What should the Hamburg community look like by 2020?
This question was posed to attendees at the third and final Community Vision 2020 strategic planning meeting held Tuesday, March 29. The series was sponsored by the Our Town Foundation (OTF) of Hamburg and open to all local residents interested in shaping the future of the area.
Steve Keifer, president of OTF, said several items are in the works that were discussed at previous meetings. These include the anticipated reopening in December of Kaercher Creek, a park east of Hamburg partially closed due to environmental contamination; continued plans by King’s Real Estate Management and Development to build a commercial park on the Route 61 corridor; and the building of a distribution center by Super Value, which provides fresh and frozen produce to various grocery stores.
“They want to own their land and they want to own their building, which is a good thing,” Keifer explained. “It means they want to stay.”
The Reading Railroad Heritage Museum, Third Street, Hamburg, has plans to host a Rail Fest in August 2017. This event may draw 4,000 to 5,000 people to the town.
“The museum also hopes to use railroad cars at the gateways to our community,” Keifer said, and a company is willing to relocate the cars for free. “It will basically advertise the museum but also could announce [welcome to] Hamburg, Pa.”
Deena Kershner, OTF executive director, said an agreement of sale was reached for the Doris Berry shop on Fourth Street. Kershner’s grandmother, Doris Berry, opened the clothing store, which has been in the family for three generations but is now closing.
“It’s going to be a family owned business, a multi-generational business,” she said of the new owners, who plan to open an antique store. “That makes me happy.”
Other plans for the area include a surgical center in Tilden Township, a residential development on the west side of Hamburg and a new restaurant to open near Tilden Ridge. A soap store is set to open on State Street, and a local family will launch a craft brewing company, Copperz, and potentially open a brew pub. Plans are also underway to relaunch the Hamburg farmers market and to open a community garden.
Janet Barr of the Hamburg Historical Society also addressed the group.
“We’ve outgrown our house on State Street by the bridge,” Barr said. “We want to move across the street and are trying our darndest to do that.”
Barr said the society is looking into grants to cover costs and is considering an outdoor railroad theme.
“That railroad theme keeps coming up,” Keifer noted.
Turning back to planning the future of Hamburg, Keifer organized the lists of strengths and weaknesses gathered at past meetings. Predominant strengths included location, safety, outdoor recreation, tie to railroads, local history, educational opportunities, small-town community feel and community organizations. Noted weaknesses were employment and industry, lack of restaurants/shops, narrow streets and traffic flow, limited parking, need for beautification efforts, open rentals downtown, lack of entertainment and attitudes.
The meeting’s attendees broke into groups to discuss specific ways to improve Hamburg and to create action plans to do so. Ideas ranged from guided kayacking and hiking tours to adding murals downtown to expanding the King Frost parade into a weekend of events. Groups were also asked to create vision statements and slogans. Some of these included “Small Town Big,” “Hamburg has Heart” and “Hamburg: Trailhead to Adventure.”
Keifer collected group notes and explained these action plans would be discussed by the next meeting of the OTF board of directors.
Many of those in attendance said they found the meetings were productive. Among them were Andrew Raugh, of Perry Township, a Hamburg Area School District board member and OTF member.
“I think a strong local economy benefits everyone in the community,” he said. “OTF is a great ‘vehicle’ for promoting economic development. Hearing all the ideas and having an opportunity to be informed and ask questions was great.
“My hope would be that these meetings will spark continued forward thinking to shape greater Hamburg to best meet our most optimistic vision,” Rough added. “On a practical note, I hope that we engage more people in community endeavors.”
Linda Wood, who attended with her husband, Vreeland, also said she found the meetings useful.
“I wish they would have continued a little longer,” she said. “We are very interested in helping Hamburg become a better town since we do run four businesses in town.”
The Woods are members of OTF and active in several committees.
“We support many of the activities in town and I really enjoyed thinking of things for the future that can turn Hamburg into a great little place to live and visit,” she said. “Seeing others with the same interest in improving our town and having a vision for the future of Hamburg is awesome.”
“I think our community does have a real positive future because of meetings like this,” Keifer said. “A vision has to be something that people believe in and want to work toward. We’re now going to start the work.”
For more about the 2020 Strategic Planning process, readers may contact the Our Town Foundation at its office, 335 State St., Hamburg, or by calling 610-562-3106.
