Pottstown Tax Hike Drops, Cops Get 5-Year Pact

Photos by Evan Brandt

When it comes to determining the big story from the Wednesday night borough council meeting, it's kind of a toss up.

The two biggest contenders are the budget and a five-year police contract.

• The gist of the budget story is the threatened tax hike of 4.25 percent outlined in October, has been whittled down to 3.83 percent. 
• As for the police contract, the union has agreed to a five-year contract which will provide raises of 18.5 percent over its length.
• Council will also vote Monday on a two-year lease with Boyertown Multi-Service to operate

  

  Potential improvements at the community
  college campus in Pottstown.

  the Ricketts Community Center.
• Additionally, officials from Montgomery County Community College made an exciting presentation re-imagining the Pottstown campus.
• And then there is the Carousel at Pottstown, which has raised the $800,000 to $1 million needed to expand its building to allow a restaurant to operate there.
• Thomas Hylton informed council Trees Inc. has received a $35,000 grant from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, which he and his wife Frances will match, to create a $70,000 budget for street tree trimming, maintenance and treatment to fend off the invasive emerald ash borer.
• Council was also presented with a draft of a new 10-year franchise agreement with Comcast to continue to provide cable service in the borough, but will eliminate one of PCTV's three channels.
• There is also a move afoot to eliminate some of the 20-year-old licensing fees for "entertainment machines," but a concern about the growth of digital gambling machines.
• Then there are the five appointments to five different boards and commissions that must be made Monday and Council Vice President Carol Kulp, who lost her seat in the Democratic primary in May, has applied to be appointed to a five-year term on the Pottstown Borough Authority, replacing Michael Benner, who has also applied.
• Also, be aware that the red Mascaro trash bins are being replaced this week by gray ones so

  

  Ed Kelly shows council some of the bike path
  stanchions he has picked up.

  they stand out less.
• And "fans" of Pottstown's bike lanes may appreciate the visit from Roland Street resident Mike Kelly who, for the second time, hand-delivered some of the stanchions that separate the bike lane from the car lane and which, he said, residents were assured "would be maintained" by the borough.

So we'll have to see how many of these can be turned into full-fledged news stories in The Mercury.

And for fans of reports, here is the monthly mayor's report:




Want more? How about the borough manager's report? (I challenge you to decipher what it is we are supposed to do with the old red Mascaro trash bins from this. I gave up and turned it off so as not to make it even more confusing.)



And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting

Tax Hike Down, 5-Year Police Pact Gives