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Photo by Evan Brandt
Upper Pottsgrove Township Commissioners Vice Chairman France Krazalkovich, left, and Ron Cole, who wants to buy the Grimm Farm at the corner of North Hanover Street and Mauger's Mill Road, hold up a map of the improvements he has proposed making if the township will grant a waiver of a conservation easement it hold there.
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If your thing is sewers ... or fireworks .... or horse farms, then last night's Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners meeting was the place for you.
If not, well that's what was on the menu ... or at least the agenda.
What's the Sewer System Worth?
Perhaps most significant for the most number of people was the commissioners' unanimous vote to hire Public Financial Management as the firm to assess the value of the township's sewer system.
There has been a bit of a run on public sewer and water systems ever since the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a law changing how those systems are valued.
Limerick Township sold its sewer system last year for $75 million and the floodgates opened.
To understand how hot the market is, understand that the firm Upper Pottsgrove hired is working for free. It waived its $7,500 fee to perform the assessment on the chance that the township will sell the system and it will garner a little over 1 percent of the sale price.
(To my mind, that seems to incentivize them to come in at a high value, but hey what do I know? I'm not a wizard of high finance, just a lowly reporter with an ever-aging iPad.)
Trace Slinkerd, the commissioners chairman, reminded those in the audience that if the price is right, the township might be able to lower sewer rates, pay off the $8 million in sewer debt, fill the $1 million gap in its pension funds and undertake some needed upgrades to its buildings. with the proceeds of the sale.
Vice Chairman France Krazalkovich, who said it is his philosophy that "if private business can do something better than government, then government should get out of the way," nevertheless emphasized that no decision has been made and the vote is just about getting some numbers.
He took the opportunity to point out that a large portion of the township's properties on public water get it from a private company.
Commissioner Elwood Taylor, who has been most vocal about expressing his reservations about "giving away" the sewer system, whose rates of $215 a quarter are among the highest in the region, made clear he voted for PFM in order to get some of those numbers and is not yet ready to endorse the sale.
Fireworks and a Fair
If you like summer fairs and fireworks, you'll be pleased to know the commissioners voted 4-1 to approve fireworks for the first-ever Pottstown Police Athletic League fair planned for the fields of Chestnut Grove Road.
Planned for May 29 through June 2, Executive Director Seth Lawrence thanked the township staff for helping to work out the details for parking and safety.
Taylor cast the only dissenting vote, saying he is worried about the facility's increasing impact on the residential area that surrounds it.
"First it was just going to be kids playing football, then they started having tournaments which bring a lot of disruption; the lights were added and now they're playing at night; then we found out there was earth moving going on without any permit and then they advertised this carnival without having any of the township permissions they needed," Taylor said. "I'll be the Scrooge."
No Horsing Around
The commissioners punted on making a decision about waivers sought on a 10-year-old conservation easement on the Grimm Farm at the corner of North Hanover Street and Mauger's Mill Road.
Apparently the Smith Family, who were paid $144,500 by the township and a presumably equal amount by the former Montgomery County Lands Trust for all but three acres of the 20-acre farm want to sell it.
The problem is the person who wants to buy it, wants to put a horse exercising ring on the property, where there was one years ago, but it doesn't quite fit into the less-restrictive three-acre area so a variance is needed.
The easement is held jointly by the township and Montgomery County Lands Trust's successor organization, the Natural Lands Trust, which favors the variance.
The problem, said Township Manager Michelle Reddick, is Natural Lands Trust did not whisper a word of it to the township until "a week and a day before closing" on the property, which was supposed to happen on March 19.
When the matter was taken up by the township's Open Space Committee, it was discussed in closed-door executive session because it had to do with real estate, so the property owners were told not to attend the meeting as they would not be allowed in.
Without benefit of hearing that side of the story, the Open Space Committee voted unanimously to oppose the variance and that was their recommendation to the township commissioners which left them, Krazalkovich and Taylor said, in a bit of a quandry.
On the one hand, the property owners were saying that the material for the ring would be superior to the "very wet field" where the farm is now and would actually improve the stormwater situation, not to mention fixing up and expanding the barn that's there.
On the other hand, the elected officials were loathe to ignore the unanimous recommendation of a board of volunteers who specialize in managing the township's rather voluminous open space.
And so, like the harmonic convergence, when Krazalkovich noted that seeing as the closing date had already passed it made sense for the buyers and sellers to speak to the Open Space Committee to see if they couldn't convince them, Taylor agreed with him -- something both commissioners acknowledged as something of a rarity.
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| The Upper Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners and staff Monday night. |
In Other News
- Township commissioners unanimously and without comment appointed Dave DeLong, husband of township tax collector Diane DeLong, as her deputy. They also approved an increase in the tax certification fee from $20 to $25; and an increase in the tax duplicate fee from $3 to $4.
- Agreed to make a $5,000 budgeted donation to Green Allies, the non-profit organization which manages the township owned Althouse Arboretum off Gilbertsville Road
- Held off on authorizing the advertising for bids for one phase of the Regal Oaks sewer project after several residents complained they had been waiting years to be hooked up to the sewer system but had been by-passed.
- Discussed proposed changes to the fire services agreement with Upper Pottsgrove Fire Company No. 1, which, Taylor said, seemed to put an awful lot of authority into the township's hands. More discussion is planned.
And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:
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