The Fear is Real

On Saturday night, around 6:00 PM, just as the barricade was being erected at Bridge & Pennhurst, Diane and I left our home, ahead of the expected 7 o’clock deluge of Pennhurst Asylum traffic, to eat dinner out.  We went to a Chinese restaurant in Pottstown, and at dinner’s conclusion opened the obligatory fortune cookies.  Hers read: “If you want to win anything – a race, your self, your life – you have to go a little berserk.”

It’s time for me to go a little berserk.  Actually, a lot berserk.

For the past eight weeks, I have been trying to get East Vincent Township to enforce our law regarding open fires after sunset, specifically the illegal bonfires at Pennhurst Asylum.  I have met with the Police, the Township Manager and a Supervisor discussing this, getting broken promise after shattered assurance that this matter would be taken care of.  As of this writing the matter has not been taken care of.  If you want to see a television report clearly showing an open fire at Pennhurst go to this link: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Haunted-House-Not-a-Hit-with-Neighbors-132360898.html.

The law in East Vincent says it is “…unlawful to start or maintain an outdoor fire between the hours of sunset and sunrise.”  A normal person using common sense reads that as meaning you can’t start a fire nor can you keep a fire going.  Normal is the last thing you experience when dealing with East Vincent government.

Despite many meetings, telephone conversations and emails, East Vincent has refused to enforce this law. Only after a formal written complaint sent certified return receipt to the Acting Chief of Police were summonses finally issued this weekend, but the fires persist.  Our law is unenforced, and the summonses will be nothing more than a cost-of-doing-business for the amusement operator  – and at that, only if an officer shows up at the hearing. And I have been advised that this is a fruitless pursuit, as the Magistrate who will adjudicate the summonses is a “local guy” and won’t do much.

The question East Vincent residents must ask is why?  Why is there the appearance, well deserved based on many examples, of the amusement operator having exemption from our laws?  Why does it seem that anything the amusement operator wants, he gets?

For instance, when he asked for the ability to operate a commercial composting business in a Low Density Residential zone, East Vincent government passed an ordinance permitting it.

Another instance: when he asked for permits to run the amusement, in the same residential zone, the Township’s Code Enforcement Officer issued them.

And yet another instance: when the decision of use by right was appealed to the Township’s Zoning Hearing Board, they mangled the rules of grammar permitting the amusement to exist in a low density residential zone.

One last instance: The ZHB ruled that the amusement was not a commercial enterprise as defined by ordinance; yet commercial, for-profit activity outside of the permitted use occurs, such as the sale of memorabilia in the form of beer mugs, shot glasses, key chains, hats and apparel, along with the sale of food, clearly a zoning violation.

Yes, resident, why is the owner permitted by East Vincent government to do as he pleases?

On Saturday night at about 10:00 PM, the Police closed Pennhurst Road.  A line of stagnant cars, brake lights glaring into the night, went from Bridge to Brown Drive, nearly a mile of exhaust belching vehicles waiting to get into the amusement.  Employees working at the Veteran’s Hospital needed police intervention to get to their job.  Even when the vehicle occupants waiting to get to the amusement were advised of a four hour wait to enter, they stayed their course, which explained the cars on Pennhurst Road past 2:00 AM.

The amusement operator said that 10,000 visitors went to the amusement last weekend.  That is 3,000 more people than every man, woman and child who resides in East Vincent.

A steady influx of out-of-towners created pandemonium with the sole purpose of lining the amusement operator’s pockets.  Considering the estimated average spend of each patron at $50, the amusement generated gross revenue of at least $500,000 last weekend.  Likely it was the same this weekend.  And East Vincent not only does not see one cent from that largesse, but it is costing taxpayers for police resources, overtime and legal expenses.

I’ve heard that there was a three-hour delay last night responding to police calls in other parts of the Township.  I’d hate to be some poor schnook living in the tony south side.

Yes folks, we have a situation where the amusement plunges the surrounding community into chaos, drains the Township’s coffers, and laws are not enforced as written.  Ask yourself why.

If you think that any zoning change will bring this insanity to an end, you are sadly mistaken.  If you think the property owner has any incentive to develop his property in a conventional way, you are delusional. Consider this quote from Randy Bates that appeared in the Huffington Post this past Thursday:

“My partners purchased the property hoping to develop it, but there were so
many things needed to bring it up to code that it wasn't worth it. I already had
been running a successful haunted house called Bates Motel, so they brought me
in to turn this place into another haunted house."

If you come to the conclusion that the Pennhurst Asylum has become a part of life in East Vincent, then you are beginning to see the reality of money and power.

The cops on the beat did their job as best they could under trying and difficult circumstances. They are performing as directed.  Watching them gave me a small sense that some of East Vincent works correctly.

Part of the amusement’s marketing is to proclaim, “The Fear is Real.”  I sadly find myself agreeing that what I fear is all too real.   My fear that this annual event will grow larger and longer and that East Vincent government will not protect my neighbors and it scares me to my bones.

The three East Vincent supervisors have done nothing to contain or control this situation.  The Township Manager refuses to enforce our laws. Yes, it’s time for me to go berserk. It’s time for you to go berserk, too.