Kutztown, Pennsylvania
A hometown that has it all
Published April 2015
The second oldest borough in Berks County, Kutztown was incorporated in 1815 and is celebrating its bicentennial in 2015. Events to celebrate the borough’s 200th birthday are being held year-round and include exhibits, pageants, contests, parades and more.
The Kutztown area – in the southeast part of the state – includes a region of land known as East Penn Valley, which is a broad limestone valley. Crystal Cave Park is a popular attraction near Kutztown and is a natural wonder of rock formations. Visitors to the Kutztown area can also enjoy several ski resorts, and hiking the Appalachian Trail and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.
Located just outside the borough limits, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1866 and aspires to be a regional center of excellence providing opportunities for advanced academic, cultural and public service experiences. Kutztown is also home to businesses Deka Batteries and Radius Toothbrushes.
Annual events in the borough include the Kutztown Fair and Kutztown Folk Festival, and the borough landscape features a recreational and educational trail – Sacony Creek Trail – which uses green space to connect different parts of the community and features an observation deck.
The borough is packed with history and charm. The Kutztown Area Historical Society has been restoring an 1892 school building, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Buildings in 1980.
Dedicated to reliable service
Kutztown has a population of about 5,000 and the Kutztown Electric Department serves nearly 2,500 meters. Recent utility projects include updated LED street lighting and the installation of decorative downtown Main Street lighting.
The borough is a full service community, providing electric service, operating water and wastewater treatment plants, borough-owned refuse collection, and is also a cable TV, Internet and phone service provider.
The electric department is dedicated to safety and training, and received a Safety Award in 2013 from AMP in the transmission/distribution category. Kutztown lineworkers have been improving performance, and increasing knowledge and reliability by regularly attending AMP’s Lineworker Training Series courses since 2009.
As a member of AMP, Kutztown participates in a number of AMP programs and projects that assist in providing reliable energy and other benefits to the community and its citizen-owners. These include:
- Landfill Gas Energy, a mixture of gases produced by decomposing garbage and collected by a series of pipes for use in diesel generator units (landfill gas-to-energy sites directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions)
- Mutual Aid, a network of municipal electric systems that assist each other when utility emergencies occur that are too widespread to be handled by one system alone
- Pennsylvania AMP Service Group (PASG)
For more information please visit www.kutztownboro.org.