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Photos by Evan Brandt
Greg Trainor of Philadelphia Community Corps says "de-construction is about preserving and re-using building materials and architectural elements as well as a job training program to teach about the construction and demolition trade.
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Although it was only an hour long, there was a lot to chew on at Wednesday night's council work session.
Borough Council will vote at Monday's meeting on an attempt to get funds to repair falling stormwater arches, as well as hiring a firm to offer suggestions on how to make borough operations more efficient to avoid another tax hike.
But before we get to that, let's talk about a very interesting presentation made by a man named Greg Trainor, who runs something called Philadelphia Community Corps.
Invited by Mayor Stephanie Henrick, Trainor says his non-profit program is about addressing blight, preserving and re-using historic building materials as well as a job training program for the construction and "de-construction" industry.
Rather than just tear a house or commercial building down and dump all the material in a landfill, better to "de-construct it," teach construction and job skills and provide a tax break and help eliminate blight while your at it, he argues.
(We interrupt this blog post to bring you the September Mayor's Report)
Trainor's program operates mostly in Philadelphia in blighted communities and rather than spend money to maintain an abandoned property and police it from the nuisance uses it often houses, "why not look at it as a supply of bricks, of useful timber?" he asks.
Older homes like those in Philadelphia (and older towns like Pottstown) also often have unique architectural elements you can't find any more and like a modern day salvage yard that would put the home repair channel into overdrive, his organization's warehouse houses and recovers, stores and sells those items to the point where it is looking to double its size.
It may also be looking for a second location and Council President Dan Weand made a hard pitch for Pottstown being that place Wednesday night.
Look for more on this in subsequent Mercury coverage (we hope).
More Cops
New Police Chief Michael Markovich told council the force is down by two officers and by the end of October, will be down two more. In 2019, he expects to lose as many as six more on top of that, so he has asked council to begin replacing them by voting Monday to make employment offers to the two candidates currently at the top of the civil service list.
One of those candidates has already been through the police academy, meaning it will only take four months of training before that officer is out on the street. The other candidate will be delayed an additional six months it will take to complete police academy training, he said.
Higher Pension Costs
Also on the police front, Borough Manager Justin Keller delivered some bad news when he informed council the minimal municipal obligation (how much we taxpayers will have to cough up) to ensure the viability of the police and non-uniform pensions will jump alarmingly next year.
"The primary reason is people are living longer and we have to take longer lifespans into account," Keller said.
The other reason was an investment consultant whose fees were "higher than anticipated." A new investment consultant has been fire cutting the cost of the fees in half.
But the damage is already done and combined, the money required by the two pension funds will increase by $2.4 million in 2019. Assuming Pottstown gets the same $700,000 in state aid, a figure we know more exactly by next month, that means Pottstown taxpayers will still have to come up with an additional $1.1 million in the coming year.
Perhaps that's something Econsult can help with.
Can the Borough Do More With Less?
That's the consulting firm the administration has recommended provide the Early Intervention Program services the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development is helping to fund to help Pottstown reduce costs and avoid another tax hike like the 12 percent increase adopted in December.
The bid was for $64,925.
Those of you with a long memory may recall that Econsult was the name of the firm hired in 2007 by the Pottstown School Board and recommended the "consolidated campus" ("mega-campus" to its detractors) plan which was rejected by voters later that year.
It's not immediately clear its the same firm.
Not So Golden Arches
One thing that has been clear for quite some time is that Pottstown's aging masonry stormwater arches are falling apart at an alarming rate.
(We again interrupt this blog post, this time to bring you the Pottstown Borough Manager's Report)
On Monday, Keller has asked council to authorize application to a Commonwealth Financing Authority program for a $500,000 grant to address the stormwater arch problem.
Keller said $20 percent of the funding would go toward engineering; another $40 toward existing collapsed arches, such as the one that collapsed in the alley south of Walnut Street in May and the at the former Memorial Hospital as 1200 E. High St., which collapsed last month.
The final 40 percent would be put toward preventive maintenance.
The borough's match would be $100,000, unless the borough obtains a second grant in January aimed at flood mitigation.
And now, if you're not already full up with municipal news, we present the Tweets from last night's meeting:
Deconstructing Pottstown, Pension Costs Soar
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