With Independence Day occurring on a Saturday, I predict that New Hope will be a ghost town after 6P.M., regardless of how nice the weather might be. The reason is that anyone who is able will flock to the nearest fireworks display. Thus we will be able to get up a game of stick ball on empty Main Street Saturday night. I predict again, so that we are clear on this, with all things being equal, that business on Saturday night July 4th will be at least 50% off of normal.

Through the years, since the last fireworks display, various people, and organizations have tried to fill the streets of New Hope with Independence Day activities. All at tremendous cost and effort: to no avail. Without the promise of fireworks our guests race out of town to get a viewing spot at one of the many locations surrounding New Hope that still have them. The business community has given up on the issue and they must not. The business community is slowly being murdered because of public policies. The ban on fireworks is just one example.

When we did do a fireworks display town was jammed. It was a world class display done by a professional pyro-technician over the river. A hundred boats watched from the Delaware. Literally tens of thousands of people ouued and ahhed as the sky was painted. The river caught the light and mirrored it. It lasted for over 35 minutes. The finale was, well, explosive! When the echo of the last deafening BOOM faded from Goat Hill the crowd roared and the boat horns blared. Our residents and guests knew at that moment what it meant to be a free and independent nation. You had to see it to believe it. Both New Hope and Lambertville businesses earned enough during that event in revenue and goodwill to coast through autumn and make the winter not seem so long.

It has been 15 years since the last display in 1994. Yes, that year the town descended into chaos, but it had been done successfully for the previous 20. The big question is why did that happen? When that “why” question is answered fairly then the issue will be clear. The purpose of this letter is to reacquaint our residents and guests with how important fireworks were to New Hope and Lambertville, not to answer the “why”. The answer “why” needs to be found at an open and fair public hearing. I asked New Hope Borough Council at the June meeting to open up the question at a future public meeting. With the hope that next year we will be able to do a fireworks display, or several, to bring business and prosperity back to our towns.

Please support this project. Ask New Hope and Lambertville officials “WHY” and demand of them a fair public hearing. In the meanwhile anyone want to play stickball Saturday night? Robert V. Gerenser 22 South main Street, New Hope, Pa. ( cell phone …not for publication 267-337-1227) www.newspiritof76.com

Fireworks 2009

by Eric Asaris

Quakertown Borough Councilman Edward Scholl explained the borough’s economic development plans at a meet-and-greet session on May 27.
“Downtown Quakertown mainly has day business and the streets seem to roll up in the evening,” he said.
Council members Michael Johnson and Michele Scarborough as well as Borough Manager Scott McElree joined Scholl at the Michener Library on Mill Street to discuss with borough residents how the council plans to bring a more social aspect to
downtown Quakertown.
“People do not appreciate what a gem this community is,” said McElree. “We are sitting between Allentown and Philadelphia and with all the avenues of transportation, such as Routes 309, 212, 313, 663 and the turnpike, you can get to anywhere from here.”
McElree also stated that rail service may be returning to Quakertown as early as 2011. “We need some kind of anchor business that is going to bring people to Quakertown who are looking for a social element,” McElree continued. “Once that happens other properties in the borough will become desirable.”
Scholl said that the borough is looking into several firms that might be able to help bring investors to Quakertown to make deals with local property owners. Doug Probst, a member of the planning commission, commented from the audience that bringing nightlife to the downtown area could only help local businesses.
“The downtown is a real walkable community with so much already there,” commented Scholl. “We are not trying to take away from what Quakertown already has but to add to what is already here.”
Other business discussed at the meeting included plans for a streetscaping program, which involves replacing traffic lights with LED bulbs, which reportedly would pay for itself in about a year in savings from electrical costs. Another element of the plan includes making many intersections off Route 309 radio controlled. The borough also wants to use a camera system to control changing traffic lights at certain intersections rather than the in-ground wire system that already exists. This, according to McElree, would be much cheaper than the repair work that often has to go into cutting up the street and taking out a faulty traffic wire. There is already a test camera in place at the intersection of 3rd and Broad streets. Council members also discussed the construction of the new food pantry at 101 3rd Street. Asphalt is already being cut to begin work on the planned addition to the public works building. Scholl sent special thanks out to Zoning Officer Ken Fretz and Public Works Superintendent Joe Murgia for putting the plan together. “The borough council is going to get credit for the new food pantry,” said Scholl, “but these are the two guys who made it easy for us.” Other issues discussed were the addition of cameras in local parks to reduce vandalism, the addition of a link to a home energy audit on the borough’s web site and an aggressive recycling program added to the borough’s trash collection contract, which could include chips inside recycling containers to monitor how much a resident is recycling and possibly put money back into a resident’s pocket for doing so.

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