Not that they give speed awards for these things, but Monday night's borough council meeting took under an hour.
And, if you wanted to get home to watch some more of the Olympics, that was a good thing.
There were few surprises.
The LERTA tax break council and the school board have been batting back and forth for months was approved unanimously, with little fanfare of comment and that followed on the heels of the approval by the school board.
With the expected approval by the Montgomery County Commissioners, the long-discussed proposal -- which will increase over seven years the tax bill on improved properties -- will become law.
The board also approved -- no surprise here -- the offer from the Montgomery County District Attorney's office to begin installing anti-crime surveillance cameras on the streets of Pottstown.
And finally, the board debated and ultimately moved ahead with the often-confusing re-writing of the ordinance governing the Pottstown Human Relations Commission.
What was approved is the advertising of the ordinance, after which, council will hold a public hearing and, ultimately adopt it, unless major changes come about as the result of the public hearing.
And with that, and the Olympics awaiting me, I present to you the Tweets and video.
The 18 graduates of the first-ever Pottstown Citizens Academy were recognized during Monday night's borough council meeting. (Two were not present).
For reasons beyond my limited technical ability, the iPad provided to me by the Digital Notebook's crack technical team took a header Monday night.
That left me with two choices.
Try to keep up with everything using just my thumbs (iPad has a full-sized keyboard) or turn everything into a video.
As you can see, I went with the second choice.
That said, the more interesting things from last night's meeting include the first Citizen's Academy, nearly 20 people who devoted their own time to learning more about how the borough works.
There were be another one next fall.
As the story in today's Mercury indicates, council is also moving to more strictly regulate new convenience stores, and also finally agreed on all the terms for the LERTA tax break district.
Of particular interest were comments by Hamilton Street resident Jonathan Yoder, who outlined some of the problems he has faced for seven years living next to a couple who, judging by the photos, seem to have a hoarding problem.
The borough, it seems, has not yet been able to help him.
Also significant were the comments made by Councilman Joseph Kirkland and Mayor Sharon Thomas about the national turmoil caused by repeated conflicts between police and African-Americans.
Its all on the video.
And last but certainly not least, much beloved Assistant Borough Manager Erica Batdorf, attended her last meeting Monday before she heads off to become West Vincent Township's manager.
As is so often the case with council's voting meeting, they were all talked out from the Wednesday work session.
As a result Monday's meeting wasn't much more than 45 minutes and was marked a number of quick and unremarkable votes.
Of potential interest was the vote to move the borough-wide LERTA district -- or Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance -- forward.
Although the ad committee, half borough council, half school district, has made recommendations, and just endorsed them, apparently, Borough Manager Mark Flanders said I would have to file a Right to Know request to get access to it -- this despite the fact that it was discussed at the Wednesday work session.
I have already filed that request, but you will have to wait in breathless anticipation to find out what conditions members of the two boards are hoping to impose on LERTA-seekers.
In case you've lost track, LERTAs attempt to attract development by slowly stepping up the increased tax liability of improved property over a fixed period of time.
In other words, if an empty lot is improved with a $1 million building, the tax bill might be based on a $100,000 assessment the first year; $200,000 the next and so on. But the period of delay, along with lots of other conditions, are some of the things the two boards have been discussing since February.
So read your Mercury in the next few days to find out where things stand.
In the meantime, be satisfied with these Tweets, links and videos ....
Pottstown Schools Superintendent Jeff Sparagana began the joint school board borough council meeting Tuesday with a shameless plug (which we are totally falling for) for The Wiz, Pottstown's first full-district musical in seven years, being staged on March 4, 5 and 6 at Pottstown High School.
Against all odds, the joint meeting of Pottstown Borough Council and Pottstown School Board Tuesday turned out to be fairly interesting and to contain one or two novel ideas.
Yes people, it can happen.
Hat's are off to school board member Polly Weand who, apparently after reading how some other communities have approached the LERTA tax break question, made some interesting suggestions.
For the uninitiated, LERTA stands for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance.
And the question of whether to enact one in Pottstown has been held up by the school board for months.
That log-jam seemed to break Tuesday when Weand suggested that in addition to giving people a sliding scale tax break on the assessed value of their property improvements over time, that they raise the stakes for those who commit to hiring local people.
She also suggested, and council and the school board ultimately agreed, to forming a joint committee to quickly (emphasis on quickly) come up with other incentives that might move Pottstown in the right direction and which could be written into the LERTA statute.
Ideas include a "threshold investment" to qualify, shortening the length of time the tax abatement is in place and breaks for residential properties that are purchased or occupied by teachers and first-responders.
The committee of four was appointed and hopes to finish its suggestions in as little as two month's time.
Also discussed were the Pottstown In Focus film festival, the tourism and recreation district, Pottstown's sustainability plan and plans to teach school children more walking and biking safety.
Without further ado, here are the Tweets and links:
Above, cast members of The Wiz, from left, Emanuel Wilkerson as the Cowardly Lion, Mardaije Pearson as Dorothy, Nicholas Parson as Scarecrow and Zechariah Howard as the Tin Man, perform "Ease on Down the Road" for the school board Thursday night. That's Seth Thomas in the back. He plays The Wiz himself.
At right, members of the Pottstown High School Jazz Band get ready to perform "Moondance" and "It's Too Damn Hot."
It's hard to beat the way Pottstown decided to appreciate its school board members during school
board appreciation night -- music and a show.
What? No dinner?
Anyway, the Pottstown High School Jazz Band kicked things off with an interpretation of the popular Van Morrison hit, "Moondance," with band director Mike Vought sitting in for a sick drummer on the skins.
And yeah sure, you can see the videos down in the Twitter stream below, but who wants to wait for smooth tunes?
Here they are:
They followed up that performance with a Cole Porter classic number from his show "Kiss Me Kate," also made famous by Ella Fitzgerald.
The song is called "It's Too Darn Hot."
Not to be outdone in the musical performance department, several members of the cast of the upcoming musical performance of "The Wiz" were on hand to offer a preview of their show, which will be staged March 4, 5 and 6th.
This year's production, which marks the second consecutive show after an absence of several years, will be a district-wide production, meaning students from lower grades will take part as well.
In fact the show is so inclusive, it even includes a member of the Pottstown School Board, Emanuel Wilkerson, who plays the cowardly lion -- ironic since he was bold enough to run for and win a seat on the school board while still a student in high school.
Anyway, we started off with Seth Thomas, a veteran of last year's production of "Grease," performing a song about meeting The Wiz, which he plays. Here he is:
And if you know anything about the iconic show (I was lucky enough to see it on Broadway as a kid ... yes, I'm THAT old) the song you're most likely to know is "Ease on Down the Road."
Here's Pottstown's version:
The performances completed, the board enjoyed a different performance, or perhaps we should say a repeat performance.
Last month, John George, the executive director of the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, made the pitch for his organization to conduct the search to replace retiring superintendent Jeff Sparagana in a closed door meeting from which the public was excluded.
After some hubub in the local media, he made the presentation again last night, in public.
And the board voted unanimously to have the MCIU conduct the search, and to be complete as early as April.
Another guest was Josh Gould, a member of the Phoenixville School Board. He talked about how his district enacted a LERTA tax district, and what it did for them.
The Tweets are below, but the thumbnail sketch is: mixed results.
Anyway, without further ado, dive in to the Tweets and links.
More evidence that the Pottstown Schol Board is not yet set on adopting a town-wide tax break for those who improve commercial property, was made plain during Thursday night's discussion of the proposed LERTA district, which is likely to be tabled Monday.
Board Vice President Andrew Kefer, who followed in the footsteps of the now resigned Judyth Zahora by running the meeting from a speaker phone, said discussion of the matter at a recent finance committee meeting was "divisive."
Board member Thomas Hylton indicated that he has done some research on LERTAs, which stands for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, and found there are many varieties.
He said he would like more information, "in writing," from the borough and Steve Bamford, who, as executive director of PAID, is the borough's de-facto economic development director and an advocate for the enactment of the LERTA.
Hylton's call for more detail was echoed by Polly Weand and Mary-Beth Bacallao, the last of whom advocated for goals and a way to measure the effectiveness of the program if enacted.
Bamford said while there is no statewide analysis of the program, a recent conference of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission did address the matter and offered up several case studies, which locally included Quakertown and Caln.
The board also looked favorably on adopting, as it always has in the past, a resolution pledging not to exceed the state tax index when adopting next year's budget.
This year's index is 3.4 percent, the highest Pottstown has ever seen, said Business Manager Linda Adams.
The board members present -- only five if you include Keefer's telephonic presence -- tastefully resisted the temptation to comment on following arcane state-imposed budget procedures at a time when the state is midway through its fourth month of being late with its own budget.
Do as I say, not as I do I suppose.
The board also heard a quick presentation on a plan to re-finance just under $10 million of its $13 million debt in order to collect nearly $400,000 in interest savings.
Here are the Tweets from the meeting, along with a few helpful links to Mercury articles which offer background on the matters under discussion.
Tuesday night, the Pottstown School Board and Pottstown Borough Council had their third of four annual joint meetings.
Or, as is often sadly the case, some people from the school board came to a meeting where there was barely a majority of borough council.
Four school board members showed up -- Polly Weand, Thomas Hylton, Katina Bearden and Ron Williams.
Five council members were there -- Dan Weand, Stephen Toroney, Sheryl Miller, Ryan Procsal and Carol Kulp.
Not sure entirely the point of having joint meetings if most of your board members are AWOL, I mean it was my son's 17th birthday and somehow I managed to be there.
But hey, they're elected officials, so why nit pick? It's not like they're the town's leaders or anything.
Maybe the absent members, who always seem to be the same people, knew they could can learn all they need to know from the Tweets below.
Photo of a Photo: Mercury Photographer Kevin Hoffman arranges borough council and staff for the photo that will be buried in the new time capsule to be opened in 50 years and buried about where the officials are standing.
Wednesday was a long one as borough council meetings go.
Starting at 6:30 p.m. with two conditional use hearings and now winding up until 9:30.
There were lots of things discussed, but the major ones in no particular order were:
What to do about expiring fire services agreements;
Whether a cell tower should be allowed at the wastewater treatment plant;
Whether to re-name Cross Street for Newstell Marable;
Whether to renew the lease with Fly-Elite to operate Pottstown airport;
Whether to move forward with a new LERTA district;
Whether to finance new emergency radios from the county and own them or allow fire companies to buy them from the borough;
And a few others.
You can read all about them in the Tweets below and in upcoming stories in The Mercury, your local newspaper for more than 75 years.
