Council Meeting on Tuesday

The Norristown Municipal Council will meet for their Council Workshop Session on Tuesday, November 21, 2023 at 6:30pm at MCIU 2 W Lafayette St. Listed on the agenda, which you can find here: https://norristown.org/129/Agendas-Minutes. Under Buildings & Code Compliance is the agenda item “HARB Appeal For Demolition of 35 East Airy Street” It is my understand that this will include a presentation from one of the Historic Architecture Review Board (HARB) members who will go over a report on why the HARB denied the request for total demolition of the prison. I am sure it will be a worthy presentation that will point out many of the application’s shortcomings when it comes to the County’s request. 

It is also my understanding that the Norristown Council President, Thomas Lepera said at the last council meeting that there will be a year’s hold while the County requests an Request for Information (RFI) for potential buyers. It is the hope of the Friends of the Prison group that they hold to that timeframe to allow the necessary studies and public meetings to take place. It is somewhat concerning that part of the release the County released said about taking a pause indicated that no public dollars would be spent on the prison. Where will the money for the studies come from if that is the case? 

As usual, we ask that if you can come to the meeting to ask Council to support this hold, persuade the County to get these studies done, and work with our group to get the public input needed. One thing we certainly don’t want to happen is that no one comes forward expressing interest in the building and the County uses that as an excuse to follow through with the demolition.

Again, here are the email addresses to write to for Norristown Council:

Tom Lepera Council President - tlepera@norristown.org

Heather Lewis Vice President Councilwoman, 2nd District - hlewis@norristown.org

Rashaad Bates Councilman, 1st District -  rbates@norristown.org

Tiffani Hendley Councilwoman, At-Large -  thendley@norristown.org 

Lauren Hughes Councilwoman, 4th District - lhughes@norristown.org

Dustin Queenan  Councilman, 3rd District - dqueenan@norristown.org 

Rebecca Smith  Councilwoman At-Large -  rsmith@norristown.org

Lauren Hughes and Heather Lewis are nearing the end of their term on 12/21/23. Members of the Friends group have met with the new Council members who will come onboard, DIone Lee and Will McCoy, who have generally accepted the importance of the prison but have not outright pledged support. Time will tell if more will realize the importance of the building and work to make it work in the town’s landscape.