1st Annual Meet and Eat With Police This Afternoon

Today's event will be much like the National Night Out held at the Chestnut Street Park each year.

The NAACP Pottstown Chapter, Pottstown Police Department and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office will host the first annual Picnic With Police today from 12 to 2 p.m.

The event will be held at the park at the intersection of Chestnut and Washington streets and will be similar to a National Night Out event.

There will be free grilled hot dogs, snacks and drinks, as well as games, music and giveaways.

The even seeks to bring police together with the communities they serve and will allow the community to meet their local beat officers, including several new officers who have recently joined the force.

"This is a family-oriented event to bring everyone together for casual conversations or to discuss community issues while having fun," Pottstown Police Chief F. Richard Drumheller said i0n a preprared release.

"We are blessed in Pottstown to have such strong and vibrant organizations and coming together to relate on an informal basis with our police officers is important on so many fronts," said Jonathan Corson, interim president of the Pottstown NAACP chapter. "It's always better to have strong lines of communication in place before there ever might be a problem to face together.

"Pottstown residents of all ages are encouraged to come out, enjoy some good food, spend time with their neighbors and meet the beat officers," said assistant district attorney Brianna Ringwood. "We're looking forward to seeing everyone."

Pottstown Council Finally Passes LERTA Tax Break

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.

Anti-Crime Street Cameras Coming to Pottstown

Photos by Evan Brandt

Police Chief Rick Drumheller talks about the benefits of the street camera program being proposed for Pottstown during Wednesday night's borough council meeting.

The arrival last month of a Community Prosecution Unit of the Montgomery County District Attorney's office came with pledges of helping to make Pottstown a safer place.

Last night, they delivered in a major way, announced a plan to establish crime-fighting street cameras in town. The DA's office will use money confiscated from criminals to pay for the installation of a system that can accommodate as many as 36 street cameras.

Montgomery County ADA Brianna Ringwood explains the
camera proposal to borough council Wednesday night.

Additionally, the county office will pay for the first ten cameras and at least the $5,000 cost of the first year of maintenance.

"This is another example of our commitment to this community," said ADA Brianna Ringwood, one of three ADAs assigned to Pottstown.

Hard to argue with that.

Working with the police department, the cameras will be established in high crime areas and monitored 24/7 by the police department.

Also in the news from last night was the announcement that Justin Keller, the area's regional recreation coordinator,has been hired as Pottstown's new assistant borough manager, replacing Erica Batdorf who left last month.

“His demonstrated ability to foster regional cooperation in his current role as Regional Recreational Coordinator and his success in grant acquisitions for our region made Justin the frontrunner in our search to fill the position," Mark Flanders said in a statement sent to The Mercury late Wednesday night.

As the new assistant borough manager, Justin Keller, center, sat
with his new co-workers Keith Place, left, and Janice Lee last night. 

"It has truly been an honor serving the six participating municipalities as the region;s first recreation coordinator,” Keller said in his statement. “I am proud to be part of an unprecedented level of regional cooperation and coordination which has attracted well over a half million dollars of grant investments for area parks and trails.”

Council also had some dis-jointed discussion about the language for the proposed changes to the ordinance which governs  the Pottstown Human Relations Commission.

Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. had asked for some guidance. Not so sure if he got what he was looking for.


You can read all about it in the Tweets below.

A (National) Night Out on the Town

Photos by Evan Brandt

Kelise Smith, 16, and Pottstown High School classmate Deandre Sanders, 16, visit with mascots-in-training Trojan Men Aaron Diamond and John Oister during National Night Out celebrations in the park at Washington and Chestnut streets in Pottstown.

There were fewer National Night Out celebrations in Pottstown than there have been in the past, but the two that were held Tuesday night enjoyed overflow attendance.

At Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ, right across the street from The Mercury and an awfully convenient place to get a hot dog, there were so many people out front they were running out of sidewalk.

Erika Hornburg-Cooper, Judy Memberg and
Christopher Willman at the Beech Street Factory display, which was
"creating quite a buzz," according to Hornburg-Cooper.

And at the park at Washington and Chestnut streets a few blocks away, the music blared and people spilled out into the closed section of North Washington Street where food and useful information were being offered in near equal measure.

I had two favorite quotes from the evening, which floated up above the laughter of the kids and the gentle
murmur of adults agreeing with each other.

The first one came from Judy Memberg, the tireless and (most important) effective head of Genesis Housing Corp.

She said, in an almost off-hand way, "“We can rebuild every house in a block, but if we don’t rebuild relationships among neighbors, than we haven’t revitalized the neighborhood.”

Having joined Erika Hornburg-Cooper at the display for the Beech Street Factory project -- which will also be the new home of Hornburg-Cooper's art center -- Memberg was observing that it will take more than physical improvements to spruce up a neighborhood.

Investment in human capital is just as important -- something National Night Out highlights.

Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas, right, visits with Gloria Dunn

My other favorite quote came from Mayor Sharon Thomas -- whose church, Victory Christian Life Center, was the other primary sponsor of the evening.

She said, again without a lot of forethought, “National Night Out is very important so neighbors get to know each other instead of just passing each other getting out of their cars.”

The mayor is right, and its sad that she's right, but we have to learn how to get better at being neighbors.

I will admit that there are plenty of people on my block whose names I should know, and I don't.

As the mayor intuited, we are literally nodding acquaintances when we head to our cars and scurry into our blissfully air-conditioned homes.

When kids threw a rock at our front door and broke the glass several years ago, it was the neighbor across the street -- long moved away -- who charged out of his house and chased them while I tried to keep the glass out of the house.

I never did learn his name.

Here are the Tweets and video links from last night's events.

Citizens Academy, Convenience Stores, Goodbye Erica and Thoughts on the Nation's Turmoil

Photo by Evan Brandt

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.

She gave a talk, which is also captured on video.

Here it all is:

Rotary Names Det. Long 'Person of the Year'

Pottstown Police Det. Heather Long

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the Pottstown Rotary Club.

The Rotary Club of Pottstown is pleased to announce Detective Heather Long as its selection as the 2015 Person of the Year. 

A juvenile detective and forensic Interviewer, Detective Long graduated from Mansfield University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in Human Development Psychology. 

She has been employed with the Pottstown Police Department since January 2007 and was transferred to the detective division in July 2010, assigned as the juvenile detective.

In this capacity, Detective Long specializes in the investigation of child abuse and sexually based crimes. She is a member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force, Montgomery County Sexual Assault Task Force (SATF) and the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) at Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center. She is also a trained forensic interviewer at Mission Kids CAC.

Detective Long is currently the president of the Pottstown Police Officers’ Association. Over the last five years, she organized the annual PPOA Fishing Derby for children of the community. 

For the last three years, she organized the annual Gregg Boyle Memorial Golf Outing, which allows community members to golf with police officers and pay respect to one of Pottstown’s finest.

This is not the first time Detective Long has been recognized for her outstanding service to the Pottstown community. She was honored as Pottstown Police Officer of the Year for 2014. 

Detective Long was also honored by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office for her work

Long, right, is congratulated by

Montgomery County DA Risa Vetri Ferman

on a child rape case, where the offender (71 years old) pled guilty and was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

The Pottstown Rotary Club annually recognizes a member of the greater Pottstown community for outstanding contributions in areas such as the arts, business, education, health care, non-profit public service, and government service. 

Members of the community are invited to the ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, September 9 at the Rotary Pavilion in Riverfront Park. 

The ceremony followed by dinner will begin at 6 pm. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance. For tickets and additional information, contact Ted Flint at 610-943-4443.

The Pottstown Rotary is a local and international service organization comprised of men and women committed to making a positive contribution in their community and the world. 

The Rotary Club of Pottstown supports a number of programs in Pottstown, including, literacy building, the Pottstown Halloween Parade, student scholarships, Operation Backpack, and Meals on Wheels. 

The club also sponsors the Pottstown High School Interact Club, a service club for high school students. 

To learn more about The Rotary Club of Pottstown, visit www.PottstownRotary.org.

After Big Bust, What Now?

Pottstown Police Chief Rick Drumheller

The second in a series of community meetings about crime in Pottstown was held Monday and this time, there was more information.

That's because when the first meeting was held in February, the investigation into the major gang war that was behind so many of the months of violent events was still under investigation.

But many of those involved have been arrested and this time, those from the police and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office could be more forthcoming -- as the Tweets from the meeting reveal.

Crime Meeting set for Monday

Residents concerned about crime in Pottstown will have another opportunity to discuss those concerns with police and representatives of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Activist and former council president David Garner has arranged for another meeting like the first one held in February.

It is scheduled for Monday, June 1 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers meeting room on the third floor of borough hall and is open to the public.

Jason Whalley, who heads up the DA’s drug task force, has again agreed to attend, as have representatives of the borough police department Garner told The Mercury.

“We want to give both the DA and the police department the opportunity to talk about what they are doing — to the extent they will talk about that — and to tell the residents, in detail, what they can do to help the crime/nuisance fighting effort,” Garner wrote in an email.

One major development that has occurred since that last meeting, was the May 14 announcement of 34 arrests as part of an ongoing gang war that had been going on in Pottstown and accounted for a whole string of shooting incidents stretching back six months or more.

Another 13 individuals are still at large and being sought by authorities and the investigation is continuing.

Also since the February meeting, the police department has begun to use its Facebook page more extensively, seeking the public’s help in finding suspects, as well as announcing recent arrests.

The medium is also being used to acknowledge the role residents tips play in solving particular crimes, an acknowledgement many would like to encourage.

Garner said he hopes the meetings can lead to the development of a standard form or template for residents to fill out when providing the police with tips in order to garner more useful information for the police.

Police are partially headed in that direction already with the establishment in recent months of a drug tip line, that allows residents to leave anonymous messages with details about suspicious activity.

The phone number for that tip line is 610-326-4109 and the email address is drugtip@pottstown.org.

Non-narcotics-related tips about criminal activity can be sent to pottstownpolice@pottstown.org.



Garner said he would also like to see the borough and the county explore using forfeiture laws that could make it possible for the borough or county to take control of nuisance properties that are repeatedly the location of criminal activity — particularly related to narcotics.

Crime on the Agenda

Kevin Steele

About 20 residents showed up a a meeting Monday night, arranged by former borough council
member David Garner and featuring members of the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and Pottstown Police.

First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele (who is the Democratic candidate for DA) and assistant district attorney Jason Whalley, who heads up the county drug enforcement unit, were both there, as was Corporal. Mike Long, of the police Community Response Unit.

Both attorneys said the violence in Pottstown "has our attention" and that efforts are underway to not only combat the street level drug activity, but also those higher up.

Steele talked a bit about the value of cameras in capturing vital evidence and information.

Here's a video on that segment:


All three also spoke about the importance of citizen involvement.

Long said for the past 18 months, the 49-member police department has been down by as much as 14 officers, but staff is back up to full strength.

He outlined efforts re-start the Community Response Unit, which was inactive while the department was short-staff.

You can read all about it in the Tweets below:

Pottsgrove Focuses on Drug and Alcohol Prevention During April Awareness Week

Mercury Photo by Kevin Hoffman

Last year, police conducted a surprise drug sweep at 

Pottsgrove High School but found no drugs.

In its inaugural year, the Pottgrove School District Drug and Alcohol Prevention Team has scheduled several activities in the coming week.

Formerly called a taskforce, the team is comprised of PGSD staff, community agencies, parents and school board board members whose focus is to provide education to students, parents and community in hopes of preventing drug abuse. 

The team also provides support and direction to students and families dealing with drug abuse or addiction. 

"Although we are a suburban community, we are far from immune to the epidemic of teen drug abuse including alcohol," according to a statement released from the district. 

To help drive that message home and spur discussions about prevention and recovery, the team has planned April Awareness Week, from Tuesday, April 22 to Tuesday, April 29. 

This week, which builds on programs already in place at the Pottsgrove High School through the SNAP Academy, will focus on student, parent and community education surrounding drug and alcohol use in our local area and its often devastating consequences.

-- On Tuesday, April 22 the Community Driving Safety Fair will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. at Pottsgrove High School. 

The mock car accident is meant to show the potential 

consequences of impaired driving during prom week and other times.

This event, brought to the community through the SNAP Academy and the school PTA, is a replication of the activities that will be shared with high school students during the day to promote safe driving at the prom.

Community members are invited out to learn about the effects of impaired driving through hands on simulations including opportunities to try the Safety Bug! 

The activities are free and members of the Drug and Alcohol Prevention Team will be there to answer questions about Pottsgrove’s promotion of a healthy community.

In cooperation with the Lower Pottsgrove Police Department and the HS SNAP Academy, a mock car accident will be presented to students during the week to show the actual potential consequences of impaired driving. 

This powerful simulation will be yet another reminder to students to make positive and safe choices as they attend the prom and summer festivities.

April Awareness Week also happens to correspond with the Drug Enforcement Agencies National

This week is also the DEA's National Take-Back Initiative

Take Back Initiative for spring. 

-- This program, running on Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,  encourages citizens to bring in old or unused prescription drugs for safe disposal. For a site near you, please click here.

On Tuesday, April 29, a Community Connection on Drug Use in Montgomery County will be held at 7 p.m. at the Pottsgrove High School. 

This event, presented by Assistant District Attorney Kelly Lloyd and Detective Holtzman from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office, will discuss current drug usage trends in the area, educate parents on current lingo and drug paraphernalia and offer guidance for parents who are concerned about drug use in the community. 

Parents of students in grades K-5 are encouraged to bring their students for a fun evening of team and self-esteem building activities run by middle school and high school student leaders and staff, so that parents can attend the informational session. 

Community agencies and school staff will be available with resources about drug and alcohol prevention and support for recovery. 

Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Michael Foltz speaks to the 

media at Pottsgrove High School.

Lower Pottsgrove Police will be in attendance to promote their local prescription drug take back program available 24/7 at the police station.

“We fully support the efforts of the Pottsgrove School District as it works to address drug and alcohol issues," said Lower Pottosgrove Police Chief Michael Foltz 

"We are glad to partner with the district, community agencies, and Risa Ferman of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office to coordinate education and prevention programs and services for the good of the community at large," Foltz said. 

"The influx of heroin into the local area is of significant concern for us," said Foltz. "Although it is not epidemic at this point, particularly in the schools, we all have to increase our diligence and awareness of this increased threat to community well-being. Working together is key to prevention.”