Reprieve!

Reprieve

On Monday, the day before the election, I was sitting in the dentist’s chair and my phone started blowing up. I shut off the sound and finished my appointment and when I got out to the car, I listened to a message from a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer asking for a quote about the press release sent out by the Montgomery County Commissioners about a pause to the demolition request. Needless to say, I was stunned - happy, but stunned.

“Montgomery County prides itself on listening to the people we serve,” said Commissioner Jamila H. Winder. “We’ve heard the people of Norristown and the surrounding community. We want to ensure we’re doing our due diligence.” was how it started off. We won! Well sort of. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet - she is in the dressing room waiting for her cue.

The day after the election, several members of the Friends of the Airy Street Prison attended the Council Meeting. President Tom Lepera started off the meeting with a statement saying that he and the Commissioners were in negotiations all weekend long about the prison and it would not be voted on at the meeting. Regardless, seven people spoke about saving the prison, making sure Norristown Council does not vote to demolish. Originally there was to be a presentation from a member of the Historical Architecture Review Board (HARB) on why they voted the way they did as a defense to the appeal filed by the County for the denial of their application to demolish. At the last minute that was removed and they only voted on the other two properties which had been granted Certificate Of Appropriateness (COA) by the HARB. Apparently, a vote on the HARB decision will be held at the Council workshop meeting on November 21, 2023.

What is to happen now has been reported “The County maintains its position that County tax dollars should not be spent on restoring or maintaining the history of incarceration. After listening to the people of Norristown, community organizers, and preservationists, the County will issue a request for information (RFI) that solicits proposals seeking to reuse a portion of the space without utilizing county funds.” 

Several things are of note here. 1) The County has not officially withdrawn their request, 2) The county has not withdrawn their appeal, 3) when the RFI will be sent out, and 4) what happens if responses to the RFI do not include uses that are tax generating. But for all intent and purposes, the County officials did what we asked - they paused their request for demolition to do due diligence to the structure. So I will be declaring victory for the purposes of this petition. To continue following this story, please follow our Facebook page at Help Save Historic Prison  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550562066543. Again, I thank you for your support and signatures on this petition. I think the response to this petition was instrumental in how things developed.