Public Barred From Joint Pottstown, Pottsgrove Sewer Meeting

Editor’s note:  What absolute bullshittery is this BM Flanders!?!  Very shady, dude!

POTTSTOWN, PA — If you live in the borough, or the three surrounding townships who use the borough’s sewer system, the future of your sewer bill was under discussion Tuesday morning — but you would not have been allowed to hear that discussion.

Engineers, managers and lawyers from West Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove and Lower Pottsgrove sat facing each other, and representatives of the Pottstown Borough Authority, in a borough hall meeting room Tuesday morning the township’s unhappiness with the way they must pay for their share of costs at the Pottstown Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Those payments have had a direct impact on the bills paid by sewer users in those townships.

Currently, all three townships send their sewage to the Pottstown plant under agreements with the borough authority.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130416/NEWS01/130419391/public-barred-from-joint-pottstown-pottsgrove-sewer-meeting#full_story

Demograhics, Border Development And Low-Income Riverfront Housing

Hopefully,  looking at these figures will help illustrate why Pottstown needs to move away from low-income and Section 8 housing if we ever want to revitalize this community.  Looking at the numbers, we are again at the bottom.  And we wonder why development happens all around us?  Not really!  Welcome to the donut hole.  You can find this information at city-data.com

Pottstown Borough 4.9 square miles  –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $45,941

Upper Pottsgrove Township 5.0 square miles –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $89,145

West Pottsgrove Township 2.4 square miles –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $54,067  

Lower Pottsgrove Township 7.9 square miles –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $65,879

Douglas Township (Montgomery County) 15.3 square miles –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $70,404

North Coventry Township 13.4 square miles –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $65,694

East Coventry Township 10.8 square miles –  Estimated median household income in 2008: $73,497

Sonic, America’s Drive-In Is Coming To Pottstown

This is a bitter-sweet post.  I am very glad Sonic is coming to Pottstown, however, it’s more border development.  Sonic obtained a zoning change to build on the west side of Route 100, adjacent to Upland Square. 

I am happy to see that the idea of some revenue sharing is being bantered about since Pottstown is getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop on all this development.  We all benefit from development but cash strapped Pottstown is the hub of this area and needs to see some benefit other than traffic congestion.

My response to Elwood Taylor’s (Upper Pottsgrove Commissioner) rebuttal of Steve Toroney’s letter about border development, is chill out Elwood.  Steve has a valid point.  Pottstown needs to get a piece of the development pie too.  We still lost other taxes/fees from Giant and other retailers who moved to Upland Square so it’s still less money for Pottstown, even taking into consideration borough employees will still generate Earned Income Tax.  Also border development feeds urban sprawl which is something we are supposed to be trying to control.

This needs to be a win-win for everybody.  That’s supposed to be the point of having a Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee.  Just sayin’ Elwood.

Pottstown Finally Takes A Stand Against Border Development

Today’s Pottstown Mercury has an article written by Evan Brandt which certainly makes this resident smile.  Pottstown is finally taking a stand against being skirted by development and having jobs and taxes sucked out of the borough.  Bravo!

Dan Weand and Steve Toroney appear to be the ring leaders in this movement based on the article.  Both are Borough Councilmen (Toroney is President) and on the Pottstown Planning Commission.  Steve Toroney also serves on the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee.

The recent construction of Upland Square in West Pottsgrove Township and the proposed Commerce Corner center in Upper Pottsgrove Township have prompted this stand.  Giant and several other large stores have left Pottstown Plaza and Pottstown Center for Upland Square, thereby taking tax dollars and jobs with them.  Giant also evidently holds the lease on their former Pottstown Plaza site to keep competition out.  I cry foul!  That shopping center needs tenants to fill it back up again.  Purposely keeping that store vacant is just wrong and hurts Pottstown!  People need to know these things so they can make informed decisions about where they want to shop!

The State Street and Route 100 intersection will need redesigned again to accommodate Commerce Corner.  Part of the plan would be to make the entrance into Commerce Corner from Wilson Street.  The entrance would be from Pottstown Borough but Pottstown would not see any revenue, just more traffic on Wilson Street!

Certainly everyone benefits from the jobs created by Upland Square and the potential jobs from Commerce Corner.  However, harming Pottstown in the process is wrong.  This border development places a strain on Pottstown’s infrastructure such as increased water, sewer and police assistance.  Working together regionally is the only way to go.

I hope this movement gains traction and Pottstown can start to benefit from all this development instead of being surrounded by it!  More development is in the works!