Pottstown Regional Planners Offer Park Improvement Grants

A mini-grant program for park improvements in the eight municipalities that comprise the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee is now accepting applications.

Eight grants of up to $25,000 each will be awarded to towns which participate in the regional planning effort to help fund park improvements that promote recreation.

Funding for the grants comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and is being facilitated by the PottstownArea Health and Wellness Foundation.

At this point, the “Request-for-Proposals” phase, the regional planning committee and the foundation are inviting the region’s eight member municipalities to apply for funding for the planning or development of park improvements.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130525/NEWS01/130529453/regional-planners-offer-park-improvement-grants#full_story

Regional Recreation Coordinator Pitched To Pottstown Council

Editor’s note:  We are all for regional planning and cooperation.  This approach will help unite the Greater Pottstown area and that would be a good thing!

POTTSTOWN — Borough council may vote Monday on endorsing a proposal that could, at very little cost, provide support and technical services to regional recreation efforts and perhaps draw more financial support for large events like the Fourth of July and Volleyball Rumble.

The proposal has been discussed for several months by the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee and would be jointly funded by the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation and a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The idea is to use the funding to hire what the state calls “a circuit rider” and what David Kraybill, executive director of the foundation, calls a “regional recreation coordinator” to help organize, provide technical and marketing support and write grants for the eight municipalities which comprise the regional planning area.

To benefit, each municipality would have to sign on and pay what the foundation’s Anna Brendle-Kennedy called “an escalating” fee which begins with several hundred dollars and ends, after five years at $5,000, so long as all municipalities participate.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130404/NEWS01/130409610/regional-recreation-coordinator-pitched-to-pottstown-council#full_story

92-Home Development Proposed In Douglass (Mont.)

Location of Douglass Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DOUGLASS (Mont.) — A developer has proposed clustering 92 single-family homes on 47 acres off Congo Road and leaving the remainder of the 70 acres of the property as open space or park land.

Located on a 117-acre pice of land known as the “Hallowell Tract,” the site is located at the intersection of Congo and Hallowell roads and is a former farm.

In fact, the site is surrounded by farmland that has been permanently protected, said township Supervisor Fred Thiel.

Montgomery County Planner Meredith Curran told the members of the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee Thursday that the project was first submitted in 2005 and so is guided by the previous zoning for that area of town, which allows for one house per acre.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130329/NEWS01/130329256/92-home-development-proposed-in-douglass-(mont-)#full_story

Pottstown, West Pottsgrove Push Extension Of Keystone Boulevard

POTTSTOWN — Just two days after borough council approved a property tax break for a new business proposed along Keystone Boulevard, officials from the borough and West Pottsgrove Township met to brainstorm about extending the road to the Grosstown Road exit off Route 422.

The extension of Keystone Boulevard through the former Flagg Brass property in West Pottsgrove and over to the Stowe interchange has long been envisioned and was the subject of an $81,000 study by the Rettew Assoc. engineering firm.

Paid for through a grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the grant brought both municipalities together to plan jointly for the project, which could cost as much as $10 million.

Although PennDOT does have plans for a $30 million improvement to the Stowe interchange as part of its long-range plans for upgrading Route 422, Brian Regli, Montgomery County’s Director of Commerce, told the assembled officials not to expect the state to come up with the money for that project any time soon.

Read more:

http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130315/NEWS01/130319529/pottstown-w-pottsgrove-push-extension-of-keystone-blvd-#full_story

Pottstown Regional Recreation Post Could Wear Many Hats

POTTSTOWN — Sometimes things just fall into your lap just when you need them.

Just one day after members of the Pottstown School Board and borough council brainstormed about ways they can work together to cut costs and market Pottstown to a broader region, an opportunity to do just that for free was again presenting itself.

During their first joint meeting of the year on Feb. 25, members of both Pottstown boards echoed a common lament, the need to market what Pottstown has to offer to a wider audience, to better coordinate and add to major events and the need for additional funding help from outside sources and the surrounding townships.

On Tuesday, the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee heard about an opportunity being developed over the last year with the help of the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation to do many of those things at a ridiculously low cost.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130304/NEWS01/130309833/pottstown-regional-rec-post-could-wear-many-hats#full_story