All 'Dressed' Up and Somewhere to Paddle

Kayakers line up to pass through Lock 60.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Take it Outdoors Adventures.

MONT CLARE–Take it Outdoors Adventures is sponsoring a five-mile loop paddle along the Schuylkill Canal and Schuylkill River to benefit the Schuylkill Canal Association on Wednesday Aug. 27 at 6 p.m.

All are invited to come out to Lock 60 on the Schuylkill Canal in Mont Clare and join in the paddle, which is appropriate for all experience levels. 

Minimum donation is $20 per person. Kayak rentals are available for an additional $20 (advance registration required).

As an incentive, Take it Outdoors Adventures owner Doug Chapman has vowed to paddle the five-mile loop on a standup paddle board in a dress if $1,000 is raised.

All participants 21 and older will receive one free Sly Fox Beer and one voucher for a free beer from Sly Fox’s Phoenixville or Pottstown location. There may be other incentives.

Lock 60 is the only remaining operating lock on the Schuylkill Canal. 

It is maintained by a dedicated crew of volunteers who donate time, equipment and money to keep the canal functioning. 

This year alone thousands of dollars were spent clearing trees out of the canal so recreational boaters are able to navigate its waters.

Many of the volunteers will participate in this fundraiser. Please come out and support them and the work they do to maintain the canal.

To sign up for this event visit www.takeitoutdoorsadventures.com or email doug@takeitoutdoorsadventures.com.

Delays, Donations and Unfortunate Vacancies

There were some serious subjects on the table Thursday night for the Pottstown School Board meeting.

They included board's frustration at the last-minute decision not to open Rupert Elementary School for the first day of school and instead send students and teachers to the former Edgewood School they attended last year for the start of school.

There was also discussion of replacing School Board Vice President Dennis Wausnock, who died Tuesday, and the suggestion that the board should go out of its way to recruit a member of the "minority community."

And there was the news that not only has Gerry Lenfest, who founded Suburban Cable and now owns the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, donated $10,000 to the effort to build new lights at Grigg Memorial Field, but also that an unnamed donor has offered to match the fundraising effort, and all Pottstown now has to raise is $150,000.

And then there was the "brain break," which is something teachers now do in Pottstown Schools to give students a chance to recharge and get some physical activity, but which Superintendent Jeff Sparagana also felt the board should do from time to time.

Observe:



You can read all below as it was Tweeted live by yours truly, despite a temperamental Twitter app.

As always, don't forget to click the blue "Read Next Page" bars to ensure full exposure to every pithy Tweet.

The Wheels of Fortune

This Honda Fit, or $15,000 cash, is the grand prize.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown Area Senior Center

There is only about a week remaining to get your tickets for the 18th annual Pottstown Area Seniors’ Center car raffle. 

The grand prize drawing will be held on Sept. 1 at 6 p.m., and the grand prize winner will have their choice of a brand new Honda Fit or $15,000 cash. 

In addition, there are six cash prizes from $250 to $50.

“This is a great way for the community to support the senior center,” said Brian Parkes, executive director. “And of course, one lucky person will walk away with a brand new car or $15,000 cash!”

Proceeds from the raffle will be used to support programs for seniors in the greater Pottstown area.  

The senior center offers nearly 40 programs and services each week – everything from exercise programs such as Yoga and Tai Chi, to a free daily nutritious lunch, to support groups, to card games, and much, much more. 

Additionally, a staff member is available to help seniors choose and access health care benefits, and fill out the often complicated forms.

“Nearly 1,500 seniors every year stop by the senior center, and many come on a daily basis,” said Parkes. “Many of our participants would be sitting home alone. Instead, they come to the senior center to see their friends, socialize, exercise, play games, and receive the help they need to remain living independently.”

Car raffle tickets are $10 each, or four for $30. Tickets may be purchased at the senior center at 288 Moser Road, Pottstown (the former Pottstown Health Club), from 8am to 4pm on weekdays, or at the Pottstown Walmart on most weekends. The car is provided by Piazza Honda.

The Pottstown Area Seniors’ Center serves adults age 50 and better with programs and services including information and referral assistance, a daily free lunch, exercise programs, social activities, and much more. The Mission of the Pottstown Area Seniors’ Center is to enhance the well-being of its members by providing services and activities that promote an independent and healthy life style. The Pottstown Area Seniors’ Center has more than 3,400 members, and anyone living in the tri-county area (Berks, Chester and Montgomery Counties) who is 50+ years of age is welcome to join the senior center. Learn more at www.greaterpasc.com.

Of Pipes, Rails, Meters and Stations

Photo by Evan Brandt

A slide from Nathaniel Gust's presentation to the
Pottstown Borough Authority.

So it's not too often that you go to a water and sewer authority meeting and end up talking about an historic railroad.

But in Pottstown, anything can happen.

So who was at last night's Pottstown Borough Authority Meeting but Nathaniel Guest, the unsleeping champion of the Colebrokdale Railroad.

He was there with a problem.

To make the whole project work, the railroad needs to establish ts historic train station in Memorial Park in a location visible from High Street.

The problem is the best site is right on top of a sewer line that runs through Memorial Park.

He came to the Borough Authority with a request.

Read the Tweets below to find out what happened, as well as a $3 million project to help water meters get read remotely and $6 million in pending water and sewer projects in the borough.

Douglass and Upper Pottsgrove in One Night

So the life of the lowly municipal government reporter is nothing if not complicated.

Monday night, I attended the Douglass (Mont.) Supervisors meeting only to find them behaving like perfectly reasonable people.

What fun is that?

So on my way home, I stopped in at Upper Pottsgrove's Commissioner's meeting and caught the VERY tail end of that meeting, but got some interesting tips.

Some of them appear below, others, I will keep close to the vest....

Under Construction

Mercury Photo by John Strickler

The construction project at Pottsgrove High School will prevent normal parking and pick-up and drop-off procedures during the school year, Principal William Ziegler has announced.

There's another impact looming as a result of the construction and renovation project at Pottsgrove High School.

Principal William Ziegler has announced that School Lane, the road that links North Charlotte Street to the high school, will be closed for bus drop-off and pick-up during certain times on certain days.

Photo from Pottsgrove School Disrtict Web Site
It is not possible to drive around Pottsgrove High School 

during the construction project.

In the mornings, it will be closed from 7 to 7:35 a.m. Monday through Friday.

In the afternoons, it will be closed Wednesdays from 1:25 to 2 p.m., and on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 1:55 to 2:30 p.m.

Further, for those students who drive themselves to school, the south parking will be open from Kauffman Road only.

Students are still permitted to park in this lot and parking permits will be given out the first week of school.

Access around the building will be closed as well as the access through the football stadium-side of the building.

This is the entrance where parents are being asked to

drop-off and pick-up their students.

All parent pick-up and drop off is to take place at the high school's main entrance, the round lot adjacent to the district office.

Parents are asked to drop off their students and keep moving "to allow for other parents to get in."

For parent pick-up, the line will line up along the curb all the way past the district office entrance.

Also, be aware vehicles cannot make a left out of the front of that lot due to the closure of School Lane during dismissal.

Buses will be dropping off and picking up at the North Entrance of School along the 100 and Science corridor.

For more updates on the high school construction project, check out the page dedicated to it on the district web site.

Castor has High Praise for Pottstown's Carousel

Blogger's Note: The following is a transcript of comments made by Montgomery County Commissioners Bruce Castor at the conclusion of the commissioners meeting of Aug. 7, 2014 regarding his recent visit to the Carousel at Pottstown.

Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor, right,

gets information from volunteer Jim Arms.

I have something to which I would like to commend the commissioners’ attention.


I visited the Carousel at Pottstown and I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a little bit silly, but it was as far from that as possible.

I was completely stunned by the carousel.

It is very close to the western campus of the community college, and also close to Pottsgrove Manor and the new miniature golf course they have there and also close to the Colebrookdale Railway, which is being established to take people to Boyertown.

Pottstown Borough Council President Steve Toroney,
left, 

and Borough Manager Mark Flanders explain
the advantages 

of the Carousel at Pottstown
to Commissioner Castor.

That is part of a Berks County and Montgomery County partnership to drive tourism in that western part of our county and eastern Berks County.

I was incredibly impressed by the carousel, which is the second oldest carousel in the country.

And the thing I found fascinating is the center pole the carousel revolves around is a re-purposed mast from a sailing ship from the Philadelphia Shipyard.

The carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1902 and a local artist from Boyertown has repainted all the murals with great scenes of Montgomery County and, as part of the fundraising, painted in pictures of people’s children n period clothing and irs really quirte expertly done.

They are very very close to bring able to open up.

And this is part of a revitalization effort with all of these things right within walking distance, the community college, the carousel, which will have arcades and concessions, and Pottsgrove manor and the gold course and the railroad.

These people are thinking out there and they’re thinking in such a way by asking themselves how is

Commissioner Castor meets some of the project's volunteers.

it we can drive people to utilize the shops and restaurants and patronize these businesses so they don’t have to drive a long distance to go to each individual thing; it’s all centrally located.

So they’re looking for money and putting the finishing touches on the building and trying get things up and running.

Obviously, I’m not in a position to make such promises, but I promised to bring back the information they gave me and to give it to (Deputy COO Lee Soltysiak).

I flat-out said we are not in the business of giving money away, and we always look very carefully at that sort of thing and the first thing out of their mouths was that ‘we already have a donor willing to match dollar for dollar whatever money we can get in.

So they are really focusing on the need to drive tourism to a central location, to those resources to make it easy for families to do a lot of things in a small geographic area and they recognize that government is not the solution to every problem.

And I think that the people in Pottstown have their act together and this is a project I’m delighted I now know about.

And I hope in the future the county will be in a position where we can give it careful consideration and support it if we consider it worthy.