Let There Be (Pottstown Stadium) Lights!

HIP HIP HORRAY! The lights are returning to Grigg Memorial Stadium at Pottstown High School!

Friday night football is coming back to Pottstown this fall.

With a unanimous vote, the Pottstown School Board accepted a $250,000 grant delivered by state Sen. Robert Mensch, R-24th Dist., which will allow new field lights to be erected at the high school football stadium.

The grant came about as the result of lobbying contact Mensch had with Schools Superintendent
Stephen Rodriguez and local businessman Aram Ecke;r and the fact that as the leader of the Republican caucus in the state senate, he had access to funds that other legislators do not.

"He told me he would not forget Pottstown," said Ecker. "And here we have a politician who kept his word."

Stephen Anspach, the district's director of co-curricular activities, said Mensch will not only have a ticket to the first night game at the stadium this fall, "but to every game!"

Mensch, who was on hand at Thursday's school board meeting for the announcement -- along with the entire football team and the ever-present Trojan Man mascot -- said he was impressed with the organization of the fundraising effort and the turnout for the announcement.

"Being in leadership, there are certain benefits, besides the long hours, and I got a call from the majority leaders office who said we have some money from the Department of Education in the form of a grant and we were wondering could you make use of that money," Mensch said.

"And I said of course. And having had conversations with Mr. Rodriguez about the need for the lights, Pottstown was the first school district that came to mind," he said. "Seeing the response here, it makes you feel good that once in a while, government can do something positive."

School board member Polly Weand is hugged by her daughter
after the 

announcement that enough money is now available
to put new 

lights in Grigg Memorial Stadium.

Among those responding to the funding was board member Polly Weand, who has spearheaded the fundraising effort for three years and said in a voice trembling with emotion that "this is a another step in the revitalization of Pottstown."

Moments later, she received a hug from her daughter Betsy.

"This is a re-kindling of the spirit of Pottstown," said Weand, who did not run for reelection to the board in Tuesday's primary election.

School board members thanked Weand and student member Courteney Parry noted that "I remember the first meeting I attended as a new board member, we talked about the lights and seeing your passion on this issue really helped me understand what being a board member is about."

"The lights are back!" declared Rodriguez.

Trojan Man rallies the Pottstown High School football team

in preparation for the announcement that night games will
return 

during the 2017-18 season.

"We did it," said student and football player Aaron Diamond, "and thank you. Thank you Sen. Mensch, thank you Mr. and Mrs. Weand for all that you do.And I also want to thank all the community of Pottstown. We came together and we did something really huge and brought back a great tradition."

It's been three years since that tradition has been in abeyance.

The lights were removed in 2014 after it was determined that the wooden poles holding them up were no longer structurally sound.

The school board at the time determined that $300,000 cost should not be born by local taxpayers when the district struggles financially, and instead a community fund-raising campaign -- Save the Lights -- was born and headed by Weand.

Lawn signs and t-shirts were sold, contributions received from the teachers federation, the Pottstown School Music Association, anonymous donors, the Foundation for Pottstown Education and all the students who paid $1 for "casual Fridays" so they could forego the required school uniform rules.

Kevin Owens, president of the Pottstown Schools 

Music Association addresses the school board Thursday.

But no sooner did the district resolve the issue of lights for one field, problems with another set of field lights were raised.

Kevin Owens, the president of the Pottstown Schools Music Association, outlined the necessity of replacing the aging lights that shine on the "auxiliary field" near the school's tennis courts.

Replacement bulbs for those lights are no longer made or available and the scheduling problems that would ripple through the school and student activities without the lights are many, he said.

Because marching band practice begins in August, the lights are necessary for night practices to take place in the cooler part of the hot summer months.

The lights on Pottstown High School's "auxiliary field" are old

and out of date. New ones can be installed as part of a $146,653

lighting project planned for the high school.

Those night practices, which continue through the year, also allow band members to participate in athletics after school and still be in the band, Owens said.

However, a solution may already be at hand.

Kurt Heidel reported that the school board's facilities committee is recommending the auxiliary field lights be replaced as part of a broader outdoor security lighting project at the high school which facilities director Robert Krippelbauer secured at a cost of $146,653.

Heidel said initially he was opposed to the expenditure, but convinced to change his mind by Anspach's explanation of all the benefits those lights provide to as many as 70 students who are in the marching band.

The board will vote on that expenditure at the Monday, May 22 meeting, along with adopting a preliminary $62 million budget for the 2017-18 school year.

You can read about that in the Tweets below.

Will Tropical Treat Again Be Used to Sell Used Cars?

Photo by Evan Brandt

The former Tropical Treat, former used car dealership, former pawn shop, future car dealership on High Street in Stowe.

What was once a car hop, then a car shiop, then a pawn shop, may soon become a car shop again.

The West Pottsgrove Township Commissioners voted Wednesday to send to the zoning board an application by the owner of the property everyone who has lived here at least 20 years calls The Tropical Treat to once again be a used car lot.

For a short time, the immediately recognized site had gone from being a long-time used car dealer to a short-lived pawn shop.

But that all came to an end in January when state police raided the property for selling stolen property and the pawn shop quickly went out of business.

Because the use of the property had changed, Township Manager Craig Lloyd explained, the owner must apply for a special exception from the zoning hearing board, for it to return to a used car dealership.

"If that use had continued, this would not be necessary," said Commissioners Chairman Steve Miller.

In its heyday, the Tropical Treat was one end of the famous and infamous Pottstown "cruising" circuit. The other end was The Hilltop burger joint in Sanatoga, with classic and not-so-classic cars cruising along High Street between the two.

The board also voted to send a new billboard ordinance to the planning commission for comment and made further announcement about plans for the Community Day set for Oct. 14.

But you can read all about it in the Tweets below...

Budget Blues and Quid Pro Quo in Upper Pottsgrove

Photo by Evan Brandt

State Sen. Robert Mensch, R-24th Dist., discusses the Pennsylvania budget at the Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners Meeting Monday night.

Bob Mensch says this year's budget discussions in Harrisburg may involve the hardest choices he has ever seen in more than a decade in state politics.

Speaking by invitation of the Upper Pottsgrove Township Commissioners Monday night, he said "we've swept all the corners for revenues. We're at the point now where the budget is hinging on gaming and state stories," neither of which has much to offer over the long term.

"State stores, if we do what's being proposed, is a one-time boost and that's it," he said.

"Gaming is not a growth industry," Mensch warned. "Only about 4 percent of the population gambles. We can expand and put more terminals out there, but we're not really doing anything to grow the economy."

"We're at the point now where, as a state, we';re going to face some increasingly difficult decisions about what we fund and what we don't fund," Mensch said.

"Our revenues are down, primarily our business revenues, our business taxes are down, which means that while the national economy is picking up steam, we're not picking up the same steam because we haven't done what we need to do here in Pennsylvania to encourage business," Mensch said.

You can see the full content of Mensch's comments in this video here:


And while the commissioners discussed a number of subjects Monday night, most of which involved more than $300, it perhaps the bill of $300 which was the most newsworthy.

It seems that when a car show was organized and staged in the parking lot of Pottsgrove Middle School a few months ago, organizers were under the impression there would be no charge.

But weeks later, they received an invoice from the district for $300 because a custodian was on duty because the outside-access rest rooms had to be made available for the event.

That did not sit well with the organizers, township recreation and open space committee and ultimately, the commissioners themselves.

They noted that Upper Pottsgrove spends thousands of dollars each year to upgrade, improve and maintain the soccer fields at Hollenbach Park at the expense of just township taxpayers -- fields made available not only free of charge to the school district, which has students from all three Pottsgrove townships -- but fields to which the district has priority of use.

To add insult to what Commissioners Chairman Elwood Taylor called "an affront," public works supervisor Frank Quinter confirmed that the district has not fertilized the soccer fields at Hollenbach as it had promised to do.

"The township spends thousands of dollars on field maintenance for free use by district and they want to stiff us for $300 bucks," said Open Space Committee Chairman Dennis Elliott in what was perhaps the most pithy quote on that subject.

As a result, Elliott said the Open Space Committee has recommended the commissioners begin exploring the idea of charging the school district for the use of the Hollenbach Park fields.

"Well we don't charge any of the other organizations that use those fields so this could get interesting," noted Commissioners Chairman Elwood Taylor.

Instead, he suggested, it might be better for the township and school district to sit down and try to reach some accommodation.

Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are the Tweets.