Former Reading City Council member Stratton Marmarou made a return to Council Chambers at Monday night’s City Council meeting on September 25.
Marmarou’s purpose was to encourage Council to approve an addendum to the lease between the city and the Rotary Park Association for the continued leasing of Rotary Park located within the Sherman Tract in Lower Alsace Township on the top of Mount Penn. City Council voted to extend the lease for an additional 10 years.
Below: Rotary Park
The Sherman tract, is a six-acre parcel of city-owned land in Lower Alsace Township. The Sherman tract is located just off List Road near Angora Road in Lower Alsace. The parcel is situated between the combined Camp Lily and Camp Jolly, and Camp Howard.
Camp Howard was a 26-acre campsite located on List Road on the top of Mount Penn in the City of Reading. The Scouts began using the city-owned land in 1918. The campsite on the top of Mount Penn was turned over by Councilman George M. Yocum of the City of Reading to the Scouts of the Reading-Berks County Council in 1936. Camp Howard went largely unused for some years, until, in the late 1970s a Boy Scout named Chris Bemis studied the area and devised a plan to create a functional multipurpose athletic field and park known as Rotary Park as part of his Eagle Scout requirements.
Rotary Park, Marmarou explained, is the home field for the Reading American Little League (RALL), which he helped organize over 40 years ago. Unlike some other baseball leagues in the area, Marmarou said, Reading American emphasizes that every child plays at least two innings and gets one at-bat per game.
Below: Members of the Reading American Little League met in Council Chambers on Monday to speak and share personal experiences with the league.
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