A New Era Begins for Pottstown Borough Council

Photos by Evan Brandt

Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas, a Republican, poses for a

"bi-partisan photo" with newly selected Borough 

Council President 

Dan Weand, a Democrat.

So a rumored floor fight between Third Ward Councilwoman Sheryl Miller and Fifth Ward Councilman Dan Weand for the presidency of Borough Council failed to materialize Monday night.

Rather, a rather sedate re-organizational meeting put Weand, now in his sixth year in office, into the top spot and Miller, still in her first term, as Vice President.

Newly sworn-in Sixth Ward Councilwoman Rita Paez cast the only vote against Weand and she tried to enlist First Ward Councilman Ryan Procsal to be council president.

He declined, saying he had every intention of nominating and voting for Weand, which he did.

Otherwise it was pretty much business as usual as re-organizational meetings go.

New Fourth Ward Councilman Dennis Arms, right, is welcomed to 

borough council by Mayor Thomas and new Pottstown School Board

member Emanuel Wilkerson, who was Arms' student not too long ago.

Chuck Garner remains borough solicitor, although how he plans to attend meetings on the same night as those in New Hanover Township, where he was sworn in as an elected supervisor Monday night, remains an unanswered question.

There was one fly in the ointment however,

Borough Manager Mark Flanders said he received a letter of resignation from Coleen Belovich, who had been elected in November as Pottstown's new tax collector.

He did not say why she resigned, but it is the second time that has happened in Pottstown. The first time both in Pottstown and in Upper Pottsgrove, was due to new legal requirements to be a tax collector.

New elected Sixth Ward Councilwoman Rita Paez, center, 

takes the oath of office Monday.

By the way, Holly Gauger, the women voters chose to be Upper Pottsgrove's new tax collector, also announced on Township Commissioner Martin Schreiber's Facebook page, that she too would not be able to fill the office due to "reasoning outside of my control."

Not sure what that means, but we'll let you know when we do.

We'll also let you know what happened at the organizational meetings for Lower Pottsgrove, Douglass (Mont.) and New Hanover, all of which also happened last night (as they did in North Coventry and East Coventry as well.)

In the meantime, here are the Tweets from Monday night's council meeting.