Budget Questions and First Firefighter of the Year

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottstown Fire Chief Michael Lessar congratulates Michael Sedlock of t he North End Fire Company who is retiring after 48 years of volunteer service and was named the first-ever Pottstown Firefighter of the Year.

The Firefighter of the Year Award

Wednesday night was a very long meeting, with a very long agenda and lots of information which, at midnight, my head is a little too thick to convey coherently.

Instead, I will offer some highlights, the most important of which is related to the budget and its 18 percent tax hike.

No decisions were made about the budget and in a weird kind of kabuki budget theater, Vice President Sheryl Miller outlined some specific cuts, only to be told that council can only suggest areas to cut and its up to the borough manager to make it happen.

So despite Miller suggesting several specific administrative cuts, such as not hiring an assistant public works director, getting rid of one of two human resources director assistants and cutting down on open window hours, Borough Manager Mark Flanders and Council President Dan Weand kept asking her "what services to you want to cut?"

It was frustrating to watch and, likely, more frustrating to live through.

Also important is the return of the folks from Department of Community and Economic Development's Governor's Center for Local Government Services were back.

Their Early Intervention Program, started back in 2007 and completed in 2009, is what created a report with 122 suggestions on ways Pottstown could economize. They would like to do the same thing again, which council seemed amendable to, but which would not be soon enough to affect the proposed 2018 budget.

Also significant is a plan for the construction of the new station in Memorial Park for the Colebrookdale Railroad, which will require a land swap to happen.

Nathaniel Guest, who runs the railroad, said so far most of the nearly $2 million in economic impact is in Boyertown, because there is a station there, and he wants some of that benefit to come to Pottstown, "my home town."

Anyway, lots of other things in the works, such as a proposal to establish a group home at 306 N. Charlotte St., which is on the northeast corner of the intersection with Lincoln Avenue, but for now, you will have to be satisfied with the Tweets from the meeting ...