Lighting and signs illuminate the Bed, Bath and Beyond store that opened Tuesday in Upland Square Shopping Center.

Less than a half-hour before closing on its first night, shoppers were making their way inside.

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Without fanfare or commotion, and with only a press release hint of public announcement, the first of dozens of stores in the much-anticipated Upland Square Shopping Center opened its doors Tuesday morning (June 16, 2009). By Tuesday night, members of the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors were already wondering how much tax revenue the center might generate.

• This story is an overview only. Several items from Tuesday’s board meeting will be covered separately in greater detail in coming editions of The Post.

Bed, Bath and Beyond, a retailer that specializes in home furnishings and accessories, Tuesday raised grand opening signs and welcomed customers who wanted to be among the first to make its cash registers ring.

Although its address is 170 Upland Square Dr., the store is likely to be better known as part of the massive shopping complex at the corner of Route 100 and State Street in West Pottsgrove (PA) Township. Once completed, probably by mid-August, the center will house a Best Buy, Target, Giant Supermarket, Staples, T.J. Maxx and many other retailers and restaurants in buildings covering 640,000 square feet of space.

Company CEO Steven Temares, in a release issued to the media, said his firm looked forward to continuing traditions of customer service, product assortment and value at the new location, its 30th such store in Pennsylvania.

The Pottsgrove school board, which met in regular session at the district administration building, 1301 Kauffman Rd., was looking forward to something else entirely. In addition to property tax revenues that will be paid to the district by the center’s owners, it also receives mercantile tax payments of 1.5 mills – or $1.50 per $1,000 – of retail sales generated there.

That means, board President Michael Neiffer said bluntly, the district will be “better off next year than we are this year.”

Just how much better off, district Business Manager David Nester said, isn’t yet known. “Hopefully it will improve significantly,” Nester said of the tax revenue anticipated from the project, but so far, he noted, “there’s no financial data for us to go on.” It is, Nester acknowledged, “a large potential source of revenue.”

Also during the board’s meeting:

Budget adopted; tax hike locked in, but slightly lower

Without comment, the board unanimously adopted the district’s general fund budget for the 2009-2010 school year. It raises local real estate tax rates that support district operations by 4.44 percent – to $32.92 for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value – over the 2008-2009 rate of $31.52 per $1,000.

Consequently, for a home within the district assessed at $120,000, on which its owners last year paid school taxes of $3,782, those same owners next year could pay an additional $168 for a total school tax bill of $3,950. The increase is 0.8 percent lower than the maximum rate increase the district could have charged, and about 0.1 percent lower than the rate the board discussed last month.

Contentious vote on architect’s contract

In a 5-4 decision that required a roll-call vote, the board approved a contract between the district and Gilbert Architects of Lancaster PA for design of new construction at and renovations to Ringing Rocks Elementary School. The contract would pay Gilbert 5.5 percent – about $880,000 – of the estimated $16 million construction cost.

However, the contract also would allow Gilbert to charge up to an additional $300,000 to address property development issues that might arise with government agencies. If it ate up that extra set-aside, the district’s resulting $1.18 million payment to the architect would equal 7.3 percent of the project cost, or 1.3 percent more than the 6 percent fee cap originally sought by the board.

Contention over the document took almost a half-hour.

Related (to the Pottsgrove School Board meeting of June 16):

• District Honors Retiring Teachers

Related (to the Pottsgrove School District 2009-’10 budget):

• Secretary: Ed Fund Plan ‘Not An Option’
• Fairs Would Suffer Schools’ Plight
• Board Blisters State Rep Over Funding
• School Board Approves Tentative Budget
• Stimulus Lowers District Deficit, Not Taxes

Related (to Ringing Rocks Elementary School renovations):

• District OKs Architect Negotiations
• Consensus On Ringing Renovations: $16M
• Ringing Rocks Proposals Aired Tuesday
• Ringing Rocks Re-Examined April 14
• Pottsgrove To Trust-But-Verify On Ringing Plans
• Ringing Rocks Plans Take Another Step
• No Shortage Of Ideas At Pottsgrove Meeting
• Weigh In On Pottsgrove Renovations
• Framing The Rocks Discussion
• Response Mixed To Pottsgrove Improvements
• District Invites Public For Study Results
• A Different Rocks, But Only As A Concept

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