Upper Rox. Civic Association Enjoying Halcyon Day

For the Upper Roxborough Civic Association, times are good, as an agenda they've long advocated is coming to fruition.

"We've been saying 'thank you' a lot lately," joked vice president Rich Giordano at Wednesday night's monthly meeting at the . "It's nice for a change."

After years of simply defending the 34-acre Upper Roxborough Reservoir from prospective developers—"In 1998, the Eagles actually wanted to put their practice facility here," said association president Bob Turino—they've since had opportunity to restore it. At the urging of the association, the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department acquired the 34 acre lot—which had become profoundly overgrown since it was decommissioned in the '60s—and cleared much of the superfluous flora.

"Now it's a really nice open area with some quality trees that they left behind," said association member Dennis Burton, a former executive director of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

"If you showed me a picture of what it looks like now five years ago I wouldn't have believed it. It's my fantasy," added Giordano.

The beautification of the area is an ongoing project though, and the civic association has taken much of it into their own hands. Its members, under the auspices of FURR (Friends of Upper Roxborough Reservoir) meet every other week to tackle landscaping projects on the lot. On Nov. 5—the little-known "Love Your Park Day"—they plan to plant bulbs, a shade tree, and lay weed block near the entrance.

"It's a garden," said Burton. "And it needs to be tended."

The association invites any interested tenders to contact them at rgiordano1@comcast.net. They plan to meet several more times before the winter comes.

Also at Wednesday's meeting, the association expressed optimism that the planned storm water abatement project off Summit Avenue will begin soon. The project—a joint effort of the Water and Parks and Recreation departments to mitigate the flooding issues residents in and around Evergreen Street regularly endure—requires the adjustment of 75,000 cubic yards of dirt.

The project is estimated to take as little as three months, but has been delayed. It was originally slated to begin as soon as this month.

"We're hopeful, but not expectant that it will begin in a month," said Giordano, who added that snow and cold weather, he's been told, won't slow the project once it does begin.