In Pottstown, It's All In the Timing

If you want to get appointed to the Human Relations Commission, or the planning commission, or you want to try to make some changes to bike lanes going down your street, it's all in the timing.

As Council Dennis Arms rightly pointed out to borough council Monday night, "we say all the time we want people to apply to boards and commissions, and then they do and we ignore them."

He was talking about two last-minute applications for two vacant positions on the planning commission. Arms noted that although the applications were last minute, that the borough has never set a procedure or deadline for those appointments.

"It's all just willy nilly," he said.

Ultimately, he was halfway successful.

Council did to adopt a new policy last night of an application needing to be made within 30 days of it being announced.

But they did not apply this spiffy new policy to the two open positions they filled last night, one of which was to re-appoint Borough Council President Dan Weand to another four-year term on the planning commission. The other seat was filled by a man whose full name I did not catch.

A similar conversation unfolded when two people were appointed to the Human Relations Commission -- Marcia Levengood and Samantha Miller.

Council vice President Sheryl Miller wanted a one month delay because she did not think the Human Relations Commission had a quorum when it recommended those two.

But they did. One of the commission's five members resigned the day after they voted on the recommendation. It's really get hard to keep track.

Finally, council spent a great deal of time on the subject of proposed bike lanes for Roland Avenue that are part of the $2 million Safe Routes to Schools project.

At least two residents have come to council in recent months and said the lanes, and the pylons that will designate the bike lanes, are ugly and will lower the value of their property.

Assistant Borough Manager Justin Keller said he did know about these concerns until December of 2016, but residents had voiced concerns earlier. The problem is that they were voiced to a different assistant borough manager.

Staff and Councilman Joe Kirkland, who represents the Seventh Ward, met with the residents and they discussed changes. What no one seemed to know until Keller explained it to them Monday, is that all those changes were dependent on an OK from PennDOT.

And PennDOT said no.

Keller said the changes could not be made within the time frame of the grant that will help to pay for the project and, if the project were abandoned, that the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation would want the borough to return the $600,000 it paid for the design and engineering of the whole project.

The project will affect more than just Roland Street.

It will install bike lanes and change some roads to one-way all over the borough.

In the end, council voted 6-3 to approve the traffic ordinance which will make the changes to the road, as well as to appoint Traffic Planning and Design as the Construction Inspection Consultant for the project -- both PennDOT requirements.

Timing truly is everything.

Otherwise, here are the Tweets.

Borough Should Find Money for New Pool and for Ricketts says NAACP

Mercury Photo by John Strickler

Instead of swimming in Manatawny Creek, NAACP Vice President

Johnny Corson told council that Pottstown's children need a pool.

The president and vice president of the Pottstown chapter of the NAACP told borough council
Monday that if the borough and school district can find $5 million to fix sidewalks and install bike lanes, they should also be able to find similar amounts to build a pool in Pottstown help the Ricketts Community Center.

"I went by Memorial Park the other day and I saw kids swimming in the Mantawny (Creek)," NAACP Vice President Johnny Corson told council.

"I know I wouldn't let my children swim in that creek. Who knows what's in it, animal feces and the like," Corson said.

"If we had a pool, we wouldn't have to worry about that," he said.

Johnny Corson

Pottstown did have a pool, Gruber Pool, but it closed in 2000 when it was discovered that long-deferred maintenance on the electrical system posed a safety hazard to swimmers.

When the borough could not come up with up with the money to make the repairs, the decision was
made to fill in the pool and over was constructed the Trilogy Park BMX track.

In the meantime, the borough used grant money to construct and open the spray park in Memorial Park.

However, Corson and NAACP President Newstell Marable argued that the pool is needed not only to help residents to keep cool, but to learn to swim.

Newstell Marable

"A swimming pool is very important," Marable told council.

"A town this size should have a pool and a good community center," Marable said.

"If you had a good director, and people who could grants, you'd be surprised where that center could go," Marable said.

Although the Ricketts Community Center is owned by the borough, it has been operated since 2009 by the Reading-based Olivet Boys and Girls Club.

Both Marable and Corson spoke out against that arrangement, both before it was made and since it was implemented, arguing the center should be operated locally and that the club's rules make it more difficult for adults to use it.

Ricketts Community Center

Prior to the club taking over, the center was operated by a local group known as the Collaborative Board, which lost control over accusations of financial mismanagement.

Corson pointed to former Philadelphia Mayor John Street, an avid bicyclist, who hates bike lanes, as part of a body of evidence to suggest the money Pottstown School District and borough council are pursuing jointly to create bikes lanes, as part of a safe-routes to school initiative, could be better spent on a pool and on the Ricketts Center.

Pottstown Borough Council President Steve Toroney thanked both men for their comments.

Borough Manager Mark Flanders informed council that he and representatives from the school district met with state Sen. John Rafferty, R-44th Dist. about the transportation bill that is pending in Harrisburg and whether the Safe Routes to Schools project would be eligible for funding from it.

After Monday night's meeting, when it was pointed out to Corson that it is unlikely the state transportation funding being pursued by Pottstown to help pay for sidewalk repairs and bike lanes could be used for a pool or a recreation center, Corson replied that the borough has grant writers and could be looking for grants to pay for the pool and to support the Ricketts Center.