SANATOGA PA – A Montgomery County grant of $80,000, the bulk of which would have been used to buy a new sign to promote events at Sunnybrook Ballroom, will be returned unclaimed by Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township because the contract for its administration is too onerous to accept, the township Board of Commissioners agreed Thursday night (July 23, 2009).
A billboard promoting events at Sunnybrook Ballroom, as seen from its parking lot below the East High Street bridge at Sunnybrook Road. Pottstown Memorial Medical Center is in the background at right.
Two of five commissioners were absent from the board’s second monthly meeting in the municipal building on Buchert Road, but a quorum of the remaining three voted unanimously to send the money back. Sunnybrook representatives in attendance were clearly disappointed.
In hopes of salvaging the grant, Sunnybrook officials asked for – and got – the commissioners’ pledge of last-minute help to try and solve what are seen as the contract’s problems. For their part commissioners were apologetic, but insisted the county’s legal arrangement to pass grant money through the township to the ballroom presented unacceptable risks to taxpayers.
“It’s not a decision we liked to make, but one we almost had to make,” board President Bruce Foltz said later.
Sunnybrook President Tom Sephakis, right, in happier times, received a TriCounty Chamber 2008 award on behalf of the ballroom for its return to prominence.
The non-profit, volunteer-operated ballroom at 50 Sunnybrook Rd., which is listed on the national historic register, so far this year has hosted more than 170 arts, recreational and community events, according to Sunnybrook Foundation President Thomas Sephakis.
The deadline to accept the grant had been extended by the county until today (July 24, 2009). Unless wording in the acceptance agreement miraculously changes within 24 hours, the money “goes back to the county’s pot” to be either held or spent on a project elsewhere, township Manager Rodney Hawthorne surmised.
Sunnybrook directors have known for some time of the impasse between the county and Lower Pottsgrove, which claims that under the contract the township would be legally responsible for the yet-to-be-purchased sign if the ballroom hit financial trouble.
Foundation board member and local developer J. Wilmer “Wil” Hallman openly doubted commissioners’ worst fears would have been realized. Other municipalities received grants under similar conditions “and they haven’t run into problems,” Hallman claimed. Maybe so, commission Vice President Jonathan Spadt noted, “but then maybe they have a different level of risk tolerance.”
Township Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway contends the county’s contract would have, in part, forced the township to:
- Follow municipal regulations to advertise for, evaluate and accept bids for the sign’s purchase;
- Have the sign installed at the state’s prevailing wage rate, and ensure the installation contractor was bonded, insured, and complied with applicable laws;
- Ensure the sign and its installation met applicable codes; and
- Supervise and document the money’s disbursement, including a township guarantee that any income generated by Sunnybrook over two years as a result of the sign’s erection would be reinvested in further ballroom improvements.
Holloway has contacted the county several times since late last year to discuss changing the terms. It hasn’t budged, he said.
“It pains me to realize the county’s not willing to work with us,” added Spadt, a lawyer himself, “but there are terms in this contract that simply can’t be met.”
Even Commissioner Anthony Doyle, known for occasionally taking contrarian positions in board decisions, said he had “the same problems” with the agreement. “Myself, I just can’t take that risk,” he said.
Holloway announced during the discussion that commissioners had met Monday (July 20, 2009) in executive session to discuss the grant contract, but that no decisions had been made at or after that meeting. Both commissioners James Phillips and Stephen Klotz, who were absent from the board’s Thursday meeting, attended the executive session.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of July 23):
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