physical Operating Site including 10 Vehicle Response Teams.
  • Services 410,000+ Residents (6th largest in PA).
  • Call Center Receives 1750 calls per 24 hour period. Average of 75 per hour.
  • 99.58% of all calls are answered within 10 seconds or less.
  • Dispatchers work on 12 hour shifts rotating throughout the week.

9 Years of Run4Sam with Peggy Reed

The 9th Annual Run4Sam 10k, 4 mile run and 2 mile walk will take place on August 21, 2016 at Gring’s Mill Park in Wyomissing. The race honors the memory of Samuel Brooklyn Reed, a former Schuylkill Valley High School cross country runner whose life was taken September 1, 2007 by a hit and run, drunk driver while he was attending the University of Pittsburgh.

Over the past 9 years thousands have visited Grings Mill Park. Running the trails, fishing and admiring the landscape are just a few of the activities people enjoy on a daily basis. Walking through the park, most people may not recognize Peggy Reed. However, her dedication to improving Grings Mill to honor her sons memory has had a lasting impact on the community.

Peggy donates the profits from the Run4Sam race back to the park. Over the years she has funded everything from a Riparian Buffer along the creek, AED’s for the Park Rangers and most recently the 24 foot pavilion.

Her work isn’t done, future projects include installing a dock upstream from the dam for boaters to exit the water without walking through the weeds and trees.

Team Skyline Gears up for the Reading 120 Bike Race

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With the Reading 120 Bike Race right around the corner we caught up with professional cyclist David Dawson and Team Skyline at Skyline Bike Shop as they prepare for the grueling 120 mile course passing through Oley, Kuztown and the City of Reading.

You never know what the weather is going to be on race day. With the first year of the Reading 120 being a wash out the team is obviously looking forward to better weather this September. Using their “home field advantage” helped them navigate the roads but David says they are defiantly looking to improve on last years time.

“They’re great roads, but when you throw a thunderstorm in the mix, its bound to take the best guys and put them on the ground” said David Dawson.

Saturdays training wasn’t without trouble, during the 3 hour ride the team had a few unexpected stops. Early on near Oley the team stopped on the side of the road to fix a broken chain. Impressively, they were able to detach and repair the chain link in a matter of minutes. Continuing on the team made its way up to Kutztown stopping for water, then traveled back down towards Reading.

Unfortunately, along the way back a few wrong turns were made making the return a little longer. Once this was corrected the team made its way though the City of Reading and up though Skyline Drive passing by the Pagoda and Fire Tower.

The Steam Age Lives on in Kutztown

We sat down with James Schlegel, Chairman of the Kutztown Transportation Authority to talk about the second year of running a steam engine on the Allentown & Auburn Railroad line. Lehigh Valley Coal Co. steam locomotive No. 126 was used to transport passengers from the Kuztown train station to Topton and back. See our entire interview with James including a brief history of the railroad below.

Originally built in 1930 for the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. to haul coal, current owners Barney, John and Pat Gramling restored the locomotive after finding it abandoned in Carbondale, PA in 1993. Lehigh Valley Coal Co. No. 126 is 1 of 4 locomotives owned by his family.

After 10 years of restoration, Barney and father John began traveling the country with the steam engine visiting museums, festivals and local railroads for short excursions.