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City Hall’s skeleton staff has left it with plenty of empty offices scattered throughout its four floors.
But one of them is now occupied by Council President Francis Acosta, who uses it several times a week to meet with people and groups who want to talk about city issues.
Acosta is an assistant manager at Fulton Bank’s branch on North Fifth Street.
He said too many visitors with questions or suggestions or complaints about the city were stopping by his bank office, straining the relationship with his bosses.
So he called Mayor Vaughn Spencer last year to ask if he could use one of City Hall’s empty offices instead.
The first two first-floor locations didn’t work for various reasons. Acosta finally got an office on the second floor, not far from City Clerk Linda Kelleher’s office. It’s a spot council uses for committee meetings.
Acosta’s office opened in early July.
He said he’s there two or three evenings a week, after his banker’s job ends.
The city gave the office a new coat of paint, but Acosta said he provided most of the furnishings, such as his desk and the photos and decorations on the walls. It’s not overstuffed; it’s functional.
Other than the paint and the electricity for the lights, it’s not costing the city anything, he said.
But it’s saving his hide at the bank.
???
Reading’s Gateway Initiative is focused on prettying up the “Welcome to Reading” signs at each of the city’s 16 major entrances.
Those entrances range from the Penn and Bingaman and Buttonwood Street bridges to Oak Lane, Kutztown Road and Perkiomen Avenue.
Some of the signs are missing, and some are on the wrong side of the street.
However, Initiative leader Steve Harrity said the group wants to get a common design for more decorative signs, and maybe also landscaping around them.
Good ideas, but council members had other ideas at last week’s update.
Councilman Jeff Waltman said work on the bigger ones first: the Penn Street Bridge and the Lindbergh Viaduct.
He said he’s embarrassed because the recently renovated Lindbergh Viaduct already is covered in weeds.
“If we can’t keep it clean, the signs don’t matter,” he said.
True, true, but this is not a question of which should come first. Both should.
Contact Don Spatz: 610-371-5027 or dspatz@readingeagle.com.
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