{"id":237611,"date":"2026-07-07T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/237611\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T16:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:22:09","slug":"cleanup-at-allentowns-west-park-after-storm-damage-ongoing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/237611\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleanup at Allentown&#8217;s West Park after storm damage ongoing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Allentown crews continued working Tuesday to clean up after severe tree damage in the city\u2019s West Park during weekend storms, and planning for long-term improvements to the urban green space.<\/p>\n<p>According to the West Park Civic Association, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2026\/07\/05\/allentown-west-park-storm-damage\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">two mature oaks on the park\u2019s southwest corner were \u201ctotal losses,\u201d<\/a> with the larger of the pair uprooted entirely. Several others lost much of their crowns, including a white pine, Japanese pagoda, Norway maple and black locust. The park\u2019s bandshell, fountain and other structures remain intact.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the trees had stood since the park opened in 1908, and \u201creckoning with their loss emotionally will take time,\u201d the association wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n<p>The storm ravaged the surrounding neighborhood on Allentown\u2019s West End; one tree fell onto an occupied car at North 22nd and West Chew streets.<\/p>\n<p>Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk told The Morning Call on Tuesday morning that city crews have now cleared branches and debris from all of the park\u2019s paths, meaning people can walk through it safely.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts to clean debris from the park will continue throughout the week, Tuerk said, but \u201crecovery\u201d plans to rebuild the park following the damage will take longer.<\/p>\n<p>Tuerk said he is hoping to have residents\u2019 input and feedback on the park\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p>Following suggestions on social media, Tuerk said he has asked city crews to preserve as much of the wood from the fallen oaks as possible, in the hopes of finding a \u201ccreative use\u201d for it that pays tribute to the park\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is an opportunity now to plan for West Park\u2019s second act, and to put some real thought into planning, developing a planting plan, a landscaping plan that will set West Park up for its next 100-plus years,\u201d Tuerk said. \u201cWe have to get through clean up first and start that planning effort, and we need residents to be involved with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2026\/07\/07\/a-jeff-bezos-charity-is-giving-allentown-4-million-heres-what-the-city-will-do-with-it\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A Jeff Bezos charity is giving Allentown $4 million. Here\u2019s what the city will do with it<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allentown crews continued working Tuesday to clean up after severe tree damage in the city\u2019s West Park during&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-237611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}