The Sanatoga Post

Using energy wisely requires common sense, not pixie dust.
Visit Energy.gov/tink

Published as a public service by The Sanatoga Post

SANATOGA PA – Recent jottings from a reporter’s notebook:

Brevity Is Bliss

People who testify in some legal proceedings tend, unfortunately, to be long-winded. Those who testify in specific kinds of proceedings – a Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township zoning hearing, for example – can drone on forever unless reigned in early.

Zoning Board Solicitor Robert Brant, therefore, politely runs a tight ship.

Consider a hearing last week (July 21, 2009) over which Brant presided at the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd. One witness stepped before board members armed with a dozen oversized photos and drawings, and a sheaf of notes. Brant saw both and, before the witness opened his mouth, offered this advice:

“Why don’t you take a moment … a concise moment … and tell us what you’re going to tell us,” the attorney said with a smile. The emphasis also was his.

The witness took the hint. He was finished in seven minutes.

Is Bruster's is "opening soon? Lower Pottsgrove's not quite sure.

Bruster’s? Maybe, Maybe Not

Back in May, the township Board of Commissioners asked that a sign on Buchert Road, announcing the imminent arrival there of a Bruster’s Ice Cream store, be removed because the store had been advertised for more than a year without materializing. The sign’s still there and so, apparently, is the hope of the store.

Earlier this month, township Manager Rodney Hawthorne talked with the property owner about the sign’s removal and was told that once-dormant plans for the parlor were back on the burner. “He reports it’s still coming,” Hawthorne told commissioners during their July 6 meeting. Then why, board members asked, is there also a sign on the street frontage promoting the property’s availability for sale or lease? “Maybe he’ll go with whichever happens first,” Hawthorne replied.

The property owner has been ordered to mow weeds in front of both signs more regularly.

Now All He Needs Is A Better Economy

You meet a lot of local people, and make a ton of local business connections, if you’ve been selling cars in the same area for more than 20 years. You become party to some interesting golf course scuttlebutt, too, when your handicap is in the low single digits. And it never hurts when, to top it all off, you’ve got some political knowledge.

People, politics and polish on the back nine: everything a banker needs to attract new business.

Former Norco Automotive Group owner, township commissioner and golfer extraordinaire James Phillips was named recently as business development officer of The Victory Bank in Limerick PA. The bank said Phillips “will analyze clients’ financial situations and develop strategic solutions to meet their short and long-term goals.”

The bank is locally owned and operated, and includes Lower Pottsgrove residents among its investors.

Cafe Benefits Meals On Wheels

Shorty’s Sunflower Cafe, the Lower Pottsgrove restaurant on North Charlotte Street that often has a line waiting for its tables, last month donated more than $12,000 to the Meals On Wheels program of Montgomery County Family Services.

Each weekday, an average of 165 homebound elderly and disabled residents of Pottstown, Royersford and the Lower Perkiomen Valley have a hot lunch and refrigerated dinner delivered to them by Meals on Wheels. Family Services estimates it serves up to 100,000 meals a year. Meals on Wheels feeds more than bodies, too; just the daily contact between a recipient and a delivery volunteer lifts a lot of spirits.

The Shorty’s donation was the result of an April fund-raiser in which the restaurant’s customers played the greatest role, owner Liz Bieber said: they bought the products and tickets that brought in the funds.

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.

They paid how much?

LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – The top price paid for a home within the township from May 11-15, 2009, was $259,900, the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reports.

The home is located at 7 Country Dr. A second home, at 1691 Bahr Rd., sold for $240,000. A third, at 2288 N. Pleasant View Rd., sold for $55,000. This week’s top reported prices were listed Sunday (July 26, 2009) in “The Top 50,” the newspaper’s weekly review of highest prices paid for homes sold within the city of Philadelphia and the townships in its surrounding counties.

By contrast, during the same period, the top home sales price in Pottstown PA Borough, immediately to the west was $155,000; Limerick PA Township, east, $392,795; New Hanover PA Township, northeast, $350,000; Upper Pottsgrove PA Township, west, none listed; and in North Coventry PA Township, south, none listed.

Related:

• What They Sold For, May 11-15, 2009
• What They Sold For, May 4-8, 2009
• What They Sold For, April 27-May 1, 2009
• What They Sold For, April 20-24, 2009
• What They Sold For, April 13-17, 2009
• What They Sold For, April 2-12, 2009, was unavailable
• What They Sold For, March 30-April 1, 2009
• What They Sold For, March 19-27, 2009
• What They Sold For, March 18-20, 2009
• What They Sold For, March 5-11, 2009
• What They Sold For, Feb. 26-March 4, 2009
• What They Sold For, Feb. 18-25, 2009
• What They Sold For, Feb. 4-11, 2009
• What They Sold For, Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2009
• What They Sold For, Jan. 19-27, 2009
• What They Sold For, Jan. 10-18, 2009
• What They Sold For, Jan. 1-9, 2009
• What They Sold For, Dec. 22-31, 2008
• What They Sold For, Dec. 15-19, 2008
• What They Sold For, Dec. 8-12, 2008
• What They Sold For, Nov. 26-Dec. 5, 2008
• What They Sold For, Nov. 18-24, 2008
• What They Sold For, Nov. 10-17, 2008
• What They Sold For, Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2008
• What They Sold For, Oct. 20-27, 2008
• What They Sold For, Oct. 13-17, 2008
• What They Sold For, Oct. 6-10, 2008
• What They Sold For, Sept. 29 -Oct. 3, 2008
• What They Sold For, Sept. 22-26, 2008
• What They Sold For, Sept. 15-19, 2008
• What They Sold For, Sept. 8-12, 2008
• What They Sold For, Sept. 1-5, 2008
• What They Sold For, Aug. 25-29, 2008
• What They Sold For, Aug. 18-22, 2008

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.

PHILADELPHIA PA – Women with newly diagnosed breast cancer who receive a breast MRI (magnetic resonance image) are more likely to receive a mastectomy after their diagnosis and may face delays in starting treatment, according to a Fox Chase Cancer Center study appearing in the August edition of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

PMMC's Dr. Frank Song.

Pottstown Memorial Regional Cancer Center on East High Street, Pottstown PA, is affiliated with Fox Chase to provide local cancer research, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Fox Chase researchers found that routine use of MRI scans, despite the lack of evidence of their benefit, increased significantly in newly diagnosed women between 2004 and 2005, and again in 2006. “We’re concerned that the well-documented false-positive rate with MRIs may be leading, or misleading, women into choosing mastectomies,” said Dr. Richard J. Bleicher, a breast cancer surgeon at Fox Chase.

“Many of these women would have been candidates for a procedure known as a lumpectomy,” noted Dr. W. Frank Song, co-medical director of Pottstown Memorial Regional Cancer Center. “While mastectomy involves removal of all or most of the breast and the need for reconstructive surgery, lumpectomy is a type of breast-sparing surgery that offers women a very effective and appropriate option for treating their breast cancer.”

“In the community hospital setting, where we often see patients at the point of screening and diagnosis, it is important for us to be on top of key research such as this study about breast MRIs,” Song added.

Photo supplied by PMMC

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.

There are dozens of ways we can help others. Without it costing a cent.
Visit DontAlmostGive.org.

Published as a public service by The Sanatoga Post

Published during the week just ended in The Sanatoga Post:

Saturday, July 25

• Health Women To Walk Schuylkill Trail
  Shine or rain (umbrellas are free if the weather’s nasty!), participants in this PMMC program can get in some exercise and have fun too.
• StarFest 2009 Features NASA Speaker
  The 7-hour event next month promises to leave you staring at the heavens in wonder.
• Also, In The Limerick Post …
  • CHS Presents 2 With Achievement Awards
  • 24 Hours In Limerick For July 25, 2009
• Also, In The Pottstown Post …
  • Weidensaul Re-Enlists For 6 Years In Army
  • Airman Pope Deploys To Iraq
  • 24 Hours In Pottstown For July 25, 2009

Friday, July 24

• Township Says No To Sunnybrook Grant, Citing Risks
  Lower Pottsgrove, facing a deadline today, will not accept $80,000 to pass on to the ballroom. A Montgomery County contract, commissioners say, would hold the township responsible if problems arose.
• Commissioners Cancel Next Meeting
  It’s vacation season, and Lower Pottsgrove’s governing body will take its next meeting off.
• Also, In The Limerick Post …
  • 24 Hours In Limerick For July 24, 2009
• Also, In The Pottstown Post …
  • 24 Hours In Pottstown For July 24, 2009

Thursday, July 23

• Sunday’s The ‘Target’ Date For Upland
  Think traffic was busy this week at Route 100 and Upland Square Drive? Wait ’til Sunday; it’s likely you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
• Crime Up Statewide In 2008, But Only Slightly
  The latest Uniform Crime Report, to which Lower Pottsgrove’s police department and others contribute statistical data monthly, was released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania State Police.
• Sunnybrook Grant On Township’s Agenda
  Lower Pottsgrove commissioners meet tonight in Sanatoga with a lot on their plate, including the distribution of Montgomery County grant funds to the ballroom.
• Comcast Finishes Internet Speed Upgrades
  In Lower Pottsgrove and elsewhere across its service area, the multimedia service provider has completed work on improving Internet speeds.
• Stuff To Do This Weekend
  Crusading against drugs and violence in Pottstown. Walking among birds in Phoenixville. Leaping with volleyball players in Limerick. And dancing beach-wise with The Mango Men in Lower Pottsgrove. Woo-hoo!.
• Also, In The Limerick Post …
  • 24 Hours In Limerick For July 23, 2009
• Also, In The Pottstown Post …
  • Health Club Trainer Third In Competition
  • Friendly’s Fund-Raiser Benefits Cluster
  • 24 Hours In Pottstown For July 23, 2009

Wednesday, July 22

• Zoning Board Postpones Coventry Sign Action
  A decision in a Lower Pottsgrove zoning hearing was delayed until August so applicant Coventry Christian Academy could gather more information on its proposed installation of an electronic message sign.
• Specht Project Clears Zoning Hurdles
  The developer’s plans for an office condominium complex on East High Street can now get under way.
• Pottsgrove Teacher Charged By Police
  Pottstown police accused the high school teacher of corruption of minors, following an incident that was reported to have occurred in the back seat of a car.
• Band Holds Car Wash This Weekend
  Get your car cleaned and help out the Pottsgrove High marching band while you’re at it. A doubly-good deal.
• Also, In The Limerick Post …
  • Do Dah Zip-A-Dee In Schwenksville
  • 24 Hours In Limerick For July 22, 2009
• Also, In The Pottstown Post …
  • MCCC’s Latest Spin: Dance Master Classes
  • 24 Hours In Pottstown For July 22, 2009

Tuesday, July 21

• Planners OK Porter Road Seniors’ Facility
  The proposal for a combined independent and assisted living complex, to be built on the southeast side of Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, now moves to township commissioners for final approval.
• Private Parcel Consigned To Ag District
  Ten residentially-zoned acres on Shaffer Road in Lower Pottsgrove Township will be dedicated to agricultural use in a special district … of an adjacent municipality.
• Township To Try Again For H20 Grant
  Lower Pottsgrove wasn’t lucky enough to win money from the state last week to help with its sewer system. It’ll try again next year.
• Also, In The Limerick Post …
  • 24 Hours In Limerick For July 21, 2009
• Also, In The Pottstown Post …
  • “The Movement” Plays Two At PassionFest

Monday, July 20

• Here Today, Gone Tomorrow At Competing Plaza
  Retailing property wealth continues to shift from Pottstown Plaza, in the Pottstown School District, to Upland Square Shopping Center in the Pottsgrove School District.
• Signs On Route 422 Mark Stimulus Funding
  Visible near both Royersford and Collegeville, large signs announce that federal government federal stimulus money is paying for repairs to U.S. Route 422. Their cost: about $1,000 each, also paid for with recovery funds.
• Recovery Act Signs Cause A Stir
  Signage promoting the use of federal economic stimulus money in local highway projects is gaining adverse, not positive, publicity.
• Posts Join ProPublica Reporting Effort
  Career Education Media Ventures, publisher of The Sanatoga Post, is sharing stories about local projects funded by federal stimulus money with a national investigative journalism organization.
• What They Sold For
  A weekly review of top prices paid for homes in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township and surrounding municipalities.
• Notebook Worthy
  Nature’s beauty, found close to home. Nature worth eating, even if it’s “dirt.” Antennas that will soar high above nature. And fighting an unnatural enemy with the best medicine, laughter.
• Also, In The Limerick Post …
  • Limerick Run For The Park Returning
• Also, In The Pottstown Post …
  • Dolan Law Opens Second Office

Sunday, July 19

• The Post Week In Review
  For July 12-18, 2009
• Avoiding Investment Scams
  With the stock market in turmoil, some bad guys are looking for their next sucker. Here’s how to ensure you’re not it. Part of The Posts’ Sunday Contributor series.

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.

POTTSTOWN PA – Take a stroll down the river; get in 2-1/2 miles worth of exercise.

Go take a hike. You'll feel better.

A free one-hour walking tour along the Schuylkill River Trail, hosted by the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center Healthy Woman program and led by Healthy Woman physician-advisor Dr. Carol Henwood, will get under way Aug. 16 (2009; Wednesday) at 6 p.m. from Riverfront Park, 100 College Dr.

The walk will be held rain or shine. In the event of rain, participants will receive a Healthy Woman umbrella. To register, visit the hospital’s Healthy Woman pages online or call Pat Eltz, PMMC’s Healthy Woman co-coordinator, at 610-327-PMMC.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Participants may not cover the entire Pottstown-to-Berks County stretch in the alloted time, but no matter how much they walk it’ll be good for them, assures Henwood. Walking improves mood, reduces stress, and helps walkers to relax and sleep better. It also reduces risks for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, several cancers and other health problems.

A University of Tennessee in Knoxville study with pedometers revealed women who averaged more than 10,000 steps a day had 40 percent less body fat, and waist and hip measurements that were four to six inches narrower than those who averaged fewer than 6,000 steps. One Healthy Woman goal is to help members get started toward taking 10,000 steps a day.

The Pottstown Health & Wellness Foundation will provide each participant with a free pedometer and bottle of water at the start of the walk. It also has installed helpful signs throughout the course of the trail that address calories burned by various methods of exercise, and compares calories of “healthy” and “not-so-healthy” food selections.

Photo by Clipart.com

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.

Look through here, see wonder.

KNAUERTOWN PA – Join members of the Chesmont Astronomical Society for an evening of astronomy as StarFest 2009, an annual sky-watching event, gets under way Aug. 15 (2009; Saturday) from 4-11:30 p.m. in Warwick County Park, 191 County Park Rd.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Public viewing of the wonders of the Milky Way will be available through more than 20 amateur and high-end telescopes. The program includes featured speakers, astronomy presentations, and activities for kids:

• 4-6 p.m., telescope set-up and solar observing;
• 6-7 p.m., Kids Corner educational activities;
• 7-7:30 p.m., “What we’ll see tonight,” a talk by Martin Howe;
• 7:35-8:15 p.m., “What it means to be an amateur astronomer,” a talk by Karl Krasley;
• 8:20-9:15, p.m. Keynote Speaker Dr. Kimberly Weaver, Associate Director for the Astrophysics Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will speak on “Extreme Astronomy – Black Holes And Their Place In The Universe;” and
• 9:15-11:30 p.m., drawing of the grand prize, followed by public star-gazing.

There is a $5 per vehicle parking fee.

Advanced registration is required. For more information or to register, call the park at 610-469-1916 or download a form here.

The park is located 3-1/2 miles west of the intersection of Routes 100 and 23, just south of Pottstown in northern Chester County. Hikers will gather in its lower parking lot.

Photo by Clipart.com

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.

Kids grow smarter with a background in the arts. Feed it to ‘em.
Visit AmericansForTheArts.org.

Published as a public service by The Sanatoga Post

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):

• Township Says No To Sunnybrook Grant, Citing Risks
• Commissioners Cancel Next Meeting

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail.
Got news for us? E-mail The Post.