Saturday, May 17, 2014

No Middle Ground for this Jazz Band

The Pottstown Middle School Jazz Band with their "Superior" rating from a recent competition at Arcola Middle School.

Blogger's Note: John Armato, whose appreciation for the musical arts only continues to grow, provided the following.

The Pottstown Middle School jazz band proved that when it comes to jazz there is no middle ground in the Pottstown School District program which is recognized for outstanding bands at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels.

The middle school band, under the direction of Mr. Ben Hayes, earned the top rating of “Superior” at the Arcola Jazz event.
Will Minnick with his 

"Outstanding Soloist" award from 
the Arcola jazz completion

Competing against bands from Spring-Ford, Pottsgrove, Pine Brook, and Penndale, the band made its presence felt by performing “Groovin’,” “Freddie the Freeloader,” and “Blues Machine.”

The trumpet section of Mitchell Aquino, Will Minnick, AJ Ecker, Nick Wilson, Kiersten Heverly, and Jonathan Brusk earned recognition as the “Best Trumpet Section.” 

Will Minnick gained individual honors by receiving the “Outstanding Soloist Award.”

“This band has shown incredible growth over the course of this year," said Hayes. "They work hard as a team so that they can perform well on stage." 

"We are not the largest district in the area but we have proven that we are able to compete with much bigger schools and show how great our music department is," Hayes added. 

"Our students are beginning to believe in themselves and the idea that good work habits and determination will make any goal obtainable. Their performance makes me say I’m proud to be from Pottstown.”

Members of the jazz band include:
 
The "Best Trumpet Section" with their award from
the Arcola jazz competition.

• Saxes: Shane Duncan, Evan DeBlase, Hannah Shankle, London Aquino, Rashell Williams, Avery Heverly, Destyn Snyder

• Trumpets: Mitchell Aquino, Will Minnick, AJ Ecker, Kiersten Heverly, Jonathan Brusk

• Trombones: Caitlin McLaughlin, Julian Weber, Manny Paez, Ross Mather

• Rhythm Section: Gabe Francis, Dylan Thorne, Nick Wilson, Harrison Wolf, Madison Overholt, Claire Fetterman

Friday, May 16, 2014

Light and Quick

Photo by Evan Brandt
A Pottstown School District worker removes the lens from the lights taken off the first pole to come down at 
Grigg Memorial Field.


Yeah I know, this is mostly a storify of Tweets from last night's Pottstown School Board meeting, but the photos of the lights coming down were just too cool to pass up.


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Old Money

Photo by Evan Brandt

Seems to me this building in the 200 block of High Street would be a perfect candidate for the program mentioned below.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the office of State Rep. Mark Painter (D-146th Dist.)

Individuals and businesses are encouraged to apply for a new state program that offers tax credits to restore historic structures and transform them into income-producing properties, according to state Rep. Mark Painter.

"Preserving historic sites, while also ensuring that they have a continued role to play in our communities, is a noble pursuit that I support, and I am hoping our communities will as well," said Painter, D-Montgomery.

The Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, which will be funded through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, is open to any individual, corporation, business trust, limited liability company, limited liability partnership or any other form of legal business entity.

The total tax credit awarded to any qualified taxpayer will not exceed $500,000 in any fiscal year, and the total amount the commonwealth will issue will not exceed $3 million.

"Anyone who thinks they may be eligible is encouraged to apply for this program. I know that these remnants from our past can still serve us well as we head into the future," Painter said.

Painter's office staff is available to help with submitting applications. Beginning May 1, interested parties also can submit applications through the DCED website at www.newpa.com/hptc.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

In Pottsgrove, a New Board Member, Some Old Arguments

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottsgrove School Board President Justin Valentine, left, swears in new board member John Rossi at the end of Tuesday night's meeting.


As usual, the lead from last night's Pottsgrove School Board meeting was buried at the end of the meeting and so, at the end of the Storify of my Tweets from the meeting below.

But the news was so mind-blowingly important that the first thing I did when I got back to my humble abode, was to write a story for The Mercury web site, not for my beloved Digital Notebook.

You can read that story by clicking this link.

Spoiler alert! As you may have guessed from the photo, they appointed John Rossi to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Kelley Crist.

And they did it on the SAME NIGHT!

Who says government isn't efficient .... at least when they're doing something that's important to them...

Anyway, why cut to the chase when you can work your way through the whole meeting right here, Tweet-by-Tweet.

As always, don't forget that there's more to the Storify when you click the blue "Read Next Page" bar at the bottom.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Council Was Almost NOT A-Twitter

Photo by Evan Brandt

Montgomery County Planner Meredith Curran
address borough council prior to the adoption of 
the borough's comprehensive plan.
So who would have thought an old ink-stained wretch like me (now a carpal-tunnel impaired wretch) would get himself all a-Twitter about Twitter not Tweeting?

Arriving a little late to the council meeting (hey, I' a busy guy) I sit down to rip into my gripping Twitter coverage only to discover the app won't work.

Opens.

Closes.

Opens

Closes.

Luckily, they train us to be cool under pressure at reporter school.

So after I whined in a text to Reporter Frank Otto, who was covering a very hot Perkiomen Valley School Board meeting where students who had staged a walk-out were expressing their displeasure with the kind of school cuts Pottstown endured three years ago and definitely did not have time for my kvetching, it suddenly occurs to me.

I can do all this on the Web too, through my browser.

Duh.

(As always, remember to click the blue "Read Next Page" bar for even more spine-tingling Tweets.

We now join our Pottstown Borough Council meeting already in progress...

Monday, May 12, 2014

Middle School Readers are Going to the Dogs

Fifth grader Dana Summerville with Jack


Jillian Giunta and Tajmir Hines with Mozart 

and his owner Amy.
Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District: 

Pottstown Middle School fifth and sixth grade students are spending some quality time with man’s best friend.

Once a week four members of the Tail Waggin’ Tutors Program – Jack, Blue, Mozart, and TJ sit in the classroom as students read a book of their choice.

Reading intervention assistant Victoria Redmond says of the program, “Statistics have shown that reading to a visiting canine buddy assists students with learning skills, encourages communication, lowers blood pressure, decreases anxiety, provides comfort, and in general brightens the students’ day.
U'kari Taylor and Christian Coale with  Jack, 

and his owner Jalma

During the time that the students are reading, their canine buddies sit with them and at times almost look like they are interested in the book being read by their friend.”

“The kids love it and find it relaxing. Even some of our students who are not regular readers are the first to volunteer to read to their canine buddy. They feel comfortable and it helps allow them to enjoy reading. When the canines are here, the students always want to read,” said fifth grade teacher Mandy Langdon.

Keshanna Brown with Jack
Mr. Matt Boyer, 5th and 6th grade principal, said "this is an outstanding program that gives our students an opportunity to experience the joys of reading in an environment that is warm and nurturing.”

“The kids enjoy reading to Mozart and it is an experience that they will not forget,” said fifth grade teacher Deb Wilson.

Each dog is accompanied by their handler and seems to enjoy the experience as much as the students.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

It was with no small degree of regret that I wrote last week's article about Marta Kiesling's departure from the Steel River Playhouse.

It marked another chapter in the never-ending story of How Pottstown Shoots Itself in the Foot Every Time; this time at an institution that had appeared to be immune.

I've known my share of theater people and accept as a given that they can be, no pun or insult intended, mercurial.

When you think about it, they kind of need to be in order to undertake the various quick changes of character and costume that are the mark of a successful theater person.

And I've also counseled tough love when The Mercury's arts editor tore her hair out over the organization's apparent inability to get us promotional materials in a timely enough manner to put them on the cover of our Thursday arts section where, we all agree, they belong.

But I never cotton to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Like your children, its possible to love and appreciate them for who they are, even when they drive you nuts.

I always just considered those frustrations to be part of the price we pay to have Steel River in town.

And we definitely want Steel River in town.

Now I know there are plenty of people involved in that organization's success, and I know that as the contact person with The Mercury, and the person out front with the community, it is possible for me to get an outsized impression of Kiesling's importance at Steel River.

But my gut, which is not insubstantial, tells me good or bad, that she was at the center of the action and what we'll get without her remains an unknown.

Since no one on the board of directors there has denied Kiesling's assertions Steel River is pursuing a "new direction," and that's why she says she left, I find myself asking one question: "What was wrong with the direction they were going in the first place?"

Here we have a home-grown theater organization, deeply embedded with the schools and the community, producing first-rate productions that introduce local kids and their parents to the miracles of live performance in a way no class in the works of Shakespeare ever could.

Here we have an organization that, despite being in debt, operates in the black and successfully renovated and occupied a downtown building in Pottstown, which is what we say we all want.

And here we have an organization that put on these first-rate productions using a hybrid of professional and local people which were not so ridiculously expensive that going to a show did not necessarily mean your youngest could not go to college.

I have to wonder, what's wrong with that direction?

What's worse is we've been through this before, but as usual, Pottstown's long-term memory is limited to how great it was when we had factories and cruising.

Does the name Pottstown Symphony ring a bell?

Anyone?

Here we had a home-grown, albeit quirky, organization that was kept going largely by the energies of a nigh-inexhaustible enthusiast and a new, "professional" person was brought in to "take it to the next level."

Well intentioned?

Yes.

Talented?

Sure.

Successful here in Pottstown?

Not a chance.

Why?

WE HAVE NO MONEY!

The sad fact of the matter is, we do not have enough of an upper class, or upper middle class, with enough disposable income here, that is inclined to spend that money here to support local organizations with delusion of grandeur.

We only have enough money to support those organizations that we already know and whose mission is familiar and useful and affordable.

Until we bring in better paying jobs, such constructs are built without an economic foundation on which to stand.

We can do a lot of things in Pottstown folks, no question, but the ones that work are the ones that involve everyone because that's the only way we can afford it.

Dropping in out of the sky with a model that worked somewhere else, a place where there was a critical mass of people with enough money to spend on something that may not be familiar won't work in Pottstown, unless its a chain restaurant, for which we seem to have an inexplicable desire.

The power of advertising I suppose. Homogenizing America one town at a time.

Talk about setting the bar low.

"We need an Olive Garden! We need an Olive Garden!"

Please.

Why? So they can take our money and ship it out of our community to some company that's traded on the stock exchange?

Better to eat at Henry's Cafe. Better food and better for your community.

Anyway, back to the arts and what will and won't work here.

Case in point, Jamey's House of Music, the failure of which I also had the displeasure of reporting last week.

Would it have been cool?

Yup.

Would I have loved to have a place where you could see everything from country to world music while eating Asian/fusion cuisine?

Sure.

But I had my doubts.

The numbers don't lie and when you look at Pottstown area demographics, you see the truth of the matter.

The median household income in the borough is around $43,000 with 18 percent below poverty. That's "household" income, not individual.

Among families with children, judging by the school's free lunch program, that poverty rate is closer to 70 percent.

Anything that doesn't have a lot of local support from day one is in for a rough ride and not many arts organizations have enough spare cash lying around to keep things afloat until they build a following.

And each failure, just builds on Pottstown's reputation for failure.

Blame The Mercury if you like, but I say blame human nature. We remember the one day of car wreck coverage, whether it involves actual cars or organizations, better than we recall months of quiet, competent, successful operation.

Beyond that, set economics and demographics aside.

Because people will continue to insist on being people, and the ability of people to willfully blind themselves to the big picture so they can be king or queen for a day is truly awesome and terrible to behold.

I'm witnessing it now even in a comparatively small and well-established operation, the Pottstown Schools Music Association, which is currently eating its seed corn in a nasty squabble over who will be the next president of that organization.

Both candidates, who are not only friends but relatives, insist they are mystified by "the drama" of the whole thing -- secret e-mails, commandeered voters, flexible eligibility requirements.

But neither of them, or the people working the levers behind the scenes, is leader enough to say "you know what, the organization and its mission (the kids? You'll remember them?) is more important than who the next president is. I'll step aside so we can put this behind us and we can all start working together again on the actual mission."

Instead, we're apparently going to behave like the middle schoolers who are supposed to be among our constituents. Great example for the kids by the way.

Who, I have to wonder, wants to become the head of any organization that way?

So even though the only things that have ever worked in Pottstown -- particularly where the arts are concerned -- are those which involve the maximum number of people; people who only have so much to give, be it time or money, from the smallest to the largest organizations, we continue to fracture ourselves into smaller and smaller camps, with fewer and fewer followers, speaking with smaller and smaller voices.

Frankly, its an indulgence we cannot afford.

And we wonder why we can't have nice things.