First 'Town Talk' is the Talk of the Town

Photos by Evan Brandt

Council Vice President Sheryl Miller, standing at left, speaks during the first-ever 'Town Talk' event organized by school board member Emanuel Wilkerson, standing at right.

"Can we talk?"
That was the simple idea behind Pottstown School Board member Emanuel Wilkerson's desire to gather as many people in town in one place and have a conversation about the future.

Valerie Jackson was the first people in the crowd to speak up.

The place was Connections on High in space designed exactly for this kind of event.

Wilkerson set out an ambitious discussion agenda, with three major topics, social diversity, the future of Pottstown and involvement of our youth.

As with most agendas at open meetings, it was a way to get things started and once they got started, they hummed along pretty well.

There was the requisite reminiscing about how vibrant Pottstown used to be, but there were also new voices and new ideas, something a public meeting in Pottstown has not experience very often in recent years.

Emanuel Wilkerson begins the forum.

If nothing else, having people other than the usual suspects resulted in some new ideas and what seemed to this observer to be a burgeoning sense of pride in town -- one of Wilkerson's goals.

As lifetime residents spoke about all there is to do in town, and new residents talked about why they moved to Pottstown and what they like about it, it seemed to down on people that perhaps its time to stop letting other people define their town.

Wilkerson indicated that he intends to host another meeting next month, although no date was announced.

Lets hope it happens because things are off to a good start.