More Pottstown Area Holiday Events Coming This Weekend

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Funky Santa 5K Run – The Brick House is sponsoring a 5K run and 5K relay this Sunday, December 12^th at 9:15 a.m.  Registration is from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m.  Click below for all the details: http://events.allaroundphilly.com/pottstown-pa/events/show/153161905-funky-santa-5k-run

 

Pottstown Hometown Holiday Celebration continues this Friday, December 10^th from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. in downtown Pottstown.  Click here for info: http://www.downtownpottstown.org/

 

Music at Emmanuel: Coventry Singers – Sunday, December 12^th at 4:00 p.m., Emmanuel Lutheran Church, corner of Hanover & Walnut Sts., Pottstown.  The concert will feature music of the season.  For more information: http://www.zvents.com/pottstown-pa/events/show/141102985-music-at-emmanuel-coventry-singers# 

 

Christmas in Birdsboro – Saturday, December 11^th from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Fun for your entire family!  More info:  http://www.birdsboropa.org/PDF/DatedEvents/ChristmasBirdsboro-2010.pdf

 

A Christmas Wonderland: Ocean City Theatre Company at Owen J. Roberts High School Auditorium, Friday, December 10^th at 7:30 p.m.  Billed as a family musical review, this is a one night only appearance in the Pottstown area.  Tickets are $12.00 for adults and $10.00 student/child.  For more information: http://ojrhs.ojrsd.com/modules/cms/announce.phtml?sessionid=a64d4c566a9dee9910d4fbf5f764e4df&sessionid=a64d4c566a9dee9910d4fbf5f764e4df  (Scroll down the page about half way)

 

A Christmas Carol: The Musical – Tri-County Performing Arts Center in downtown Pottstown.  Performances continue all weekend.  Info: http://www.tripac.org

 

The Historic Pottstown Neighborhood Association is proud to sponsor its annual holiday house tour, Historic Pottstown by Candlelight on Sunday, December 12, 2010. 

This event showcases some of Pottstown’s most treasured architectural wonders both on the outside of these properties as well as their interiors.  Come and enjoy our tour to see what Pottstown has saved from the past and kept for the future.

$12.00 Ticket includes:

Victorian Tea presented by the Doe Club, Pottstown Elks from noon – 2pm                                                        All homes and buildings on the tour are open from 1pm – 6pm 
Model train display
Free trolley transportation for all ticket holders
Free refreshments to ticket holders

For ticket information or if you are interested in having your home open for our annual holiday house tour, please contact Sue Krause at (610) 323-2229.

Camden, New Jersey: Enter At Your Own Risk

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Camden, New Jersey was just ranked the second most dangerous city in the United States.  A 2009 estimate census showed Camden’s population at 78,790.  Camden has a police force of 373 or one officer for every 211 people (This figure does not include civilian employees). The US average is one officer per 333 people.  The land area of the city is 8.8 square miles. 

Six months ago, 50 new officers were hired to beef up security for the beleaguered city.  Now it appears that on January 18^th, up to 180 officers could be laid off.  Camden is financially distressed and is asking the officers to take a 20% pay cut.  Police sources say the pay cut approaches 35% with all total concessions.  Some of the new officers are wondering why they were hired in the first place.  On a positive note, there are other cities lining up to recruit any laid off Camden cops.  Nashville, Atlanta and Norfolk are interested in hiring any Camden law enforcement budget casualties. 

Camden has been in a free fall for decades.  Major employers like RCA, Campbell’s Soup and New York Shipbuilding employed well over 50,000 people.  Camden’s population peaked in 1950 at 124,555 residents.  The 2009 estimate shows a net loss of 45,765 residents since 1950 or about 37%.  By comparison, the state of New Jersey’s population has nearly doubled since 1950. 

41.7% of Camden residents lived in poverty in 2008.  Camden was ranked as American’s poorest city in 2006 when 52% of its residents lived in poverty.  By contrast, New Jersey had the nations second highest per capita personal income in 2008, the highest percentage of millionaire households and is second in the US for towns/cities with per capital incomes above the national average (76.4%).

Camden’s median household income was estimated at $24,283 per year in 2008 (NJ $70,378).  The estimated per capita income for Camden in 2008 was $10,771.  In April 2010 the unemployment rate in Camden was 18.1%, compared to 9.6% for the state of New Jersey.  

Camden scored a 967.6 crime index on City-data.com for 2009.  There were 34 murders.  In 2008 Camden scored 1114.6 and had 54 murders.  As we learned in my earlier post about crime stats, a score of over 700 is considered HIGH and a score about 1000 is considered VERY HIGH.

So what will become of Camden if, worst case scenario, 48% of their officers are laid off!  Or even if only 25% are laid off.  I shudder to think!

Enter at your own risk! 

(Demographic data taken from Wikipedia and City-data.com.)

Pottstown’s Hometown Holiday Charity Ball

By now many of you have seen the advertisements for Pottstown’s Hometown Holiday Celebration.  One component of this month-long celebration is a Christmas Costume Ball for charity.  The event will benefit PMMC’s pre-natal clinic.  The ball will be held at the Elk’s and there are only 225 tickets being offered for $40 per person or $70 per couple.

This all sounds wonderful and certainly donating to charity is always great.  The Borough of Pottstown made a $4000 donation to help defray the cost of entertainment.  An 11 piece band has been hired for the event.

The borough’s donation was made using money from Pottstown Area Rapid Transit’s promotions line item in their budget.  This was done at the discretion of the Borough Manager and did not go before council.  Councilor Rhoads asked about this at last night’s Committee of the Whole meeting as councilors were unaware of this donation when contacted before the meeting.

I am wondering how this donation promotes Pottstown Area Rapid Transit?  Do we expect to gain new riders for PART from those attending the ball?  Are there not better ways to have used this money to encourage people to “Take PART”?  A few well placed ads in the Mercury would have reached more people.  I suppose the other thing that puzzles me is why this money was not used toward the Pottstown 4th of July celebration that tens of thousands of area residents enjoy each year?  Would we not have gotten more “bang for our buck”, if we are trying to promote PART, at a huge event rather than a ball for 225 people?

If our goal was not necessarily to promote PART, but rather to give to charity, should this money have come from another source?  Hint: Tom Hylton likes to donate money.

$4000 is a blip on the transit budget for PART.  However, considering the fact the economy is trashed and we keep raising taxes and fees for services, should we not be better stewards of public funds? 

Public figures are just that, public figures.  People watch the decisions you make and follow your example.  Food for thought: Was this donation the best use of money from the transit budget?  You may want to consider that possibility if a similiar situation arises in the future.