Officer of the Year, Fire Merger Fall-out, New Life for Mrs. Smith's Pies Site, Rental Issues Update

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas, right, reads the proclamation naming Det. Heather Long Pottstown's Office of the Year, while Police Capt. Robert Thomas, left, and Chief Richard Drumheller listen.

So sometimes, you know, technology just fails you.

Despite waning battery life, it was not my mobile devices which made life difficult last night, it was the after-the-fact compilations.

I don't know if it was Storify or YouTube that had a stick up its ass, but I could not get the video links of Heather Long's swearing in to show up on the Storify of last night's council meeting.

And I had such good seats too.

Anyway, because I will never let a good video go to waste, I am embedding them here in a different, hopefully more cooperative program (Not much more).

Here is video of Police Chief Richard Drumheller praising Heather Long's dedication:



And here is more video, this time of Pottstown Mayor Sharon Thomas, reading the proclamation for Long's honor:



And I'd like to say more about last night's meeting, because it was kind of interesting, but you'll have to get it from the Tweets below because at this point, I need a cocktail ... or 10.

Fire Merger Deadline Unanimously Extended

Monday night's meeting saw another chapter in the fire company merger saga with the focus of public comments now turned toward borough council.

Two speakers, former Borough Council President David Garner and Charles Hermansky Sr., talked about what they called the flawed process by which the merger is being approached.

"I've heard the 2009 merger study touted as the reason for this merger," said Garner. "Did any of you actually read the study?" he asked.

He pointed out that the study calls for several steps to be taken for the merger to be pursued, none of which are evident in the current process.

Garner said council should be driving the process, not "those with a vested interest in controlling things."

Similarly, Hermansky said he has noted a noticeable lack of detail and analysis coming from the borough side of the equation.

"A position paper is not enough," Hermansky said.

Council also approved, unanimously, the plan for rental inspections to occur every two years.

Councilwoman Sheryl Miller, who said she was shocked to find out how many unregistered rentals there are in Pottstown, said the lengthy lead-in time will give the borough's Licensing & Inspections department  time to make headway on that issue.

On a lighter note, Mayor Sharon Valentine Thomas and Councilwoman Carol Kulp chided The Mercury for not presenting enough positive news about the borough.

In the mayor's case, she said "Grease," Pottstown High School's first musical in six years, was a "landmark" event which was an opportunity to present a positive image of Pottstown, was missed by The Mercury.

"Instead, we got a big headline questioning Pottstwn's safety," she said in apparent reference to The Mercury's "Criminal Elements" series which began Sunday.

We're presuming that the fact that as mayor, Valentine is responsible for oversight of the police department, and the fact that her son Seth had a major part in the play, which she failed to mention to the crowd, are irrelevant to her bringing the subject up.

(She is right, as she indicated to a Digital Notebook staffer after Saturday's performance, Seth was among the very best in the show. Sadly, video of numbers from the show, surreptitiously shot by said staffer, could not be posted here as intended due to stern warnings in the program about the illegality of that sort of thing. Also, in the interest of fairness, the mayor had heard that some publicity for "Grease" did appear "on social media, but not in print.")

Not one to lose out on an opportunity to settle an old score, Kulp said that when her son's wrestling team went to the state championships, "we had to beg The Mercury" to cover it.)

That was 25 years ago, she conceded. "It's a shame nothing has changed since then," Kulp said.

Anyway, here are the Tweets from the meeting.

(We apologize in advance for any perceived absence of positivity.)