Meet your Ward 2 Candidate: Kevin Spearing

Early Life

Kevin Spearing has lived in the Upper Moreland area since 1965. He attended , and is a parishioner of today. Spearing is a member of the class of 1977 of Archbishop Wood High School.

In his youth, Spearing recalls the township to be less developed, with many of his recreational hours spent exploring the surrounding woodland areas.

Speaking in , Spearing pointed out  that the park is more developed today, but did contain several past amenities.

“There was a pit that was a skating rink,” he recalled. “You would just dump water in the winter time and it was an ice skating rink.”

Spearing also participated in several township youth activities including and the Willow Grove Yellow Jackets, before they became known as the .  

After Wood, Spearing pursued accounting at Montgomery County Community College, but discontinued his studies to raise his family.

Professional Life

While Spearing’s first jobs involved now non-existent retail stores on Easton Road, he has made a career working for Aqua.

In 1980, Spearing began working for the water service company. The following year, Spearing received a transfer, where he moved his family to Conshohocken.

While there, his overall duties were in maintenance; fixing water main breaks, connecting water service to residents and replacing and repairing fire hydrants.

“Labor,” Spearing said of his first position with Aqua. “Digging holes at the end of a shovel.”

Over the next five years, Spearing would receive other transfers, bringing him to Bryn Mawr, Skippack and eventually leading him back to Upper Moreland in 1985.

By 2001, Spearing switched his position from being a maintenance foreman to the construction foreman of Aqua’s Eastern Network, as the job provided more stable hours, giving him more time with his family.

Family and Community Life

Spearing was also married in 1980. Today, he has three children, and four grandchildren.

His children also attended St. David School, as well as the , with his son finishing at Lansdale Catholic.

In his personal life, Spearing is an avid bicycle rider and horseshoe player. In the community, he coached and umpired Upper Moreland Little League baseball, coached youth wrestling in Warminster and coached girls soccer. At St. David Parochial School, he was both a vice-president and president of its home and school association in the late 1990s.

Working with a large group of active parishioners and volunteers, Spearing recalls getting much done for the school.

In one instance, the St. David School students were in need of a safe crosswalk, complete with traffic lights, at the intersection of Easton Road and Summit Ave.

“That’s where the Upper School crossed to the Lower School at St. David’s,” he said. “It was always tough getting the kids across the street, and there was some politicking about getting all four streets to stop for pedestrian access.”

Spearing, as part of a St. David School committee, went before the township commissioners and made a case for the crosswalks.

“You attended meetings as a community member, and you would speak up,” Spearing said, explaining that he would take advantage of the public comments time during commissioners’ meetings. “And, I didn’t realize it, but that separated you from the others that attended the meetings.”

According to Spearing, as he attended other township meetings and voiced his opinions, residents approached him to participate in different levels of government, the first of which was being appointed to the township’s Advisory Planning Agency in 2000.

His Reason for Running

During his first term as commissioner, Spearing has defined that position as “being the representative of the community and the voice of the community.”

He said he starts off all his ward communication with “neighbors and friends,” because that’s what he considers his constituents.

As a commissioner, spearing chairs the Parks and Recreation committee, and has been a strong proponent of both land development and open space.

“I cared about land development and cared about open space, as certainly those to things go hand-in-hand,” Spearing said.

He said, currently, he is supporting the exploration of a long-term lease with PECO to provide new multi-purpose trails for the township, utilizing the power line trails, such as those along Maryland and Blair Mill roads.

“It would be a nice fit to match up with Horsham’s Power Line Trail,” he said. “We would like to continue that path into Upper Moreland.”

He also said that he’d like to see multi-purpose recreational trails along the railroad tracks in Upper Moreland, as part of the .

“Just to have trails that link to other communities, as opposed to trails that lead nowhere,” he said.

According to Spearing’s campaign literature, there are several more township issues, including, traffic, revitalization and town watch programs, which he pledges to support if re-elected.

“We have unfinished business,” Spearing said. “I really do think I’m the right person for the job.”

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A more in-depth look into the positions on community issues and candidate’s politics will be presented in future Upper Moreland – Willow Grove Patch campaign  coverage articles.