PottsTOWN Talks Economy and More

No, this is not a photo from last night's PottsTOWN Talks meeting. It is a photo from last month's meeting. But our new free-lancer Nancy March was so busy live Tweeting the meeting, that she didn't Tweet any photos.

 Welcome, guest Tweeter/Blogger Nancy March.

Never able to stay away from local news for long, March, the former editor of The Mercury, came out of retirement this week to cover some stories for us as a free-lancer.

One of them was last night's PottsTOWN Talks meeting, the second in as many months.

(I was busy at a Pottsgrove School Board meeting that was as brief as it was absent of earth-shattering news.)

This month's topic was the local economy and the meeting started off with presentations from two executive directors, Steve Bamford from Pottstown Area Industrial Development, or PAID; and Sheila Dugan of Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority, or PDIDA.

Also speaking was Matt Green, a local realtor and activist and former Pottstown police officer.

Then the meeting, which was attended by about 50 people, according to March's Tweets, broke up into smaller groups to brainstorm specific actions in specific areas -- economic development, community engagement and external marketing.

Although the dates have not been set, the topics for the next two PottsTOWN Talks meetings have, according to organizer Emanuel Wilkerson: schools, then neighborhoods.

And here are March's Tweets from last night's meeting. An article will also be published in The Mercury.

Next PottsTOWN Talk to Focus on Economy

Emanuel Wilkerson

Pottstown School Board member Emanuel Wilkerson will host his second community meeting of his Pottstown Talks series on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

This talk will focus around economic development and community engagement.

The meeting will take place at Connections on High Café, 238 E High St., starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

There will be presentation by local economic development authorities and local realtors on how can the community get involved with the redevelopment of Pottstown, along with same small group brainstorming sessions.

“I’m excited to bring the community back together for our second PottsTOWN Talks, so we can brainstorm together on ways to help our local economic development authorities rebuild our town as a united Pottstown," Wilkerson said in a press release.

Discussion at the
last meeting

"I want to urge the community to grow this coalition for the future of Pottstown by coming, sharing and bringing a friend,” he said.

Wilkerson held his first PottstownTOWN Talk on Aug. 1 and it attracted nearly 100 people.

There, a crowd beyond the usual suspects who show up to such meetings reviewed the oft-made complaints about the town, but also talked about what makes Pottstown great and engaged in discussion about solutions as well.

This next meeting is designed, Wilkerson said, to focus that discussion on the subject of economic development and to put the enthusiasm generated at the last meeting to work in focus groups exploring specific actions.