New Digs for PAL?

The Abington Police Athletic League is searching for a home of its own … and may have found one in Crestmont.

Abington Police Chief William Kelly said during Wednesday night’s public safety committee meeting that the PAL organization now has a committee to find a new home.

PAL, which provides recreational activities for the township’s 11 to 18 year olds, currently holds events at the Abington School District-owned Glenside-Weldon School on Easton Road on Fridays and Saturdays. PAL pays rent to the school district; Kelly said the site may not be available to the organization in the future due to “a variety of reasons.”

“We’ve been looking for a site for PAL for quite some time,” Kelly said. “Recreational places throughout the township are jammed.” 

Kelly said the PAL committee “identified a great site on township property at Crestmont Park.”

“There’s no motion — nothing to vote on or to be decided, but just before you heard any rumors, I just wanted to come to the board so you knew this was being considered,” Kelly said.

Kelly said he did not have a timeline for the proposed facility.

Commissioner Wayne Luker, whose ward encompasses Crestmont Park, said residents would be receptive to a PAL facility at the park. He called it an “ideal location” and “easily accessible.”

Board of Commissioners president and PAL board member Peggy Myers said after the meeting that PAL has been looking for a permanent home for about 2-3 years. Myers said that while the school district hasn’t pressured PAL to leave the Glenside-Weldon location, she said she knows the school district has plans for the former elementary school in its future.

Myers said the goal for PAL would be to offer activities to the township’s youth seven days a week. 

“Crestmont Park is a feasible location and residents want a community center there,” Myers said.

Though the plans are in their infancy, Myers said she has the specs for a proposed building at the park.

“It’s got to have a gym,” she said. “I don’t know how big it has to be, but it’s got to at least have a gym, and we can build out from there." 

Any proposed building at the Crestmont Park location would be built with PAL money, Myers said, adding that the organization would have to start a capital campaign. The township would have to lease the land to the nonprofit organization.