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The old values and statement were "cumbersome and out of date," Flanders said.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

Paving the Way on the New Road of a New Day

Ever since I bought my house in Pottstown, I have been mildly puzzled by the fact that one block of my street looks like it was hit by a steady barrage of mortar shells, but my block is, by comparison at least, as smooth as glass.

Of course, because like many streets in the borough, mine is one-way, I have to drive through the mine-field to get to my block.

In fact, when returning home, I usually turn in one block away from mine and take a cross street so as to avoid that mine-field.

Now granted, this is less of a hardship for me, then for my poor neighbors who have no choice but to put their car suspension at risk if they want to park in front of their house.

So today I bring good news. That block is one of the roughly 23 blocks scheduled to be paved this season, along with five more scheduled to be repaired.

The map was provided to Borough Council on Aug. 8 and to me, after some cajoling, on Aug. 15 by Doug Yerger, the borough's director of public works.

Now, I understand I need to temper my excitement with the understanding that nothing is guaranteed.

Yerger told council that he had money available, as usual, from the "liquid fuels fund." This is derived from the state tax on gasoline and must be used for road-related expenses.

But he could not tell if the money available will be enough to complete all the roads shown on the map.

"We had estimated $600,000, but we've got a little over $500,000 a little, so we'll have to cut back a little bit. We'll get as much done as we can," Yerger said.

I don't know about you, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and maybe I won't have to keep taking cross streets.

Below is a list of the streets scheduled for paving as best I can make out from the map:

• Glasgow Street, from Walnut Street to Elm Street;
• West King Street, from Berks Street to halfway between Potts Drive and Gabel Street;
• Gabel Street, from High Street to King Street;
• Fifth Street, from State Street to Johnson Street;
• Johnson Street, from Sixth Street to Seventh Street;
• Fourth Street, from York Street to North Hanover Street;
• Wilson Street, from Farmington Avenue to North Hanover Street;
• Penn Street, from King Street to Buttonwood Alley;
• Warren Street, from High Street to Chestnut Street;
• Adams Street, from King Street to Chestnut Street;
• Adams Street, from Jefferson Avenue to Jackson Street;
• Beech Street, from Adams Street to Thomas Street;
• Price Street, from Rambler Street to Bellview Street;
• Cedar Street, from Rambler Street to Beech Street;
• Hillside Street, from Maple Street to Rose Court;
• Rose Court, from Cherry Lane to Sunrise Drive;
• Prospect Street, from Spruce Street to Charlotte Street;
• Mineral Street from Logan Street to Feist Avenue.

On the schedule for repairs are:

• Berks Street, from Walnut Street to West King Street;
• West Street, from North Franklin Street to North Washington Street;
• Grant Street, from Morris Street to Jackson Street;
• North Washington Street, from Wilson Street to Prospect Street;

Well, I think that's all of them. 

Good luck Public Works, let's hope the weather holds, costs are low and work speedy.