The County Commissioners Are Coming to Town

Montgomery County Commissioners, from left, Josh shapiro, Val Arkoosh and Joseph Gale.

Did you have anything you'd like to ask the Montgomery County Commissioners?

Maybe you want to know what so much county funding drives so much low-income housing to the borough.

Maybe you'd like to hear why they don't provide additional county dollars to help with the additional load those low-income families put on our police department and schools.

Or maybe you just want to know when the Schuylkill River Trail will be finished.

Well Monday night is your chance.

The commissioners are starting their goodwill tour, which they call "Conversations with Commissioners” town hall meetings right here in Pottstown.

They will be at the Montgomery County Community College West Campus South Hall Community Room located at 101 College Drive, on Monday at 7 p.m.

Maybe you should be too.

“These sessions are a very effective way to keep residents informed about what we are doing and to hear what issues are foremost on their minds” Commissioner Chair Josh Shapiro said in a prepared statement.

“These sessions are another way we use to keep residents informed about what we are doing in county government,” said Commissioner Val Arkoosh said in a press release about the series.

“We live stream our board meetings online and use social media a great deal to inform everyone about what is going on in the county," she said, "but the ‘Conversations’ provide a true, personal level of contact with our constituents.”

More Cowbell With Your Concert Sir?

If Christopher Walken wasn't present for this year's Pottstown High School Spring Concert, he was at least there in spirit.

To get that joke, you need to be familiar with the infamous Saturday Night Live skit in which Will Ferrell plays an over-enthusiastic cowbell player at the recording session of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper."

No matter how over the top he gets (not including how his stomach is over the top of his pants), producer Christopher Walken wants more -- as in "I've the fever, and the prescription is more cowbell!"

And to understand why you're reading about this in a blog post about Pottstown High School's spring concert, you need to know that Director Michael Vought gave the band some freedom this year to have input into the program -- and that's what they came up with.

As the band played a medley of "Don't Fear the Reaper," "Tequila" and "Oye Como Va," some members armed with cowbells did what cowbell players do best.

The Jazz Band added a new number to their repertoire,

Trombone Shorty's "Buck Jump."

But that was at the end.

Before we got to any of those shenanigans, we heard first from the Jazz Band, which added a new number to their repertoire, as well as from a spin-off of the Jazz Band, a trio who call themselves "The Gentlemen."

They are comprised of trombonist Kyle Kratzer, baritone saxophonist Casey Mest and guitarist Gary Oberholtzer. As is evident in the video below, it is definitely something different.

The Pottstown High School Flute Ensemble

Then veteran music educator Nancy Mest took the stage with her flute and clarinet ensembles, students she has taught since they were wee little musicians.

After a nice intermission, we came to the main event, which was the full concert band, which played five numbers, the last of which featured quite a bit of cowbell.

The Pottstown High School Concert Band

Another example of input from the students was the selection of the theme from
"Avengers: Age of Ultron," just in time for the release of the next Captain America movie.

For extra authenticity, some of the low brass donned masks and helmets that Tony Stark would have been proud to call his own.

Senior Awards await presenting.

Before closing out with said cowbell feature, and an impromptu and spirited rendition of the marching band anthem, "Horse" -- which had the band members spelling out "Trojans" at the top of their lungs -- there were the senior awards.

And without further ado, we present the Tweets (and some cowbell).

Planners Back More Development at Upland Square

Photo by Evan Brandt

Ed Reitz, a planner from Douglass (Mont.), left, and Kurt Zebrowski, a planner from New Hanover, take a closer look at the site plans for the commercial expansion off State Street, opposite Upland Square, in West Pottsgrove.

Although Wednesday night's meeting of the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee lasted barely 30 minutes, it did manage to generate some news.

Plans for the development of nearly 20 acres across Upland Drive from the Upland Square Shopping Center and behind the recently constructed Citadel Bank building are moving forward.

Owned by the Gambone group, the first concept plan was submitted to the township in 2011.

That plan, completed by Kennedy and Assoc., included a 100-room hotel; 105,000 square feet of retail space; 11,000 square-feet of restaurant space; a 4,000 square-foot bank, a gas station/convenience store and a 918-space parking lot.

Some of uses have been pared down and the plan presented to the regional planners Wednesday night calls for two retails buildings, one of which will be a grocery story, several restaurants, including one that specializes in Chicken Wings, and a dentist's office, said West Pottsgrove Commissioner Dominic Gentile.

The current plan shows no development plans for the 

Upper Pottsgrove portion of the site, shown on the right.

The grocery store has previously been identified as Lidl, a German-based chain that offers food similar to the Aldi in Lower Pottsgrove at the Home Depot off Armand Hammer Boulevard.

Upper Pottsgrove Commissioner Elwood Taylor said his township has supported development at the site, but wants to ensure that access remains solely off Route 100.

"Upper Pottsgrove has been very supportive of development in this area from the git-go," said Taylor. "There was controversy int he comminity about expanding commecial development in this area and UP stood up and defended that decision and so we're excited to see this happen," Taylor said.

"Our concern is that access to the Upper Pottsgrove parcels be maintained through the new development," given that there are currently no plans to develop those parcels.

"The crux of the issue is State Street to the north is residential, and for the last 10 years, we have been very careful about not allowing State Street to become a throughway to a commercial center," said Taylor.

With those concerns expressed, the regional planners voted to allow Montgomery County Planner Donna Fabry to write a letter declaring that the project complies with the regional Master Plan, which targete commercial growth for that area.

And with that, here are the Tweets from an otherwise very short meeting:

Pottsgrove Has Zero Tax Hike Budget in Sight

Charged with finding a way to craft a 2016-17 budget without raising taxes, its looking like the Pottsgrove Schools Administration will get a a lot of help from the state.

Expecting maybe $100,000 more than the previous year's budget, the state spending plan that went into effect without Gov. Tom Wolf's signature will actually be providing about $300,000 more, Business Manager David Nester told the board Tuesday night.

Back in February, Nester presented the board with a first budget look that indicated the possibility of a 2 percent tax hike -- an increase of $91 for the average district homeowner.

The board in turn, instructed the administration to return with budget scenarios for what it would take to get to a 1 percent tax hike, and to a 0 percent tax hike.

Having already begun work on that charged with a series of potential savings initiatives -- some of which are outlined in the Tweets below -- Nester said the news out of Harrisburg was, for a change, better than expected.

"I think we can get close to zero," Nester said. "How close, until we get more answers, I can't tell you. I'm confident we can get under 1 percent, but how close we can get to zero, I can't tell you yet."

One key factor may be how quickly the state can act on its plans for PlanCon, the funding mechanism to provide partial state reimbursement for school construction costs.

Nester said the Pottsgrove budget has $850,000 in this line, but he is concerned about whether the state can borrow and distribute the $2.5 billion will be a budget factor for Pottsgrove.

If it comes during the current budget year, it will be a boon, but if not, it may create an $850,000 shortfall in the 2016-17 budget.

"Right now we're feeling positive, but whether we can get close to zero, depends on how much things change," he said.

Nester's advice, which the board took, is to present the proposed final budget to the board at its next meeting. That will have the latest figures available, allow the budget to be advertised and "available for public inspection" and still provide 45 days to make further adjustments.

"I've been involved wit this process for four years," said Pottsgrove Schools Superintendent Rick Rabinowitz, "and in my experience the proposed final budget always gets reduced, and I have to say these numbers certainly are encouraging."

Here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Out of 11 Applicants , New Hanover Supervisors Chose Only Woman to Apply to Replace Muller

Photo by Evan Brandt

Phil Agliano, vice chairman of the New Hanover Supervisors,

congratulates Marie Livelsberger on her selection
as the newest township supervisor.

From a surprisingly long list of 11 candidates to replace Doug Muller on the board of supervisors, the remaining board members Monday chose the only woman to apply.

Marie Livelsberger, who two years ago worked for the township and is on New Hanover's Board of Auditors, was their unanimous choice.

The North Charlotte Street resident, who now works in the human resources department at the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District, said she wants to give back to the community in which she has lived for 40 years.

Livelsberger didn't get the appoint without some confusion, as it became apparent during the special meeting held Monday that the application and resume of one of the applicants, Jim Butler, was never provided to the supervisors.

Luckily for Jim Butler, he attended the meeting and alerted the supervisors to the oversight.

Attendance at the meeting was a strong selling point for some of the supervisors, but resident Celeste

Other than a notice in the Town & Country, this sign was the only

public notice of a special meeting held Monday to choose

a new township supervisor to replace Doug Muller. 

Bish pointed out to the board that a notice in the Town and Country newspaper was the only way anyone would have known to be there in the first place.

"What if they don't subscribe to Town and Country?" Bish asked.

She pointed out that the special meeting was not posted on the township web site and, as Supervisor Andrew Kelly noted, the township did not reach out to those who applied to let them know about the meeting.

Nevertheless, the supervisors moved forward, partially by process of elimination, and partially by stating their preference.

The vote to appoint Livelsberger was unanimous.

It was unclear to this reporter, who had to dash off to a Pottstown School Board meeting, if the supervisors also chose to re-organize and name a new chairman Monday night or not, given that one supervisor, Charles D. Garner Jr., could not be present for the regular meeting.

Anyway, here are the Tweets from the roughly hour-long special meeting.

Cluster Offers to Pay Some School Taxes Too

Super Cool Panoramic Photo by Evan Brandt's iPhone

Green-shirted members of the Federation of Pottstown Teachers stood for nearly an hour Monday night as teachers, students and parents testified to the school board about how a particular teacher had changed the lives of students.

The latest tactic by the Federation of Pottstown Teachers in their ongoing efforts to pressure the school board into a settlement that includes raises was unveiled Monday.

A total of 14 speakers -- teachers, parents, students and teachers reading student letters -- took to the lecturn Monday night to talk about the value of teachers.

But while that is significant, and will be addressed in an upcoming Mercury article for how it intertwines with a salary dispute on the board, it was not the most significant news of the night.

Also on the agenda was the Pottstown Cluster of Churches and their pending zoning hearing regarding the non-profit's use of 61 N. Franklin St.

Already rebuffed by Borough Council, which voted 6-1 earlier this month to oppose the zoning relief, the Cluster turned to the school board and, in a change of position, offered to pay 25 percent of their school property tax bill in the same way they had pledged to pay 25 percent of their borough property tax bill.

It would amount to about $1,000 out of a $4,009 tax bill, said Picardi.

The Payment In Lieu of Taxes offer, called a PILOT, was no more effective an offer with the school board than it was with council.

Once board member Thomas Hylton made plain that from 2008 to 2014, Cluster revenues jumped from $341,000 to $1.8 million in just six years, there seemed to be little appetite on the board to support the zoning request.

Hylton pointed to Cluster attorney Kenn Picardi that the school district "is in the lifting people out of poverty business" and that public education has a much broader impact on lifting people out of poverty than any of the Cluster education programs.

"I think we need to make a strong statement to the Cluster," Hylton told the school board in making a motion to send a letter to the zoning board in opposition to the zoning relief sought by the Cluster.." $1.8 million in revenue and they can't pay $5,000 in taxes?"

Hylton's motion to send the letter of opposition was approved unanimously.

Now, here are the Tweets, videos and links from the meeting.

Would You Like Some Jazz With Those Pancakes?

A panoramic photo of the Pottstown Middle School 7th-8th Grade Jazz Band playing to a packed cafeteria at Pottstown High School Saturday at the 1st-Ever Jazz and Pancake Breakfast fundraiser.

There was facepainting too.

In some places, you have to sing for your supper, but here in Pottstown we do it a little differently;, sometimes you have to "perform for your pancakes."

That's what Pottstown student jazz musicians did Saturday with the high school and two middle school jazz bands all performing for a capacity breakfast crowd at the Pottstown High School cafeteria.

The occasion was the first-ever Pancake and Jazz Breakfast fundraiser hosted by the Pottstown Schools Music Association,

The breakfast was in place of the Jazz Spaghetti dinner the PSMA held for the past two years as a way of trying something different.

(It also meant all the instruments and sound equipment did not have to be transported across town to the Good Will Firehouse.)

We had so many people that we had to run out and get more pancake mix, after we served up more than 1,000 pancakes and people still wanted more.

"The Gentlemen" are, from left, Casey Mest, Gary Overholtzer

and Kyle Kratzer.

No word yet on how much was raised to help pay for all those other costs music education incurs that
is all too often not in the school budget.

What we can say was that once again, the word was spread about the quality and vitality of the district's music education program.

Perhaps some of the best evidence of that was a somewhat impromptu performance by "The Gentlemen," a three-man high school jazz band spin-off comprised of baritone saxophonist Casey Mest, guitarist Gary Overholtzer and trombonist Kyle Kratzer.

Two Pottstown teachers who help instill that love of

music, Nancy Mest and Ben Hayes with two likely

future musicians.

So enamored are they of playing music that they even do it on the side, presenting a surprising and spot-in interpretation of a Green Day tune and another by Trombone Shorty.

And anyone who heard the two middle school jazz bands perform can tell how that love of music, and the desire and ability to play it well, is fomented.

Both those bands rocked the house and kept people in the hard seats of the high school cafeteria.

But don't take my word for it, troll down through the Tweets and photos below and listen to the limited videos my iPhone battery allowed me to shoot and judge for yourselves.

These kids have got swing.