AMITY >> Township officials and police want PennDOT to come up with ways to make a dangerous intersection safer.
The growing concern is for the rising number of accidents at the Route 422 and North Monocacy Creek intersection.
Police Chief Andrew J. Kensey told the township supervisors at their Feb. 7 meeting that 70 accidents have occurred at the intersection since 2012.
“In order to minimize accidents there, we need to start a dialogue about an unsafe environment for residents and others driving through there,” Kensey said.
The meeting with PennDOT officials took place on Thursday. The supervisors are expected to discuss details of the discussion at their next meeting.
The township is seeking a new member to serve on the Planning Commission after the resignation of Steve Chieffo, who was elected a district judge.
Township residents interested in serving on the Planning Commissioner may submit a written letter to the township office.
In other business, two nurses from Pottstown Hospital informed the supervisors that the hospital no longer has a pediatric department to handle infants to age 18.
They asked the supervisors to send a petition letter to Clint Matthews, president and CEO at Tower Health, asking for that department to be reopened, for the good of the community.
The West Reading-based Tower Health recently purchased Pottstown Hospital along with four other regional hospitals.
“We went from being a for-profit hospital to a non-profit hospital, with the Pottstown borough losing $1 million [a year in tax revenues],” said one of the nurses.
Pottstown Hospital was previously owned by Community Health System, Franklin, Tenn.
The nurses told the supervisors they want area residents to know that the pediatric department is closed.
“A teenage appendectomy patient would now be placed in a room with an 83-year-old,” said the nurse, or otherwise transported to a hospital in Philadelphia, Lehigh County, or Reading.
“There are more drug-addicted babies (boarder babies), who need one to two months to be weaned off.”
“The parents of boarder babies need to visit and connect with their babies, but there isn’t any [public transportation] access to those areas from Pottstown. What those parents need the most is the support of their community [social services].”
She said Pottstown Hospital’s pediatric unit was small – the main reason it was closed.
“Any department or unit can be grown. If we’re going to be a community hospital, we need that [a pediatric unit]. We’d like to see Pottstown be a stellar hospital. It reflects on us. It should involve all of us. Negotiate with us, help us to make it better.”
