Pottstown Inducts New Honor Society Members

The Pottstown High School National Honor Society induction ceremony was held in November.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

In a special candle-lighting service, the Pottstown High School National Honor Society inducted 16 new members into the society. 

“This was another successful induction of some of Pottstown's most talented and dedicated students. I look forward to working with them in the coming years to positively impact our students, district, and community,” said Sponsor Jennifer Mohr. 

From left, Ariana Garcia Secretary, Mitchell Aquino,
Vice President,  

Danielle McCoy High School Principal,
Asgar Ali President,  

London Aquino Treasurer 

During the ceremony, the four pillars of National Honor Society were described by students: 

Asgar Ali – Scholarship; 

Mitchell Aquino – Service; 

London Aquino – Leadership; and 

Ariana Garcia – Character. 

In order to be considered for membership, students must have a cumulative grade point average of 93% or above and fill out a personal data sheet that describes how they demonstrate their participation in the four pillars of National Honor Society. 

 A faculty panel then reviews each student’s information and makes recommendations for those who should be invited to become members. Membership requires a continued demonstration of living up to the four pillars of honor society. 

High School Principal Mrs. Danielle McCoy addressed the students and parents, “The honor bestowed on National Honor Society recipients is not easily earned. It isn’t enough to have excellent grades. Excellent grades only earn them the right to apply for membership. The students inducted also demonstrated stellar accomplishments in the areas of leadership, character, and service. It is not

From left, Mary Gery, Subrina Ali,
Abigail Welder and William Minnick

an accolade to be easily dismissed. It is a positive reflection on the students, their families, our school, and our community. These students represent the academic and well-rounded future leaders of our community and follow in the footsteps of outstanding PHS alumni."

New members are;10th grade: Kishan Patel, Naomi Parson, CyeNyla Hall, Hannah Wilson, Julianna Figueroa, Adriana Araujo, Austin Spence, Dylan Murphy,11th grade : Cheyanne Cwynar, KaWanza Barksdale Hodges, Paige Jones, Alexis White, 12th grade: Maryam Belgrave, Emily Hart, Reilly Owens and Sabrina Lias.

Pottsgrove's 'Pink Out' Gives $4,200 for Cancer Costs

Front row, from left, Kristi Rodriquez, Cassia O’Brien, Carly Morris, Sydney Wasdick, Savannah Lear and Danielle Leach, Treasurer of the Pottsgrove Booster Club. Rear row, from left, Steve Anspach, Athletic Director, Kim Rodriquez, William Ziegler, HS Principal, Anna Carroll, Jodi Sproule, Head Field Hockey Coach,  William Shirk, Superintendent of Schools, Lydia Mace, Nate Tornetta, Justin Adams, Hailey Yerger, Isaiah Glover, Patti Grimm, Board Member, Bill Hawthorne, Head Football Coach, Janiya Jones, Stephanie Van Horn, President of Pottsgrove Football Club and  Jaime Reinhart, Head Coach Girls Volleyball.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottsgrove School District.

Members of Pottsgrove’s Football, Field Hockey, Girls Volleyball and Cheerleading teams, along with members of the Pottsgrove Booster Club recently presented a check in the amount of $4,200 to the Phoenixville Cancer Center.

This is the eighth consecutive year Pottsgrove has contributed to the Patient Cancer Fund. 

Oncologist Amy Curran, accepts Pottsgrove's check from
Gary DeRenzo, Director of Community Relations
and Co-Curricular Programs and
school board member and cancer survivor Patti Grimm.

The Cancer Fund helps individuals who are being treated for cancer with the many incidental costs that are not covered by insurance. 

Oftentimes, patients cannot afford or are unable to drive to purchase groceries and other household necessities. The Patient Fund assists with those expenses so that patients can concentrate on their treatment.

Pottsgrove Booster Club, athletes and members of the community have contributed in excess of $15,000 for those patients. Each year, the Pottsgrove High School sponsors their annual “Pink Out” football game in support of those who have been affected by cancer. 

This year, Pottsgrove’s own Middle School Assistant Athletic Director and Trainer, Paul Exley and his wife, Lori, an Episcopalian priest, both diagnosed with cancer in the same year, served as Honorary Captains for the game.

Free Slavic Christmas Concert Sunday at St. John's

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Theoria.

Theoria, a quartet of four professional vocalists, will return to Pottstown to perform an a cappella concert of Slavic and other Eastern European Christmas music and Western carols on Sunday, Dec. 16 at 4 p.m. at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, 301 Cherry Street, Pottstown. 

This concert is free and open to the public.

Theoria was founded by Andrew Skitko, of Pottstown, who also directs the ensemble. Skitko regularly performs with the Opera Philadelphia chorus, as well as the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and The Same Stream Choir, which has recorded several albums of new choral music and recently performed in New York. 

He is an assistant producer and singer for The Ukrainian Art Song Project and the Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute based at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

He recently received a grant from The Eparchy of Passaic to expand the Theoria ensemble and perform as the choir-in-residence in New York City at St. Mary’s Byzantine Greek Catholic Church as part of a 2019 liturgical concert series.

Skitko is the paid cantor at the Assumption Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church in Trenton, where Theoria frequently performs, and he has served as a cantor at St. John’s church (Pottstown) and St. Michael’s Byzantine Church in Mont Clare.

Skitko also is a private voice teacher in the Pottstown area.

“We are very excited to return to Pottstown to share this unique music with my hometown community, support Pottstown’s growing arts presence, and again sing in the beautiful setting of St. John’s Byzantine Church,” Skitko said. “Past audiences, which have drawn from Reading, Philadelphia, and other surrounding areas, have been so warm and welcoming.

“This will be our second Christmas concert in Pottstown; the last concert here was in 2016,” he continued. “This space is perfect for a performance of this Slavic music, as St. John’s is known in this area for its distinctive ‘onion dome’ tower, stunning stained glass, and traditional iconography.

“We have been asked to return to Pottstown,” he added. “Previously, many of the audience members said they had never before heard traditional Slavic choral music and they were impressed by its beauty and hoped to hear more.”

The program will feature Carpatho-Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Russian works of composers such as Leontovych, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Skitko, a Hill School graduate, earned both his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance and his master’s degree in vocal performance and voice pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J.

He will be joined by vocalists and fellow Westminster Choir College graduates Lauren Delfing, alto; Brett Avery-Lawyer, tenor; and Rebecca Achtenberg, soprano.

Delfing earned her bachelor’s degree in music education. An original member of Theoria, she is the music and theater arts teacher at First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School and the associate director of Sister Cities Girlchoir.

Avery-Lawyer, also a founding Theoria member, received his degree in music education. While embracing his lifelong love for classical music, Avery-Lawyer currently works as an agent for Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty.

Achtenberg holds degrees in Voice Performance and Comparative Literature. Last fall, Rebecca made her debut with Tri-Cities Opera. She has been a fellow with the CoOPERAtive program, and has been involved in many premieres of new works, including a production of Lewis Nielson's Opera NOVA with Cleveland's Real Time Opera.

Convenient, free parking is available in the lot behind the church, which can be accessed via South Street. Handicapped access to the church is available via the South Street entrance. A free will offering will be accepted to help defray the performers’ expenses.

$14.5M Phoenixville Budget Hikes Taxes 3.8%

Phoenixville Borough Council Tuesday night unanimously adopted a $14.5 million general fund budget that will require a 3.8 percent tax hike to be balanced.

Borough Manager E. Jean Krack said the tax hike will cost the owners of a property assessed at the borough average of $100,075 an additional $22 in 2019.

When the draft budget was first presented to council in November, it called for a 6.5 percent tax hike and a millage rate of 6.27.

However Krack said since then the borough received "really very good rates from our insurance company, for liability, health and workers compo. Unfortunately, those numbers usually don't come in until late, so we had estimated them conservatively."

Other changes included an increase in some revenue projections as well as a $17 million increase in the overall assessed value of property in Phoenixville.

All of which combined to allow a budget that raises taxes by 3.8 percent instead of 6.5 percent. The 2019 millage rate will be 6.14 instead of 6.27.

That increase will raise the $171,067 to close the gap between budgeted revenues and expenditures, Krack said.

Krack said other funds such as parking, water and sewer are self-sustaining and paid by users.

None of the rates for those services will increase in 2019.

However, trash rates will go up by $4 per quarter due mostly to the borough's success with recycling.

Phoenixville Borough Council President James Kovaleski,
right, congratulates Louis Beccaria, executive director of
the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation on the
occasion of the foundation's 20th anniversary Tuesday.

He said the recycling market has softened since other countries stopped taking U.S. recycled materials and, as a result, it now costs more to dispose of.

No one spoke out at the meeting, either the public or members of council, prior to the vote on either the budget or the tax ordinance.

20 Years of Health Foundation

In other business, borough council also passed a resolution honoring the 20th anniversary of the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation.

According to the resolution, it began in 1998 with the merger of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and an endowment of $30 million.

Since it's inception, "the foundation has given, and this number is staggering, $37 million back to the community in grants, including numerous grants to assist the borough with revitalization," said Council President James Kovaleski.

Here is video of the entire resolution being read:

Beautification Awards

The Rev. Russell Mitman, Jen Dixon and Louis Beccaria.

Louis Beccaria, the executive director of the health foundation, also happens to be the chairman of
the borough's Beautification Advisory Board.

Tuesday night, he gave out the beautification awards in three categories.

In the Community Category, the award went to Parkside United Church of Christ and was accepted by the Rev. Russell Mitman and Jen Dixon.

Michael Hamara and Louis Beccaria

In the Commercial Category, the award went to Root Down Brewing Company and was accepted by Michael Hamara, co-owner.

In the Residential Category, the award was presented to Mr. and Mrs. Bill Evans.

Park Equipment

Council also approved the purchase of playground equipment for the "All Abilities Playground" planned for Reeves Park.

Mr. and Mrs. Bill Evans with Louis Beccaria

Krack said for more than a year, the borough has worked with civic groups and the community, obtaining grants and donations for the planned playground.

In fact just last month, the borough accepted a $2,500 prize check from Dallas Data Systems, Inc. for the park after it was named being the winner of the company's 2018 Commitment to Community Contest.

Krack said the borough will save money by buying the equipment now and getting end-of-year-pricing and the vendor will hold the equipment until spring when it can be installed.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

3.8% Tax Hike Approved for Phoenixville

Council Unanimously Adopts 9.5% Tax Hike

Arguably, the single most important thing local government does is pass a budget every year.

One year after raising considerable dust by hiking taxes by 12 percent, Pottstown Borough Council raised considerably less dust by hiking taxes another 9.5 percent.

No one showed up to complain.

In fact, hardly anyone on council said a word, with the exception of Councilman Joseph Kirkland.

Some readers may remember that last year, when the budget was passed by a 4-3 vote and the tax hike that loomed was above 18 percent, it was Kirkland who complained loudest that serious cost-cutting measures needed to be made.

He was the one who made the motion for a budget that raised taxes by 12 percent.

Because 2017 was a local election year, the borough code allowed the budget to be re-opened and changed in 2018 and Kirkland was appointed to head up an ad hoc commission to look for ways to cut costs and lower the tax hike.

But when the February deadline came around, the commission had no cuts, or savings to offer and the tax hike and budget remained intact.

Nevertheless, the ad hoc commission remained in place through out the year, so it could implement some of its ideas in time for the 2019 budget.

But it produced no savings that were ever presented to council.

If it produced anything and it was incorporated into the 2019 budget plan, it remained a secret. In fact, Kirkland reported last week the ad hoc committee did not even meet this month -- the month the budget is adopted.

It should be noted that the budget adopted last night calls for spending $49,986,179, which is $4.4 million less than the $54.4 million 2018 budget. That's some tricky math when you consider that Justin Keller said last week that while spending is down, it was a $1 million pension obligation and several tax refunds of several hundred thousand dollars which drove much of the tax hike.

But I'm not a financial consultant like E-Consult.

Speaking of E-Consult, the firm hired under the state's Early Intervention Program to do what borough officials apparently cannot -- keep taxes sustainable -- will not deliver its report or suggestions in time to change the tax hike just adopted.

And after a budget process, which included little public discussion of the staff's conclusion that all that could be done to keep taxes down had been done, it received unanimous support from council.

But not before Kirkland decided to lecture council that some difficult choices need to be made in the budget process, perhaps including staff cuts.

Too little too late Joe.

The 2019 budget sets a new tax millage is 12.675 mills.

For a property assessed at $85,000, it means an annual borough tax bill of $1,076.95, an increase of $92.65 over the 2018 tax bill of $984.30.

(Oh, and just in case your forgot, in October the Pottstown Borough Authority voted to raise water rates by 5 percent a year for the next three years. So in addition to the $92.65 more the average property will pay in property taxes in 2019, the average water user will pay an additional $26.88 in water costs, for a grand total of $119.53)

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Tax Hike Budget Sails Through

Pottstown Giving the Gift of Life for the Holidays

Submitted photos

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown School District.

Pottstown High School students and staff understand, when it comes to donating blood every drop counts. 

There is always an urgent need for blood and platelet donors to give during the holiday season to ensure blood is available for medical treatments and emergencies. 

PHS Health Care Technology students recently held their first of three yearly blood drives. They exceeded their goal of 35 donors by collecting 37 units of blood. 

The Miller Keystone Blood Bank calculates that each unit collected can be used to help save three lives. All units collected go directly to the Pottstown Hospital. 

Health Technology teacher Michaela Johnson said, "I am very proud of our students and staff, their gift of life helps make Pottstown High School one of the top donating sites in Southeast Pennsylvania."

Johnson added, "our Health Tech students also gained some excellent real-world experience while assisting the phlebotomist on the floor and in the canteen area. They were able to implement skills they learned in the classroom while helping to make a difference in the community. We are thankful that we are able to host blood drives every year."

"We understand how important it is to have a supply of blood ready and available to those in need," said student Wynter Harris. 

"I really enjoyed helping out at the blood drive and knowing that what we did will make a lifesaving difference for someone," Harris said.

Online Art Auction Aids ArtFusion 19464

A mixed media piece by Kristen VonHohen is among the art work being auctioned for the ArtFusion fundraiser.

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by ArtFusion 19464

ArtFusion 19464’s holiday art show Squared is a fundraiser for the non-profit community art center. 

Each piece of art was created by a local artist and donated to ArtFusion. 

A black and white work by Erika Hornburg

Many of their students also created work for the show. 

The artwork is being sold via silent auction and can be seen on artfusion19464.org and their social media. 

Bids can be placed in person, over the phone or by email until Friday, Dec. 14.

This show has been sponsored by VIST Bank.

Dec. 14 is also ArtFusion 19464’s holiday party. Everyone is invited to come celebrate from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public. 

RSVPs to 610-326-2506 or info@artfusion19464.org are appreciated. This party is a join event with MOSAIC Community Land Trust.

ArtFusion 19464 is a 501(c)3 non-profit community art center located at the Beech St. Factory in downtown Pottstown. The school offers day, evening and weekend art classes to all ages. 

The goal of these classes is to help students develop their creative skills and independence through self-expression. ArtFusion 19464 also hosts rotating art shows featuring local artists.

An acrylic painting by Arline Christ