The Sanatoga Post

GLEN ARBOR MI – The Hill School‘s current dean of faculty is leaving the venerable Pottstown college preparatory institution to become president and headmaster of The Leelanau School, a private boarding school in Leelanau County MI, the Traverse City (MI) Record-Eagle newspaper reported Thursday (Feb. 12, 2009).

A number of current and former Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township residents are among The Hill’s alumni.

Matthew B. “Matt” Ralston, who has worked at The Hill School for 17 years, assumes his new post July 1. Ralston was the top choice of Leelanau’s board of trustees from a nationwide search of more than 40 applicants, according to board Chairman Robert McNutt.

The Leelanau School focuses exclusively on 9th- through 12th-grade students who struggle with learning difficulties such attention-deficit disorder or dyslexia. Ralston’s first teaching job was at a private school for boys with dyslexia in New York state, he told the newspaper, and said Leelanau’s work with similar students appealed to him.

He and his wife Mary Beth also “figured it’s a good time for us to do something if we wanted to try something different,” Ralston, 51, told the Record-Eagle. Leelanau County, he said, “looks like a place that has got a lot to offer.”

In addition to his faculty duties at The Hill, Ralston teaches mathematics and is an assistant coach for its boys junior varsity lacrosse team, according to school website. His appointment at Leelanau was announced to The Hill community Jan. 4 in an e-mail from Headmaster David Dougherty.

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The problem.

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – More than 30,000 customers of Metropolitan Edison Company statewide, but only a handful living within the northeastern portion of the township, had their homes’ electric service affected by Thursday’s (Feb. 12, 2009) wind storms, the utility company reported.

Sustained winds of more than 30 m.p.h, and gusts exceeding 60 m.p.h., blasted aross Met-Ed territories in Pennsylvania beginning Wednesday afternoon. The high winds caused downed branches, trees and power lines, and about 5,800 of its service area customers were left without power for a period during the storms, according to the company.

While crews have already restored power to most customers affected, downed poles and wires still need repair in several locations. Met-Ed said its work to completely restore power may extend into the weekend in some areas.

Company representatives again urged customers never to touch downed lines, or remove trees or limbs near downed lines. Downed wires, they said, should always be assumed to carry electricity. Instead, customers should wait for emergency services or utility crews to arrive.

Photo by Clipart.com

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Marcia Fortley, left, and Nancy Hohns speak to WOW.

SANATOGA PA – “Don’t make yourself over,” Nancy Hohns and Marcia Fortley told women dining Tuesday (Feb. 10, 2009) afternoon in Sanatoga, “make yourself better.”

Hohns and Fortley, branding experts from the Sinking Spring-based Anderson Group, provided tips for creating personal and company brands during the monthly Women of the Workforce (WOW) luncheon of the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce, held at Cutillo’s Restaurant, 2688 E. High St.

Two of their suggestions for creating a better brand, as reported by chamber Marketing Director Ashley Eisenhower:

• Make friends with your mirror. Look honestly at the image you and your business project to the world, they said. Because it may be difficult to see your own flaws, the duo suggested creating a “kitchen cabinet” group of peers who will point out strengths and weaknesses.
• Create a signature style. Be consistently known or remembered for wearing red lipstick, or having a unique business card that sets you apart from the crowd. Consistency’s important, Hohns and Fortley emphasized, because repetition reinforces the image, positive or negative, being projected to the world.

Branding, they told the WOW group, helps create a way for their businesses to flourish despite difficult economic times.

WOW’s next event will feature “Lessons Learned: How B101 finds success in focusing our marketing on our customers,” presented by Blaise Howard, general manager and vice president for B101 FM, on March 17 (2009; Tuesday) from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in La Massaria Restaurant at the Bella Vista Golf Course, Gilbertsville PA.

Photo provided by the TriCounty Area Chamber

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LIMERICK PA – Representatives of Lower Pottsgrove’s nuclear neighbor, Exelon’s Limerick Generating Station, presented its municipal neighbor, the Limerick Township Board of Supervisors, with a check Thursday night (Feb. 12, 2009) for $150,000.

State Rep. Tom Quigley, left, joins Renee Chesler, vice chairman of the Limerick Township Board of Supervisors, and Limerick Generating Station Plant Manager Ed Callan, with a mock check representing Exelon Corp.'s $150,000 donation.

The amount is the first of four annual Exelon donations totaling $500,000 to support the township’s parks and recreational facilities and programs, the Limerick and Linfield fire companies, and the Limerick Township Police Department.

LGS Plant Manager Ed Callan was on hand to personally deliver the payment. “Limerick Generating Station is part of the fabric of the community, and this contribution is one way to demonstrate goodwill and Exelon’s continued efforts to be a good corporate citizen,” he said. Also on hand was state Rep. Thomas Quigley.

Exelon says it and its nuclear LGS employees contributed more than $300,000 in last year to local charities and public service organizations. Exelon Corp. is among the nation’s largest electric utilities.

Photo by Exelon Corp.

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Try a free week?

POTTSTOWN PA – A free trial membership week is being offered by the Pottstown branch of the Freedom Valley YMCA, Adams and Jackson streets, as a membership promotion available to Pottstown area residents. It’s a perfect way to beat the symptoms of restlessness, irritability and boredom often associated with the cooped-up feeling of winter cabin fever, Jane Alan, the Y’s member service director, says.

The week kicks off next Sunday (Feb. 22, 2009), and runs through March 1. Sunday’s activities include free fitness classes, family games, community swim, a blood drive, mini-massages, and a spaghetti dinner from 2-6:30 p.m., with proceeds benefitting the YMCA Seahawks National Swim Team. Tickets for it can be purchased at the door.

For more information, call 610-323-7300 or visit the Y’s website.

Photo from the Freedom Valley YMCA

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• Boys Middle School Wrestling at S.E. PA TOURNAMENT, 4 p.m.

Provided by HighSchoolSports.net

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POTTSTOWN PA – Although a few of its members think Pennsylvania may someday legally force school districts to consolidate, the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors said Tuesday (Feb. 10, 2009) it’s not yet willing to let that happen voluntarily … or quietly.

Directors, in an informal consensus, asked board President Michael Neiffer to decline an overture from Pottstown School District board President Robert Hartman to tentatively discuss the prospect of merging the two districts. Hartman’s bold invitation followed by less than a week a budget suggestion from Pennsylvania’s governor to cut the number of school districts in the state by 80 percent through legislated consolidations.

Gov. Ed Rendell, in his annual budget speech to the state Legislature Feb. 4 (2009), proposed eliminating 400 of the state’s 501 school districts as a way to streamline operations and save taxpayers money. The governor claimed he would set aside funds in the 2009-’10 budget to pay for a commission to explore the idea, which met with fast and sharp disapproval from a variety of politicians. Reaction from most of Pottsgrove’s directors was more muted.

“It’s too early in the game to set up a meeting” with Pottstown, board Treasurer Fred Remelius offered, even though he said he thinks consolidation “will be forced down our throats whether we want to do it or not.”

“I have no inclination to hold such talks,” added board Vice President Scott Fulmer. “It’s way too premature to start down that path,” board member Nancy Landes agreed.

Board Secretary Phil Keogh objected too, in part because he said it seems unlikely Pottstown would be Pottsgrove’s sole merger candidate. To get down to Rendell’s 100 districts statewide, Keogh noted, four or five districts in the Greater Pottstown area would have to unite. Were that the case, merger discussions might also involve the adjacent districts of Spring-Ford, Owen J. Roberts, and Boyertown.

Neiffer, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate to let directors, school administrators and a sparse audience attending the board meeting at Pottsgrove Middle School know his dissatisfaction. “If the governor … wants to have a say in what we’re going to look like,” Neiffer said, “it’s time for Harrisburg to start doing something about paying for its share of education.”

Rendell, Neiffer said, wrongly blamed the state’s mounting budget deficit on schools, when his own political appointments presented new costs to taxpayers.

Nor were the state House and Senate spared. Board member April Kontostathis said the state could save millions by consolidating its Legislature. Get that done, she steamed, “and then we’ll consider doing the same.”

POTTSTOWN PA – Borrowing money it couldn’t pay back led in 1990 to the downfall of Ingersoll Publications, a company that formerly managed The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper. Now it may also be the undoing of The Mercury’s current owner, Journal Register Company (JRC).

The Mercury is Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s newspaper of record for the publication of legal notices.

The Mercury's offices on North Hanover Street in Pottstown.

JRC, based in Yardley PA, announced Friday (Feb. 6, 2009) on its website that a legal understanding negotiated last July with its lenders, known as a forbearance agreement, had terminated. Its expiration places in further doubt JRC’s ability to get out from under a crushing debt load of more than $625 million, industry analysts say.

Much of its financial burden was incurred in 2004 when JRC expensively bought newspapers in Michigan, just as automobile manufacturing began to hit the skids.  Ironically, Ingersoll – for which JRC once had been seen as a savior – collapsed because it also paid too much for newspaper companies, using primarily junk bonds as leverage.

The forbearance agreement kept financial wolves from JRC’s door. Under it, the company was not required to make interest payments on money it owes investors, but in return it was given until only Jan. 16 (2009) to definitively describe how it would restructure and right itself.

That deadline came and went, and the agreement ended. “The company remains in active discussions with its lenders regarding a possible restructuring,” JRC said in Friday’s statement, but added, “there can be no assurance that the ongoing discussions will result in an agreement … or that its lenders will not seek to enforce their rights under the credit agreement.”

Those rights include a variety of ways for creditors to recoup at least a portion of what they’re owed. That often includes liquidating assets.

Making news.

A handful of managers and owners of local businesses that advertise in The Mercury are now openly discussing what they quietly feared months earlier: the possibility the paper could again be sold or, worse, closed. One Boyertown-based banker several weeks ago said she heard a sale would happen in March; a representative of a Pottstown-based post-secondary school last week said he’d heard April. Both asked not to be identified by name.

Mercury employees are equally distressed. Memos they reportedly received in December were said to announce that corporate contributions to their 401K retirement plans were being discontinued. Some reporters claim they’ve overheard discussions the Pottstown paper would be merged with The (Norristown PA) Times Herald and The (Lansdale PA) Reporter to create a single daily edition covering all of Montgomery County.

Mercury management, for its part, so far has been publicly silent on both facts and speculation. In months past the newspaper published verbatim, and often prominently, various JRC press releases. To date it has not reported on the forbearance agreement failure, or on JRC’s recent closing of newspapers in Germantown, Mount Airy, West Oak Lane, Olney, Oxford, Coatesville, Downingtown, Quakertown, Doylestown, Conshohocken, Plymouth Meeting and others in its so-called Philadelphia cluster.

Pottstown area business and civic leaders, even those sharply critical of The Mercury, want it to survive. There’s good reason, Mercury Editor Nancy March contends. “Newspapers are vital to your town and your community,” she wrote Monday (Feb. 9, 2009) in her blog on the newspaper’s website.

“I know there is much written and said about the demise of newspapers,” March conceded. “But I know with as much certainty that we are as relevant to our community as ever.”

Editor’s note: In the interest of full disclosure, Sanatoga Post Managing Editor Joe Zlomek served as publisher and chief operating officer of The Mercury in 1989 and 1990. He worked as an independently contracted correspondent, columnist and editorial writer for The Mercury in 1998 and 1999.

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Sanatoga Chapel.

SANATOGA PA – The Lower Pottsgrove Historical Society has scheduled its free monthly open house for Feb. 22 (2009; Sunday) from 1-4 p.m. at the society’s headquarters and museum in the former Sanatoga Chapel, 2341 E. High St., Sanatoga. Society members will be on hand to greet visitors, and light refreshments will be available.

• This event has been added to The Post’s February calendar.

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SANATOGA PA – Weekend activities for Sanatogans (and anyone else!), Feb. 13-15 2009:

Friday, Feb. 13

The 12th annual Backyard Bird Count will be held across the country from today through next Monday (Feb. 16). Participants count and track species of birds they see in their own surroundings. The free event will be sponsored locally by My Little Chickadee, 1424 Ben Franklin Hwy., Douglassville PA, located next to Jay Lanes. For more information, call 484-624-5184 or send an e-mail.

Jennifer Finney Boylan, the author of several books including “She’s Not There” – her 2003 memoir about life as a transgendered American – will be the featured speaker at 7 p.m. in Bomberger Auditorium at Ursinus College, Collegeville. The lecture is free.

Saturday, Feb. 14

“Ravishing Raptors,” a free program about birds of prey that live in the Upper Schuylkill Valley Park, will be held from 1-2:30 p.m. at the park,  1600 Black Rock Rd. across from the Montgomery County Geriatric Center, Royersford PA. Visitors will see, and hear about, several birds including the park’s two bald eagles, named Montgomery and Liberty. A $2-per-car parking donation will be sought. For more information, call 610-948-5170.

Eight wineries that comprise the Berks County Wine Trail, the closest of which to Sanatoga is Manatawny Creek Winery, 227 Levengood Rd., Douglassville PA, are offering a free, self-guided tour and tasting that pairs featured wines and chocolate confections from Noon to 5 p.m. at each winery. No reservations are required. Each winery along the tour, a map of which is available online, provides a different pairing. The tour also will be offered Sunday during the same times. For more information, inquire by e-mail.

Separate Ways, the band whose musical style and sound pays tribute to legendary rockers Journey, will perform in a Valentine’s Day show at 8 p.m. in Sunnybrook Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Rd., Sanatoga PA. For more information, call 484-624-5186 or visit the ballroom’s website.

Sunday, Feb. 15

Join the staff of Warwick County Park in Knauertown PA, just south of Pottstown, as they build homes for bluebirds, one of Pennsylvania’s most popular songbirds. Visitors to the park can build a bluebird box at 2 p.m. in the park office, 382 County Park Rd. (3-1/2 miles west of the intersection of Routes 100 and 23). A fee of $10 per bluebird box kit will be charged. Registration is required. For more information and to register, call the park at 610-469-1916, or download a registration form.

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