Pottstown Tax Hike Drops, Cops Get 5-Year Pact

Photos by Evan Brandt

When it comes to determining the big story from the Wednesday night borough council meeting, it's kind of a toss up.

The two biggest contenders are the budget and a five-year police contract.

• The gist of the budget story is the threatened tax hike of 4.25 percent outlined in October, has been whittled down to 3.83 percent. 
• As for the police contract, the union has agreed to a five-year contract which will provide raises of 18.5 percent over its length.
• Council will also vote Monday on a two-year lease with Boyertown Multi-Service to operate

  

  Potential improvements at the community
  college campus in Pottstown.

  the Ricketts Community Center.
• Additionally, officials from Montgomery County Community College made an exciting presentation re-imagining the Pottstown campus.
• And then there is the Carousel at Pottstown, which has raised the $800,000 to $1 million needed to expand its building to allow a restaurant to operate there.
• Thomas Hylton informed council Trees Inc. has received a $35,000 grant from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, which he and his wife Frances will match, to create a $70,000 budget for street tree trimming, maintenance and treatment to fend off the invasive emerald ash borer.
• Council was also presented with a draft of a new 10-year franchise agreement with Comcast to continue to provide cable service in the borough, but will eliminate one of PCTV's three channels.
• There is also a move afoot to eliminate some of the 20-year-old licensing fees for "entertainment machines," but a concern about the growth of digital gambling machines.
• Then there are the five appointments to five different boards and commissions that must be made Monday and Council Vice President Carol Kulp, who lost her seat in the Democratic primary in May, has applied to be appointed to a five-year term on the Pottstown Borough Authority, replacing Michael Benner, who has also applied.
• Also, be aware that the red Mascaro trash bins are being replaced this week by gray ones so

  

  Ed Kelly shows council some of the bike path
  stanchions he has picked up.

  they stand out less.
• And "fans" of Pottstown's bike lanes may appreciate the visit from Roland Street resident Mike Kelly who, for the second time, hand-delivered some of the stanchions that separate the bike lane from the car lane and which, he said, residents were assured "would be maintained" by the borough.

So we'll have to see how many of these can be turned into full-fledged news stories in The Mercury.

And for fans of reports, here is the monthly mayor's report:




Want more? How about the borough manager's report? (I challenge you to decipher what it is we are supposed to do with the old red Mascaro trash bins from this. I gave up and turned it off so as not to make it even more confusing.)



And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting

Tax Hike Down, 5-Year Police Pact Gives

Dragon Boat Will Ferry Santa to Pottstown Saturday

Santa will arrive in downtown Pottstown Saturday via dragon boat, crossing the Schuylkill River to land in Riverfront Park, before riding a fire truck downtown for more holiday fun.

There was news a-plenty at last night's Borough Council meeting, which we will get to in tomorrow's post, but first I want to let everyone know how busy Santa Clause will be in Pottstown, particularly on Saturday.

Despite the fact that no one provided any of this information to the newspaper, or me, the economic development report delivered at Wednesday night's council meeting by Peggy Lee-Clark, executive director of PAID, provides the basics.

Christmas magic begins Friday night at The Alley on High Street, which is now decorated as a
"Christmas Village" and from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, vendors including NV Donuts, will be there along with a Christmas Tree.

"But the real excitement starts on Saturday," Lee-Clark said.

From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Santa will be at The Pottstown Integrated Wellness Complex at 724 N. Adams Street, known to most as the YMCA, to visit with children and adults alike.

From 12 to 2 p.m., Beverly's Pastry Shop at 322 High St. will host Christmas cookie decorating.

The big man in the red suit will arrive in downtown Pottstown via, get this, a dragon boat, which will ferry him and his throne across the Schuylkill River to Riverfront Park at 2 p.m.

From there, he will ride a fire truck to The Alley on High Street to hob knob with Pottstown peeps.

From 3 to 6 p.m. is the official "Holiday Stroll" on High Street where shoppers can fill out a "bingo card" with a theme from "A Christmas Story," which, by zero coincidence, is the show that opens at Steel River Playhouse, which opens Friday and runs through Dec. 22.

Bingo cards can be obtained from the Schuylkill River Heritage Area in Riverfront Park, where Santa will stop by after his sojourn across the river, and at The High Street Terminal market, 300 High St.

But make sure you are back at Smith Family Plaza in front of borough hall by 7 because that's when the tree lighting begins.

It is also when the winners of the contest for businesses decorating the planters outside their buildings will be announced by the judge, Mayor Stephanie Henrick.

(Santa will return to Pottstown on Dec. 21, when he will ride a fire truck through town, according to Pottstown Fire Chief Frank Hand.)

And don't forget on Sunday is the Historic Holiday House tour, proceeds from which raise money to pay for July 4, 2020 fireworks at the GoFourth Festival in Memorial Park. Read more about that here.

Here is video of Lee-Clark's report:



And for those of you who can't wait for the hard news out of last night's meeting, here are the Tweets from the meeting.

Tax Hike Down, 5-Year Police Pact Gives

Pottstown 2019 Budget Draft Calls for 12% Tax Hike

Photos by Evan Brandt

The bottom line for the general fund, from last night's budget presentation.

So let's get right to the heart of the matter.

In it's first budget presentation of the season, the administration has dropped a $48.9 million draft budget proposal in front of borough council that, if adopted unchanged, would hike property taxes by just under 12 percent -- 11.97 percent for the sticklers out there.

This comes on top of the 12 percent tax hike adopted in December for the current year.

The primary culprits for this unpleasant state of affairs, according to Borough Manager Justin Keller are:

Flat spending thanks to cost savings.

• The $779,000 hike in pension obligations to both police and non-uniform plans; 
• the $1 million increase for post-retirement health care;
• The $360,000 the borough has to pay back to the owners of the moribund Pottstown Center shopping center at 799 State St. after the court decision on an assessment challenge;
• Contractual pay increases to the  borough police and employees;
• Not to mention the annual absence of $263,000 in tax revenue from Pottstown Hospital being off the tax rolls.

The removal of Pottstown Hospital from the tax rolls

last year only capped off a continuing trend.

Keller and Finance Director Janice Lee, under a heading they appropriately titled "Revenue
Headwinds," pointed out that since 2016, including what's proposed for 2019, spending has actually dropped.

But even though taxes have been raised, thanks to an unending stream of property value assessment losses, revenue has dropped faster.

Although the general fund holds the largest deficit, almost $700,000, there are also deficits in the parks and recreation fund ($114,246) and in the fire fund ($216,798).

Millage for the Parks and Recreation Department, which cares for 15 parks totalling approximately 100 acres at a cost of just under $1 million, has not been increased seven years.

Millage supporting the fire fund -- which covers the $275,000 payment made to each of the borough's

The bottom line.

four fire companies annually, as well as the $246,739 fire chief/fire marshal's office and functions -- has only been raised once since 2011.

In the meantime, fire calls since 2014 through 2017 are up 6 percent.

Taken together, the total budget deficit at this early stage stands at $1,029,674 according to the presentation.

To close it, the current recommendation calls for raising the total tax millage from the current rate of 11.58 to a 2019 rate of 12.966.

For a home assessed at $85,000, that translates into an annual tax hike of $117.79

Keller said although this preliminary news seems dire, "it's not all doom and gloom."

Overall, Pottstown property values are up 11 percent; properties for sale are spending less time on the market and the march of assessment challenges seems to be leveling off, with the results of challenging being not much less than the current assessment, making the challenge less attractive.

That said, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Pottstown Facing 12% Tax Hike

Boyertown Stadium, Tax Hike, Superintendent News

Photo by Evan Brandt

SONGBIRDS: Boyertown School Board member Brandon Foose, right, stands with high school students Abby Arnold, Taylor Kuszyk and Sally Fetterman after being recognized by the school board for their performance in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Region V Chorus Festival.

Let's not mince words.

There are three major news stories to come out of last night's Boyertown School Board meeting, but let's cue up to the one everyone really cares about -- the stadium.

Those of you interested in your tax bill and who will lead the district in coming years, will just have to wait and skip down a bit.

The Stadium

Last night the school board voted unanimously for the option most favored by parents of student athletes -- to conduct the fall sports season in the high school's Memorial Stadium using temporary stands and temporary sheds, rather than rent outside facilities or hold them "at a neutral location."

The cost of that decision to taxpayers is $112,233.

The district will buy the sheds and some mobile bleachers to be given other uses once the stadium is repaired.

Some bleachers will be rented and set up on the track on the home side and Facilities Director William Gasper said the company that installed the track said the district's plan for a tarp, then plywood, then 2 X 6 board to distribute the weight of the temporary bleachers and the people sitting on them, should be enough to protect the track.

Parent Elyse Watts thanked the board for the decision, which will allow seniors in fall sports to play in the stadium they have known growing up as the home for Boyertown athletics.

She also noted that the timeline as it stands now looks like it could come awfully close to affecting the fall 2019 season and urged the board to move forward with all deliberate speed and efficiency.

Toward's that end, the school board's facilities committee will conduct a special meeting on Monday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria devoted entirely to one subject -- the stadium.

The public is encouraged to attend as the format will allow a break-out session that allows the public to speak directly to board members on a less formal face-to-face basis, said Interim Superintendent David Krem.

A New Superintendent?

Not much to report on this one.

After the leading candidate for the job, Juniata County School District Superintendent Keith Yarger, backed out of the job, the school board has gone "back to the drawing board," said Board President Donna Usavage.

She said since that happened, the board met at least four times in closed-door executive session to discuss the continued superintendent search.

Despite the fact that interim schools superintendent David Krem's term expires in June, the board intends to press forward and decide on a replacement for Richard Faidley, who left last year for a job in Wilson School District, before school starts up again in the fall.

"The board will do everything within our power to get that done," she said.

A Tax Hike Cometh

With the expected 6-3 vote, the school board adopted a preliminary final budget last night that calls for spending more than $119 million and would raise taxes by 5.4 percent.

The millage would increase by 1.35 mills under the proposed budget, leading to a tax rate in both the Montgomery and Berks county portions of the district of 25.37 mills.

For a home assessed at $100,000, that represents an increase of $136, which school board member Jill Dennin called "as pretty good deal" for a home with three children on which the district will spend thousands of dollars each year.

She and board member Brandon Foose both noted that the Boyertown district has see-sawed between low tax hikes and higher ones to then make up the difference.

"You can't have it all, a nice stadium, nice fields, nice music programs and have zero tax hikes," said Dennin. "You can have less staff, larger classrooms, or raise taxes to the inflation rate."

But board members Clay Breece, Ruth Dierolf and Christine Neiman, who represented the three votes against adopting the budget, said not enough had been done to cut costs, and said many residents in the district could not afford the increase.

Saying he thought the district has "squandered money," and that the proposed hike represents the largest single increase since 2002, Breece said if the board continues to raise taxes at that rate, "in five years, it will add $680" for the same resident with a home assessed at $100,000. "It really is a matter of math," he said.

Here are a few more comments he offered:


"I know there are constituents who can't afford this," said Neiman.

Board member Steve Elisier, who chairs the finance committee, said the district saved $208,000 by re-financing some bonds, and that there were also significant savings earned through retirements and lower health insurance costs.

The final budget will be adopted and June, and can be reduced between now and then, but not increased.

Also, while we're talking about money, the board voted unanimously to spend up to $250,000 on five new trucks for the district. The average age of a district truck is 17 years.

And now, without further ado, are the many misspelled Tweets from the meeting.

A budget, a stadium and no superintendent