Toroney Says Goodbye, Thanks 'Most Valued Pottstownians,' Takes Veiled Shot at Ex-Councilman

Monday night was a night for closure in Pottstown politics.

The $59 million budget was adopted, a budget that does not raise taxes.

The 10.311 mill tax rate was adopted.

Police were promoted; the police chief, police captain and borough manager were all given raises.

And Steve Toroney, outgoing Pottstown Borough Council President, finally had his final say.

Here is the first 21 minutes, before my phone filled up, but I got most of it:




The quick review is Toroney thanked those he appreciated, left out those he chose not to thank, and saved particular "thanks" for bloggers, and other social media types who called for him to be fired.

He singled out a particular former councilman who resigned just months into a second term and is known for saying "fight when you're right" for special "thanks."

However, even after the meeting, Toroney declined to specify who he meant, perhaps cognizant of the threat, or rather "promise" he made in his speech; that once his is no longer a public official, all those "Fire Toroney" signs around Pottstown could be the subject of harassment charges.

His speech aside, there were other newsworthy events -- like a $3,600 raise for Borough Manager Mark Flanders and a presentation about a farmer's market planned to open in Pottstown this spring.

Yup, it was a busy meeting, and it all awaits you amid the Tweets, links and other YouTube videos that await those bold enough to wade into the Storify down below.

Speaking in Code

Photo by Evan Brandt

Keith Place will head up Licensing and Inspections

Lower Pottsgrove's loss is Pottstown's gain.

The borough has announced what some already knew, that Keith Place, formerly head of code enforcement in Lower Pottsgrove Township, has been hired as the director of the borough's newly organized Licensing and Inspections department.

Within this role, Place will lead the department operations, including building code application, enforcement, zoning, planning, and management, according to a release issued by the borough.

Place has stated his goals for the department are to “provide leadership and vision to enhance the quality of life for all citizens of the Borough with the support and determination of the licensing and inspections staff and borough management,” according to the release.

“I see the opportunity for enhancement in the department’s operational efficiency to help provide livability and economic opportunities within the Borough. I look forward to working with Council, management, licensing and inspections staff and the community as a whole," Place said in the release.

"Through the department, I would like to provide a true sense of community awareness and service through the professional staff while administrating ordinances adopted by the Borough for the safety and well-being of the community,” he said.

Place comes to the borough with 21 years of experience as Director of Codes Administration and as Building Inspector at Lower Pottsgrove Township

In addition to serving in this capacity, Place is a UCC Certified Building Code Official and held the position of Zoning Officer, overseeing many development projects within the township.

Place’s position comes at a point of growth for the Borough of Pottstown. According to Borough Manager Mark Flanders, “Keith’s years of municipal experience, management skills, and knowledge of codes and the building industry, make him an ideal leader to oversee the Department of Licensing and Inspections and move economic development forward.”

For more information regarding the Borough’s Department of Licensing and Inspections, visit the borough's website at www.pottstown.org.

Welcome to Pottstown Senator

Photo by John Armato

State Sen. Robert Mensch, left, meets with Steel River Playhouse director Marta Kiesling and PAID director Steve Bamford during his recent tour of Pottstown.

The new 24th State Senatorial District will soon include Pottstown.

When Pennsylvania's long-delayed legislative re-districting finally falls into place in the beginning of

the year, Pottstown will not only have a new, additional representative in the House of Representatives, but a new state senator as well.

The boundaries of the 44th District, currently represented by John Rafferty, will shift south and the 24th senatorial district, will slide south to encompass Pottstown, as well as West Pottsgrove and Upper Pottsgrove.

The 24th district seat is currently held by Republican Robert Mensch.

Photo by John Armato

Mensch tours the Sly Fox Brewery

In an effort to get out in front of the change, Pottstown officials last week invited Mensch for a day-long visit to the borough to help him re-familiarize himself with town and to be sure Pottstown's issues are front and center.

Schools Superintendent Jeff Sparagana spear-headed the effort and reported on the results to the school board Monday night.

It began with a walking tour of the downtown area.

"To start, we visited VideoRay, ArtFusion, Steel River Playhouse and Weitzenkorn's, which Senator Mensch remembers because his father used to work at OxyChem and that's where he bought his suits," Sparagana said.

The group included Borough Manager Mark Flanders, PAID Executive Director Steve Bamford,

Photo by John Armato

Mensch meets with ArtFusion 19464 director 

Erika Hornburg-Cooper.

TriCounty Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Eileen Dautrich, Hill School Headmaster Zach Lehman, PMMC CEO Sharif Omar, PDIDA Executive Director Sheila Dugan and Myra Forrest, executive director of the Foundation for Pottstown Education.

From downtown, the group boarded a trolley and visited the Pottstown campus of Montgomery County Community College, the Schuylkill River Heritage Area headquarters, The Hill School campus and the community gardens on Chestnut Street.

From there, the group went to Pottstown High School where the culinary arts class prepared lunch

Photo by John Armato

Mensch meets with Weitzenkorn's proprietor Marc Weitzenkorn.

and, in the process, "really went above and beyond," Sparagana said.

Afterwards, Sparagana said the group visited Pottstown Municipal Airport and the Sly Fox Brewery on the Circle of Progress.

"Senator Mensch told us he never expected to have the type of day he had and he was pleased and impressed by all the collaboration he saw taking place in Pottstown," Sparagana said.

"It was a good opportunity to demonstrate what happens here as this community comes together as one," Sparagana said.

Borough Starts Climbing a $27 Million Mountain

The borough is getting started on setting aside money each year to cover a whopping $27 million obligation to pay for medical and other benefit costs for current and future police retirees.

Wednesday night, council was briefed on the proposal to set aside $250,000 per year for what the council agenda labeled opaquely as "OPEB," which, according to Borough Manager Mark Flanders, stands for "other post employment benefits."

The official vote will occur at Monday night's council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. and is the meeting at which the public is allowed to comment.

Mark Flanders says it will not take 108 years to fund the
$27 million 

police retirement health cost liability.

These potential costs are not retirement payments, but rather for medical benefits for retirees, both current and future.

Getting a handle on the total potential cost of obligation itself is no easy task, said Flanders.

"This is a moving target that fluctuates; based on actual retirements (as opposed to people leaving before retirement) and mortality rates," he wrote in an e-mail replying to a Mercury query.

According to Finance Director Janice Lee, the amount of an individual retiree's medical costs "varies according to what contract the employee retired under" as well as what medical benefits are actually sought.

For example, a retiree who needs treatments for cancer will cost more than one who requires less expensive medical services.

"It's not the same for all," Lee wrote in an e-mail response to The Mercury.

Even the $27 million liability is an estimate at best, based on actuarial estimates for the variables mentioned.

As a result, the administration demurred to give an estimate for how long the borough will need to set the $250,000 aside annually before the liability is considered funded.

Pottstown Borough Hall

However, Flanders agreed that an estimate of 108 years -- which is the time it would take when $250,000 is divided evenly into $27 million -- is "certainly not" accurate.

Nevertheless, the obligation is nothing to sneeze at when one considers that it is just under half the size of the $40 million 2013 budget.

Funding this obligation, or "liability," depending on what terminology you use, "was part of the EIP recommendations," said Borough Council President Stephen Toroney.

He was referring to the state-funded consultant report in 2008 that outlined measures the borough needed to take to remain financially solvent.

The 141-page report was written by an Ohio consulting firm named Management Partners funded partly through the state's Early Intervention Program for municipalities in financial trouble.

It contained the startling prediction that unless Pottstown radically changed the way its borough and authority government is run, that borough property taxes would jump by 75 percent; water rates by 25 percent and sewer rates by 19 percent in the next five years.

The report was cited as the reason for the lay-off of 13 employees in late 2008 and the 10 percent

property tax hike which accompanied it.

The report highlighted a number of looming problems, not the least of which has been the steady drop in Pottstown’s total assessed property values.

The report contained 122 recommendations designed to save $370,000 a year.

Not all of the recommendations were undertaken, but many were and, as a result, there no tax hike for the current budget year.

However, one recommendation which council and the administration had yet to address was this outstanding obligation.

At the same meeting, council reviewed the action necessary to fund this obligation, members also reviewed the obligations with which they have kept pace -- the borough's two pension funds.

The minimum obligation needed this year to fund the police pension plan is $865,432 and the minimum needed this year to fund the pensions for non-uniformed employees is $186,497, according to Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr.

However, not all of that money comes from borough coffers as the state also kicks in part of that cost.

Borough Hall Lock-Down

Photo by Evan Brandt

The new, "secure vestibule" was partially installed in the Public Works Department by Tuesday afternoon.

Already home to the Pottstown's police force, other sections of Pottstown Borough Hall are becoming more secure this week as well.

New walls and vestibules with glass security windows and chrome-plated pass-through trays are being installed throughout the second and third-floor offices of borough hall.

Not So Good Photo by Evan Brandt

The new "secure vestibule" outside the office of 

Borough Manager Mark Flanders

The barriers being erected between the public and their paid employees are similar to those already in place at the finance window on the second floor where bills are paid.

Now, the other departments will be located behind similar barriers as well.

Borough Manager Mark Flanders said the new construction is a security measure to make the borough hall staff feel more secure.

There was at least one previous hostile encounter for Finance Director Janice Lee, who had to face down an angry property owner over a water shut-off.

Flanders said the money to pay for the construction is part of the 2013 budget.

At least one of the contractors doing the work said installing the walls required tearing out half-walls and counters put in just last year.

The Changing of the Guard

Bob Thomas, with his wife and son and his framed appointment as the new police captain, a position once held by Police Chief Rick Drumheller, right.

Wednesday night, Pottstown Borough Council voted on a new set of officers for the Pottstown Police Department.

All were sworn in by Pottstown Mayor Bonnie Heath.

Bob Thomas was named as the new Captain of the department, replacing Rick Drumheller who was named chief last month.



Barry Grimm was sworn in as the department's newest sergeant.



And Mike Long was named the department's newest corporal.



And finally, in a what seemed a genuine surprise to him, Borough Manager Mark Flanders, who officially retired as the chief in April after 34 years with the department, was presented with his honorable discharge papers in a frame and a commendation from the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

Hail to the Chief

Pottstown Police Capt. Rick Drumheller

Well the members of borough council didn't have to work too hard to find a new police chief to replace Mark Flanders, whose retirement becomes official next month.

Monday night, Pottstown Council President Stephen Toroney confirmed that the "search committee" charged with seeking out a new candidate has not exactly broken a sweat.

It has not advertised for the post -- anywhere.

It has sought out no interested candidates through channels.

In fact, it has interviewed no candidates.

What it has done, with little apparent deliberation, is taken the path of least resistance and recommend the appointment of Police Captain Richard Drumheller as the new chief.

Regular readers will recall that as far back as November, when I correctly predicted that insider Jeff Sparagana would be named the new schools superintendent, that I also ventured to predict Drumheller's ascension as well.

Not that it was terribly hard to predict.

In the 16 or so years I've been in Pottstown, I can think of very few occasions in which borough leaders have ventured far outside their comfort zone in choosing top managers.

Which is not to say that Drumheller won't do a good job.

He is a nice guy and very dedicated and there is something to be said for promoting from within.

According to one web site, Pottstown's violent crime rate is twice 

the national average. Was this considered in selecting a new chief?

While this does give employees the sense that their dedication and staying with Pottstown will be rewarded, it also gives the impression to the community that all one needs to do is hang on long enough in Pottstown and eventually, you'll get the top spot.

Perhaps more important, and somewhat disturbing, however, is the fact that this decision comes in the context of a recent post by Pottstown PATCH that looked at crime rates in Pottstown as compared to the national average.

The news was not good.

According to the information there, the violent crime rate in Pottstown is nearly double the national average.

PATCH gleaned the information from a site called "Neighborhood Scout," which uses computer algorithms and crime data to produce statistics it claims to be 90 percent accurate.

"Overall, the Pottstown area scores a 7 out of 100 on the crime index, with 100 being the safest. The data states that there are 190 violent crimes and 1,066 property crimes committed annually, and the violent crime crime rate of 8.44 per 1,000 residents if more than double the statewide average of 3.55," PATCH reported.

The article did not say if this rate was an increase or decrease over previous rates, so its hard to say if things have gotten better or worse under the current law enforcement leadership.

But it sure seems like a pertinent question to ask.

Mark Flanders

One might hope that information like this would stir at least discussion of some thinking among those charged with seeking out the borough's top law enforcement officer, but then, this is Pottstown and ... come on say it out loud with me ... "that's the way we've always done it."

In terms of Pottstown's crime rate, one might be inspired to ask "and how's that working out for ya?"

Anyway, at least we were spared the masquerade and expense of a fruitless search done primarily for show.

When it came to replacing Jason Bobst, who came to us from outside the comfort zone by the way, council sought out dozens and dozens of qualified candidates only to chose the one with whom they were most familiar, and one whose entire municipal experience has been in law enforcement.

Bobst's replacement, soon-to-be-former Police Chief Mark Flanders himself said that he had a "steep learning curve" when it came to taking over the manager's post, but that didn't stop council from paying him more than Bobst, who, having served as interim finance director, had a demonstrably gentler learning curve and helped to get the borough's tangled finances into order.

At least in Drumheller's case, his prior experience is relevant to the new and we wish him the best.

Let's see how that crime rate works out in a year or two.

Pottstown Borough Briefs

No! Not that kind of brief. NEWS BRIEFS. Sheesh.

A couple of little news briefs from Wednesday night's Borough Council work session for your consideration:

Hole in the Ground No More?

Repairs on the collapsed arch on Grant Street, between Walnut and Beech streets, are estimated to cost between $40,000 and $50,000 Public Works Director Doug Yerger told council.

The collapse arch is adjacent to The Hill School's physical plant.

He said bids are expected to be returned soon and he will present them to council for approval at the Feb. 26 joint meeting with the Pottstown School Board.

Work will begin,hopefully by the end of the month.

The collapse occurred in December and was discovered by a borough consultant looking for water main leaks.

The most recent arch collapse, on North Hanover Street, in August, 2011, ultimately cost only $15,000 to repair, in large part because the size and shape of the hole made using a pre-fabricated replacement practical.

The 2004 collapse in the first block of Walnut Street cost more than $500,000.

The arch in question here carries the stream which runs through and feeds a pond on Brookside County Club, thne fills the Dell pond on The Hill School campus.

From there it runs under the campus and connects with another stream system that ultimately enters the Schuylkill near the intersection of Washington Street and Industrial Highway, Yerger said.

Mission Probable

Although discussion in The Mercury and on a previous blog post in which we talked about the new borough Mission and Core Values being proposed garnered quite a bit of conversation here and on The Mercury's web and Facebook sites, that was not the case for council.

As we first reported in this Jan. 19 post, Borough Manager Mark Flanders has proposed an updating of the borough's Mission Statement and Core Values, which was most recently updated in 2011.

The post garnered 10 comments on this blog, two on The Mercury web site, when the story ran there Tuesday, and a few more on The Mercury's Facebook page.

But council had nothing to say and Flanders said other than what was posted on the articles here, he had received no feedback from council members over the past month.

"I received no suggestions from council so I have to assume you're OK with this, although that may be a mistake," said Flanders.

The old values and statement were "cumbersome and out of date," Flanders said.

It will be on the agenda for a vote at the Feb. 11 meeting.

New Contract Maybe?

Speaking of Monday's meeting, Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. said he hopes to have a proposed contract settlement with the AFSCME workers union before borough council for approval.

AFSCME stands for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. A unit of this national union represents the borough hall, parks and recreation and public works employees.

Police are represented by a separate union.

"We didn't make it, trying to get it done by the end of the year, but we hope to have something for your consideration Monday," Garner said.

The current two-year AFSCME contract was adopted in July, 2011 and included a pay freeze for the first year.

That pact also as much as doubled employee contributions to health care insurance, saving the borough between $35,000 and $45,000 in the first year alone.

Borough Re-Organization Underway

Sorry for the poor
quality of the photo
Erica...

After several years without one, Pottstown has a new assistant borough manager — although she has a familiar face.

Erica Weekley, who has spent the last several years as Pottstown’s grants administrator, was the person newly-minted Borough Manager Mark Flanders chose for the post.

He made the announcement during the Dec. 10 council meeting.

And those are not the only changes either already implemented or in the works at borough hall.

Several other positions are being changed, as are several departments and several salaries.

Flanders said although Weekley’s salary will be $65,000 a year, that is $35,000 less than the previous assistant borough manager salary and is also partially offset by the elimination of the “projects coordinator” position, a part-time post now held by Robert Evans that paid $48,800 in 2012.

Weekley’s salary will be further offset by the fact that her replacement will have fewer duties, mostly managing the requirements of grants already obtained, and doing some work at the reception desk.

Borough Manager Mark Flanders

As a result, Flanders explained, that salary line will be lower in the 2013 budget.

Also being changed are the circumstances of Sandi Chieffo who, while being in charge of human resources for years, did so as part of the borough manager’s administrative hierarchy and budget.

Flanders said Human Resources will become it’s own stand-alone department and, as the head of that department, Chieffo will see her salary rise by $11,300 from $63,700 to $75,000.

Also becoming a department head will be Brent Wagner, whose salary as Utilities Director will increase by $3,700, from $71,300 to $75,000.

That’s a result of a change in the way maintenance and repairs at both the water and sewer treatment plants will be conducted, said Flanders.

“It never made much sense to me that we have mechanics and electricians at the water plant and at the sewer plant, and while the guys at one plant may be doing very little, the guys at the other are working like crazy to fix something or get a big project done,” Flanders said.

Instead, Flanders created a Maintenance Department by which workers will do work at both plants “under a work order system,” that makes better use of the expertise of both sets of employees and keep better track of expenses and hours.

Wagner, who currently oversees operations at both plants, will be in charge of this department.

Flanders also said he is spreading out the supervisory work at both plants, ensuring there is a supervisor working during each of the two shifts each plant runs, something that was not previously done.

There are no planned changes at the Public Works or Parks and Recreation departments, Flanders said.
As for the Code Enforcement; the borough’s engineering firm — Remington, Vernick and Beach — is currently conducting an extensive review of that department and Flanders said he plans no changes until the firm issues its recommendations.

The idea behind these changes, said Flanders, who also holds the post of police chief until April, is to make borough operations more efficient.

Overall, Flanders said, the financial impact of these changes on the budget’s general fund is “not significant.”

Uncertified Inspections and Reviews

The state agency which oversees code and inspection functions in Pennsylvania has issued a “formal warning” to the Pottstown Codes office for a number of violations, including allowing inspections to be conducted by personnel not certified to perform those inspections.

In a letter issued Oct. 2, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry informed the codes office manager, Maria E. Bleile, of the results of its complaint investigation.

The letter outlines eight complaints regarding inspections at both commercial and residential properties, ranging from Pottstown Memorial Hospital, to the Salvation Army to four residential properties.

In 2008, inspector Rick Stuber reviewed plans for the Hyperbaris Suite
Center 

at  Pottstown Memorial Medical Center without certification,
according to t

he Oct. 2 letter from Labor and Industry.

Issues ranged from inspectors conducting “plan reviews” and inspections without the proper certification; to no records of reviews or certain inspections being conducted at all; to missing dates in inspection reports.

In one problem, from Aug. 17, 2011, permits were issued for alterations for 413 Walnut St. “which did not involve structural changes or changes to the means of egress,” according to the letter, which then noted: “During the course of our investigation, we were unable to obtain a local ordinance requiring permits for this type of work.”

The incidences cited by Field Operations Manager Ron F. Englar, dated as far back as 2008.

“As the designated BCO for Pottstown Borough, your responsibilities include the management of building code enforcement activities, issuing of occupancy permits, retention of records, and the supervision of building inspectors or plan examiners,” Englar wrote to Bleile.

“This includes ensuring all individuals working under your supervision hold the proper certifications required to perform inspections or plan review for each discipline. Please consider this letter to be a formal warning that will be placed in your certification file,” Englar wrote.

A copy of the letter was forwarded to Pottstown Borough Council President Stephen Toroney.

Borough Manager Mark Flanders said he had already decided to have the borough’s engineering firm, Remington, Vernick and Beach, review operations in the codes department when he became aware of the letter.

Borouh Manager Mark Flanders

On Oct. 9, borough council voted to spend as much as $33,500 not in the 2012 budget to have the engineering firm conduct a top to bottom review of the codes offices, its operations and practices, and to make recommendations for improvement.

The firm will “bench mark the department and make recommendations for best management practices” that would be issued in a written report, Flanders told council in the Oct. 3 meeting.

That review is ongoing, and came in the wake of a Sept. 23 report in The Mercury revealing that the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office had opened a Grand Jury investigation into the codes office.

No results from that investigation have ever been reported out to the public.

Flanders told The Mercury on Dec. 18 that it is his understanding that many of the inspectors cited in the letter have or are close to obtaining many of the certifications that the letter indicated are lacking among the codes staff.

He also said he anticipates that many of the issues raised in the letter will be addressed in the review and recommendations Remington, Vernick and Beach will deliver.

In the meantime, Flanders said the advantage of having the firm on board is that many of their personnel carry those certifications, so if an inspection is needed prior to the borough code officers finishing their certification work, those at Remington, Vernick and Beach “are just a phone call away.”

Follow Evan Brandt on Twitter @PottstownNews

Toroney: Report Paved the Way to No Tax Hike

Borough Council President Stephen Toroney credited a 2009 consultant report on the borough’s finances for starting Pottstown down the road to what he considers a landmark achievement, that was made official Monday with the adoption of a $38.5 million that does not raise borough taxes for the first time in recent memory.

Councilman Mark Gibson, who, as a paid driver for the Empire Fire Company could be said to benefit financially by voting for the budget, which makes contributions to the fire companies, abstained from the vote.

But the budget, officially balanced at $38,530,729, otherwise received unanimous support from the remainder of council.

Also adopted with Gibson’s abstention, was the tax rate ordinance.

It is broken down as follows:
• General fund — 6.71500 mills;
• Debt fund — .55000 mills;
• Library fund — .19700 mills;
• Street light fund — .33700 mills;
• Parks and Recreation fund — .90600 mills;
• Fire house maintenance fund — 1.50700 mills;

Council President Stephen Toroney

This leaves the 2013 total real estate millage in the borough at 10.212 mills, the same as 2012.

For the average residential property in the borough — which is assessed at around $75,000 — that works out to an annual bill of $765.90.

Toroney thanked Finance Director Janice Lee for her hard work.
“It’s an early Christmas present for the citizens and taxpayers of our town,” he said.

“We’ve been working toward this since 2010,” said Councilman Dan
Weand, who chairs council’s finance and administration committee.

“It took many years to dig ourselves out of the hole we were in,” Toroney said, which prompted Borough Manager Mark Flanders to remark, “we’re not out of it yet.”

Lee declined to take all the credit. “It’s just evidence of everybody working together,” she said. “It was a team effort.”

“I think the start was the EIP report,” Toroney said in reference to a report paid for partly through the state’s Early Intervention Program for municipalities in financial trouble.

The 141-page report was written by an Ohio consulting firm named Management Partners and contained the startling prediction that unless Pottstown radically changed the way its borough and authority government is run, that borough property taxes would jump by 75 percent; water rates by 25 percent and sewer rates by 19 percent in the next five years.

In addition to there being no tax hike in 2013, there will also be no increase in water and sewer rates.

The report highlighted a number of looming problems, not the least of which has been the steady drop in Pottstown’s total assessed property values.

The report contained 122 recommendations designed to save $370,000 a year and was cited as the primary reason for borough lay-offs that occurred subsequently.

Among the other recommendations was a suggestion to merge the public works department and the borough authority.

While that has not happened exactly, Flanders told council that in 2013 he intends to consolidate the maintenance of the water and sewer treatment plants into a single department “and make a stand-alone maintenance department called ‘Utility Maintenance’ that will do work on both plants on a work-order basis.”

He said that department will be overseen by Brent Wagner, the utilities coordinator.

“If we hadn’t had the EIP report, we wouldn’t have had a plan and we wouldn’t be here,” Toroney said.

“The EIP report gave us that blueprint.”

That's the Way We've Always Done It

Is it too soon to
congratulate

Jeff Sparagana as
the new superintendent?

So here's what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking that the failure of the Pottstown School Board to hold a public meeting about hiring a new superintendent Tuesday, as had been tentatively scheduled, has a reason.

And I'm thinking the reason they didn't have a meeting is, they didn't need to.

This month it is officially 15 years since I arrived in Pottstown and was put on The Mercury pay roll.

In that time, I have watched new superintendent searches conducted in school districts from Daniel Boone, Owen J. Roberts (sometimes painfully), Spring-Ford, Phoenixville (sometimes expensively) and Boyertown.

I'm sure I missed some, but those are the ones I remember.

In all that time, however, I have never seen one conducted in Pottstown that looked beyond the borough border.

And I'm starting to think we're about to see the same thing happen again.

When I arrived, Frank Heifer was the superintendent and he had been an assistant to Ray Feick who preceded him. Then it was Tony Georeno, followed by David Krem and then Reed Lindley  all of whom had come up through the ranks of the school district.

There was never a 

terribly good explanation

offered for Lindley's departure

Now, with Lindley's sudden and unexplained departure many months before his contract ended, the school board seemed poised to begin an actual search outside the border.

This was due largely to the fact that the obvious successor, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Sparagana, having twice failed to secure the post, had announced his retirement prior to Dr. Lindley stepping down without warning.

Dr. Sparagana then agreed to delay his retirement until the end of the school year to give the board more time to find a replacement.

Still, in the arc of finding a new superintendent, six months is not a lot of time.

So why in the world would they cancel a meeting designed to get things started -- at least publicly.

Why indeed?

Well, being the amateur historian that I am, I firmly believe that  in most cases, past predicts future and if there is one past event in Pottstown that you can predict will occur again, it is promotion from within.

So am I saying I think Dr. Sparagana -- now finally sitting in the superintendent's chair -- likes the way it feels?

I am.

Am I saying that I think the Pottstown School Board would love to have one less major project on its plate, like searching far and wide for a new superintendent, and would equally love to offer a trusted familiar face a three-year contract?

I sure am.

How confident am I?

Pretty damn confident.

It was Mark Flanders' knowledge of

Pottstown and its employees that won

him the borough manager's job, council

members said when he was appointed.

Am I willing to put my money where my mouth is, always dangerous ground for an underpaid journalist?

Yes again.

So, it's official, I will bet anyone who thinks I'm full of it $25 that the next superintendent of the Pottstown School District will be Jeff Sparagana.

But before you put your money at risk, consider how we do things in Pottstown.

Over at Borough Hall, the insider candidate was chosen despite dozens of applications from those with more experience; and before April rolls around I think we will again see the insider, in this case Rick Drumheller, named the new police chief.

Understand, this is not to say that I think any of these folks will do a bad job. In fact all three mentioned here are quite competent and I suspect they'll do fine.

They are all dedicated and have all given years of service to this borough in one form or another. And yes, that should count for something.

As one person in a position to make these decisions told me, "I hate to disqualify someone just because he is local."

I think it likely Drumheller will be chosen as Pottstown's

new police chief.

But the best indicator, I think, of how Pottstown officials view these things, are the comments made by the borough council members during the obviously pre-arranged statements they made in support of the appointment of Mark Flanders as borough manager.

Several council members talked about his familiarity with the staff and how Pottstown works.

They said they valued that over hands-on experience running a municipality, a viewpoint which is not only their prerogative but perfectly valid.

But I suspect another familiarity was at play as well, the familiarity board members have with Flanders and, soon enough I suspect, a familiarity they have with Drumheller.

Why should the school district, which has the longest record of promoting from within and valuing familiarity, change their ways now?

The only minds they would need to change are Dr. Sparagana and his family.

And after all, that's the way we've always done it.

A New Police Captain List ... Just in Case

Pottstown's incoming Police Chief? Maybe.

As some of you may have read in this space on Oct. 23, Pottstown Police Chief Mark Flanders, who is also the interim borough manager, is one of three finalists for getting the borough manager's job on a permanent basis.

Recent information suggests he is the leading candidate.

Borough council has put the matter of hiring a new borough manager on its agenda for Tuesday night's meeting.

Because he took an early retirement incentive, Flanders must retire as chief by April.

As a result, borough council is also looking for a new police chief.

Wednesday night, they indicated that they will take the steps necessary to clear the way for Rick Drumheller, the current police captain, to take the helm as chief.

What council agreed to do, at the urging of Safety Committee Chairman Mark Gibson, is begin the process of Civil Service Commission testing to create an eligibility list for the rank of captain.

Pottstown's outgoing police chief? Yup.
Pottstown's new borough manager? Maybe.

"We do not have a person in mind" for the new chief, Gibson told council, "but if we do decide to hire from within, we do need to have the eligibility list ready."

Flanders explained to council that going through the Civil Service Commission process takes four to five months.

Although the police department currently has adequate people on the list to move up to the ranks of corporal and sergeant, should Drumheller become the new police chief, there is no one ready to step into the captain's position.

"We were asking ourselves 'what if?' and if we go that route, we would like to see all the promotions occur together at the same time," Gibson said.

Flanders, who himself became chief after serving as captain for a number of years, said it would be best to be prepared so that if Drumheller is selected "there will be no break in the chain of command."

Pottstown People: Always With the Helping Hand they Often Cannot Afford

One reason I have grown to grudgingly love this frustrating muddle of a town is that just when I think we don't have any more feet to shoot ourselves in, people come out of the woodwork and plug the bullet hole.

The latest example of this redeeming quality is the infamous Halloween Parade.

It is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. by the way.

As you have in all likelihood read by now, the parade was threatened by a misunderstanding.

Undertaken once and planned twice previously with a waiver of borough fees in hand, this year's organizers had proceeded with planning after being assured by former borough manager Jason Bobst that the borough fees -- more than $5,000 worth for police overtime -- would again be waived.

Unfortunately, Bobst left for greener pastures before the parade and with him left that assurance.

So the parade organizers -- the AMBUCS, the Pottstown Rotary Club and the Parks and Recreation Department -- were brought up short when interim borough manager Mark Flanders informed them the fees could only be waived by council.

And council balked at waiving the fee, saying it was not in the budget.

Making a point about sticking to their budget is understandable in these tough times, particularly seeing as this issue has come up before.

But sympathy for that position evaporated when, moments later, council blithely agreed to pay as much as a whopping $33,000 that was ALSO not in the budget for a consulting firm, now found to be costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of extra dollars on the elementary school construction projects, to deliver a report on ways to makes the codes department more efficient. But that's another story.)

Ultimately, after a story or two in The Mercury and on this blog, council blinked and agreed to waive half the cost.

Although a welcome compromise, that left the parade organizers $2,500 short.

One might be justified in being discouraged at this point in the story.

Here are a group of people raising money and devoting time to stage a major event in the town, and a mere $2,500 could doom it.

And here's where the optimism comes in.

After just one story in The Mercury about the need to raise funds, people started stepping out of the woodwork and stepping up to the plate.

These were not the elected officials, the pontificators or the complainers, who are all too often front and center in Pottstown's public spotlight.

Many a donation walked through these doors.

These were the "doers," the people in this town who believe in that delightful Missouri motto: "Show me, don't tell me."

And show they did.

First the German Club stepped up with $1,000 donation on the first day, followed in no short order by the Masons, who ponied up another $1,000.

Add to these other donations (the fullest list we can muster appears below), ranging from $500 down to $15 and in no time, not only had the required money been raised, but the organizers had a jump start on next year.

Next year, not only will they have to pay the full $5,000-plus to the borough, but also the $2,000 it costs to actually put the parade on.

And its these people, their generosity that is repeatedly displayed when there is a fire, or during The Mercury's Operation Holiday, who once again renew at least a hope that Pottstown can get back on its feet.

It may not be enough financially to really turn things around, but it demonstrates, in a way no speech, or resolution, or election result can, that people in this town have a willingness to support things they care about, things that make their lives better.

And by people I include people in the surrounding towns, many of whom can be found on that donor list.

Alan MacBain's GREAT editorial cartoon on the subject.

Borough Council President Stephen Toroney was right when he said those other towns should help with the cost of regional events like this.

The donor list shows that those residents are willing to help shoulder the cost.

It's one reason why we should keep calling our home the GREATER Pottstown area.

Here are those who made the parade financially possible:

SPONSORS

Rotary Club of Pottstown

AMBUCS of Pottstown
Department of Parks and Recreation

Borough of Pottstown
The Mercury

GREAT PUMPKINS

Pottstown German Club — $1,000

Stichter Lodge No. 254 F&AM — $1,000

Lowa Insurance Group — $500
Pottstown Memorial Medical Center — $500

TALL SHOCKS OF CORN

Wheel to the Future — $350

Montgomery County Community College — $300

Pottstown Rumble — $300
Anonymous — $200

Sager & Sager Assoc. — $200
Little Italy Restorante — $150

Ice House Steaks & Pizza — $150

Heartland Abstract — $150
Dr. Lawrence Gribb — $100

Jean Spotts — $100
Donna & Aram Ecker — $100

Vision Painting — $100
David & Gloria Schwab — $100

Scott Palladino — $100
Harry Leister — $100

Reed’s Fuel Oil — $100
Roger Baumann — $100

MANY KERNELS OF CORN

Frank Smith

J.B. Supply 

Dale & Cynthia Conard

Caitlin Mattingly
Ted & Lori Freese

Ken Schaeffer Family (for Jenny)

Jim Derr
Doris Jean Sweeney
Charles Fischer

Gerald Richards
Michael Sloane

Pamela Rowland, Cynthia O’Neal, Deborah Fine (PHS Band Alumni)

Roy Reifsnyder
Sanatoga Thriftway

Council OKs $33K Codes Office Review

After discussing for roughly 40 minutes and finally agreeing to absorb about $2,500 in costs that are not in this year's budget to help the Halloween parade Tuesday, Pottstown Borough Council then quickly and happily agreed to spend another $33,000 that is also not in the budget.

Only Councilman Tavis Gery voted against a proposal brought to council Oct. 3 by interim borough manager Mark Flanders, to hire a firm to conduct a top to bottom review of the codes department.

Flanders told council at the Oct. 3 meeting that the idea had been floated previously and “I’d like to see it get moving.”

Mark Flanders

He said the proposal calls for hiring Remington, Vernick and Beach Engineers, which the borough hired in March as the borough engineering firm and which also services the planning commission, to “conduct a review of our current services and conduct an analysis for improvement.”

The firm would “bench mark the department and make recommendations for best management practices” that would be issued in a written report, said Flanders. 

The firm already conducts many reviews for projects in the borough.

The examination period would last for 10 weeks and the cost “is not to exceed $33,546,” Flanders reported.

He also noted that “there is no line item in the budget to pay for this.” 

However, the idea was backed by council's Finance and Administration Committee.

Councilman Dan Weand, who heads the committee, endorsed the idea Wednesday and said Tuesday that the borough had put its finances in order and now would like to improve its codes office as well.

 "We want to make Pottstown a top rated town and codes is the places to start," said Weand.

Travis Gery

"We want to change the impression of doing business with Pottstown," said Mayor Bonnie Heath.

Afterward, Gery explained that he does not understand the rush, when the borough will soon have a new borough manager, as well as an assistant borough manager, "and those people could conduct an in-house review that wouldn't cost any money."

The vote comes in the wake of the revelation that the Codes Department is the focus of a Montgomery County Grand Jury investigation instigated after the arrest of landlord Frank McLaughlin. 

McLaughlin was arrested and charged with theft of service and other felonies after allegedly installing devices which would allow the water meters on properties he owned to be by-passed, thus avoid paying for water in those properties.

Those devices were never discovered in any of many inspections by the codes office, but by the West Pottsgrove fire marshal responding to a fire call.

Halloween Parade's Fate May Rest with Council

Is Pottstown's Annual Halloween Parade doomed? A borough
council vote Monday may tell the tale.

Blogger's Note: A correction. The initial version of this post said the council meeting is Monday. That is incorrect. Monday is Columbus Day. The council meeting is Tuesday night.

A vote by borough council Tuesday night may determine whether or not Pottstown's Halloween Parade occurs this year.

The parade is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. and, as in past years, its organizers have asked council to waive the permit fees and costs that taxpayers will then have to shoulder.

Interim Borough Manager Mark Flanders told council Wednesday night that the overall cost to the organizers is more than $5,000.

The 2012 budget only allocated $3,000 for such parade and event waivers and it is already over-budget, council having waived roughly $5,000 in event fees already, Finance Director Janice Lee told council.

Making the decision even more difficult for council was Flanders' observation that "if council chooses not to waive the fees, I'm not sure there will be a Halloween parade."

"It was my understanding that we would have the same arrangement as in 2010 (our first year) and last year (which was rained out)," said P. Richard Frantz, who was speaking on behalf of the Pottstown Rotary Club which is staging the parade, along with the AMBUCS and Parks and Recreation Department as partners. 

"Since we were not planning on this scenario, we have not made an effort to contact additional sponsors. With the parade less that three weeks away, I don’t think we can come up with that kind of money." Frantz wrote in an e-mail to yours truly.

"Rotary and AMBUCS rescued the parade in 2010," said Frantz. "Personally, I don’t want to see it canceled. It has been a tradition for the kids in Pottstown since I was a kid (and that’s a long time ago)."

This is not the first time council has faced this question.

Last year's parade was rained out, so the event became moot. 

In the past, such requests have torn at council priorities; pitting the desire not to spend money not outlined in the budget against the desire to support borough organizations and events that bring people to town.

There is a funding spectre haunting Pottstown's
Annual Halloween Parade

But those events require police coverage, fire police closing streets and directing traffic away from High Street and set up and take-down of barriers, all of which costs money.

Last year, in an attempt to get a handle on it, council adopted a budget that set aside $3,000 for the waiver of such fees.


But various events that have already occurred, with the exception of the July 4th Parade, have already consumed that fund, and then some.

Council President Stephen Toroney said like the July 4th Parade, the Halloween Parade tends to bring people from surrounding townships but puts the cost solely on the backs of borough taxpayers.

"It's a Catch-22," said Councilman Travis Gery. "We are working to attract people into the borough, which is what we're trying to do, to sell ourselves and this is an excellent marketing tool."

Main Street Manager Sheila Dugan said "there is some revenue from the parade" for local merchants who stay open, but yes, I'd like to see more fundraising done because lots of people come, but if it falls on the taxpayers, that burden is an issue."

Is Pottstown's Halloween Parade a treasure to be preserved
or a sinking ship? Council will decide Monday night.

Nonetheless, she added, "it's not something PDIDA would like to see go away."

Lee confirmed that there is money in the borough's reserves, but added "its up to council to decide if this is something you want to dip into reserves to pay for."

Councilman Dan Weand, who heads council's finance committee, said "it is not in the reserves for this purpose."

Councilman Mark Gibson asked if perhaps council could waive part of the fee.

"It's up to council," replied Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. "You can waive how ever much of the costs you want."

Toroney said the matter will be listed for a vote at Monday's council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. and is the meeting at which the public is permitted to speak.