{"id":254547,"date":"2026-07-29T12:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254547\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:04:10","slug":"reading-promotes-police-officers-reviews-tower-proposals-honors-berks-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254547\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading promotes police officers, reviews tower proposals, honors Berks Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three members of the Reading Police Department have been promoted.<\/p>\n

Council at its regular meeting Monday approved the promotions of Officer Malcolm Stoddard to sergeant, Sgt. William Pletcher to lieutenant and Lt. Melvin Fegley to captain.<\/p>\n

City Managing Director Jack Gombach said the promotions follow a recent retirement that created openings within the department.<\/p>\n

Gombach praised the officers\u2019 experience and leadership, singling out Fegley for his work overseeing the Reading Police Academy.<\/p>\n

The academy has seen tremendous improvement under Fegley\u2019s leadership, Gombach said, noting the administration looks forward to seeing him serve in his expanded role.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Melissa Ventura called Fegley\u2019s promotion long overdue and praised his relationship with the community and his leadership at the academy.<\/p>\n

Property purchase<\/p>\n

Council unanimously approved transferring $512,825 from the city\u2019s capital fund to complete the purchase of 2047 Centre Ave.<\/p>\n

The property near FirstEnergy Stadium is being acquired through eminent domain.<\/p>\n

Officials said roughly half of the acquisition cost will be repaid over time through the Reading Fightin Phils\u2019 lease agreement with the city.<\/p>\n

Berks Arts Council<\/p>\n

During Monday\u2019s meeting Council President Donna Reed acknowledged Berks Arts Council\u2019s recent announcement that it will close after more than 50 years of serving Berks County.<\/p>\n

Berks Arts Council ceases operations<\/a><\/p>\n

Reed said council had planned to present a commendation marking the anniversary of Jazz Fest. The commendation will instead be forwarded to the Jazz Fest organizers, she said.<\/p>\n

The loss of Berks Arts is significant for both the city and county, she said, praising the organization\u2019s decades of service through festivals, educational programs and community events.<\/p>\n

Reed also expressed hope that other organizations will step forward to continue parts of its mission.<\/p>\n

Communications towers<\/p>\n

During its committee of the whole meeting earlier Monday, council heard separate presentations involving communications towers on city-owned property.<\/p>\n

Representatives of Tower Alliance, acting on behalf of tower owner Vertical Bridge, asked the city to consider reducing the monthly lease payment for a cell tower in Hampden Park to $2,100 from about $2,815.<\/p>\n

The company said the request reflects changes in the wireless industry, including carrier consolidation that has left the tower with only one tenant. Representatives said a lower lease payment would help keep the tower economically viable while they seek additional national wireless carriers to locate equipment there.<\/p>\n

Councilman Jaime Baez questioned the proposal, noting the city\u2019s own budget constraints and suggesting officials consider maintaining the current rate or negotiating a counteroffer.<\/p>\n

Gombach said the administration will review the proposal and negotiate with the company before bringing any agreement to council for consideration.<\/p>\n

Council also heard from Reading-based Radio Maintenance Inc., which is seeking to extend its agreement for the communications tower near the William Penn Fire Tower on Skyline Drive through 2057.<\/p>\n

Company President Matthew Smith said the tower supports communications for Berks County Emergency Services, BARTA, PennSTAR Flight, the FBI and other public safety and government agencies.<\/p>\n

Although the current agreement does not expire until 2028, he said beginning discussions now would provide long-term stability for those users.<\/p>\n

Gombach said the administration will review the proposal before presenting any agreement to council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three members of the Reading Police Department have been promoted. Council at its regular meeting Monday approved the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-254547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254547","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=254547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}