LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Six months ago, when the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners approved the municipality’s 2009 budget, it promised to later consider restoring previously cut contributions to the Visiting Nurse Association of Pottstown and Vicinity, the Lower Pottsgrove Historical Society, and the Pottstown Area Seniors Center.
The township wants to find $3,000 to restore its charitable contributions to three agencies.
Board President Bruce Foltz hasn’t forgotten that promise.
Foltz reiterated Monday (June 1, 2009), during the board’s first of two monthly meetings at the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., his desire to “take another look at” finding about $3,000 to revive donations the township made in past years, but eliminated from this budget as a cost-saving move.
Foltz had made a similar call during a May board meeting, but it’s not as if no one paid attention. Township Bookkeeper Michele Christman has been on vacation, Manager Rodney Hawthorne explained, and staff hasn’t yet had time to examine figures. Foltz understood, and said he hoped there might be a resolution on which commissioners could act by mid-month.
Controversy and name-calling surrounded the cuts, which at one time also included the Pottstown Public Library, when commissioners introduced the tentative budget last fall.
Supporters said the township, which at the time had a more than $1 million fund balance or surplus, could easily afford the relatively small contributions to agencies that benefited its residents. Commissioners defended the cuts as prudent in light of an increasingly difficult economy, although in January 2009 they dipped into the fund balance to restore $30,000 for the library.
Now, Commissioner Jonathan Spadt admitted Monday, township’s finances “are actually in pretty good shape. We’re on or below budget. We haven’t had any costs exceed budgeted items so far.”
It’s suspected, in fact, that township finances are in excellent shape.
During meetings over the past three months, conversations between Hawthorne and commissioners tended to indicate township expenses may, by year’s end, run tens of thousands of dollars below what was budgeted. The reasons vary, depending on who’s offering an opinion, but it means Foltz and his colleagues won’t have to look too hard to find money for the VNA, the seniors, or the historians.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Township 2009 budget):
- Ca-ching! Goes Lower Pottsgrove
- Library’s Funding On Its Way
- Township Budget Passed, Library Funding’s Back
- Budget Resolutions In The Spotlight
- Township Expects Givers’ Pinch
- Keep Library Funding, School Board Asks
- Trump Card In The Budget Discussion
- Commissioners: Damned If They Did, And …
- Township Budget Summary Online
- First Glance At Lower Pottsgrove’s Budget
- Make No Mistake, It’s Not Final
- A Difference In Openness
- Tax Rates On Township Agenda
- Board Proclaims No Tax Increase Intent
- 2009 Budget On Board’s Agenda
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners’ June 1 meeting):
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[...] Township Reconsiders Charitable Contributions Lower Pottsgrove commissioners say they’ll try to find money for the Visiting Nurses, Lower Pottsgrove historians, and the Pottstown Area Seniors Center. [...]
[...] the budget is shaping up a little bit better than expected, according to an article in the Sanatoga Post. This might enable the board of commissioners to restore donations to a range of [...]