The Borough of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

10 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 budget during a pandemic plagued with supply chain disruptions, which is “difficult to do in any timeframe, by making strategic decisions to secure all of the steel before disruptions took place.” Ewald is also impressed with the company’s knowledge and expertise when it comes to building fire halls. He explains, “This is not a specialty most development companies have, so there are specialised details they know to do, that they know to suggest, that have really helped bring the building into some place where we’re not going to have to modify it in a few years because we forgot to do something.” Phoenixville is ahead of its time in more ways than one. It will soon be the first municipality in North America to upgrade its wastewater treatment by looking to turn off its anaerobic digestion for wastewater treatment and move toward a hydrothermal carbonization process. Through that process a fuel source will be THE BOROUGH OF PHOENI XV I LLE , PENNSYLVANI A generated that will power the wastewater treatment facility. The system will also be able to process food waste which Ewald says, “is a huge landfill problem globally.” The Borough hopes to be able to use the system regionally once it’s up and fully functional. In the near future Krack wants to focus on improving the quality of life in the municipality even more by adaptively reusing existing buildings without creating a “gap tooth scenario” where a building is torn down without a plan to reuse the space. He states, “What’s significantly important is investing even more into the parks and trails systems because that’s quality of life. If people feel safe and they’ve got great things to do, that’s a continuum that you can’t underestimate financially in a budget. You’ve got to devote the financial will to keep that going.” Ewald believes they’ve wholly embraced progress, despite its difficulties and hopes to continue on that path. He admits, “It can be uncomfortable at times and it’s easy to second guess yourself, Westrum Development Company proudly cut the ribbon on its latest and greatest Luxor Lifestyle community in Phoenixville on September 6, 2022. www.westrum.com 1300 Virginia Drive, Suite 215, Fort Washington, PA 19034 • 215-283-2190