POTTSTOWN PA – Call it lucky. Or think of it as “impeccable timing.” Or just consider it a safe bet.

An advertisement seeking bids for the reconstruction and expansion of the Pottsgrove School District’s Ringing Rocks Elementary School appeared Friday (May 21, 2010) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, the district’s publication of record for legal notices. The notice was printed only 12 hours after Ringing’s conditional use permit and preliminary land development plans were approved Thursday night (May 20) by the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners.

Given the often slow and mundane workings of municipal government, that’s blazingly fast. Compare it to happily dining on pot roast after the meat cooked in a microwave oven for only five minutes.

It usually takes a day to prepare and submit a legal notice to the newspaper, and possibly a day more to schedule it for publication, position it as electronic type, and proofread it. That means the lengthy advertisement – it took up 24 column inches on The Mercury’s classified pages – likely was supplied to the newspaper by Tuesday (May 18), 48 hours before the commissioners’ approval.

How did the district know its Ringing Rocks’ plans would sail though, with the commissioners’ unanimous acceptance and without further changes? It was a safe bet.

First, district representatives; its engineers, Landmark Engineering in Wayne PA; and its architects, Gilbert Architects of Lancaster PA all have been in sometimes daily communication with township staff members, Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott reminded the township Planning Commission last Monday (May 17). Any final changes to the plans occurred in recent weeks during those conversations.

Second, the Planning Commission itself signed off on the preliminary land development plan last week with only a few minutes’ presentation by Landmark. After months of earlier review, planning Chairman Geoffrey Dailey admitted, there wasn’t much else to talk about.

So it was easy for the district to anticipate that the Board of Commissioners – after receiving the planners’ recommendation for approval, and after conducting another public hearing Thursday during which no one spoke in opposition – would also grant approval.

It did.

The advertisement calls for bids for a general trades contract, a plumbing contract, a heating-ventilation-air conditioning contract, and electrical contract, and fire protection. All bids are due by July 14 and must be accompanied by a security deposit.

Related (to Ringing Rocks Elementary School renovations):

• Call Goes Out For Ringing Rocks Construction Bids
• Board OKs Ringing Rocks’ Preliminary Plans
• School Vestibule Design OK; No Decision On Rocks’ Relocation
• Ringing Rocks Plan Approval Held Until May
• Ringing Relocation Decision Deferred Again
• Township Legal Move Saves District Time, Money
• Economic Tales, Exec Sessions, And Long Night At Pottsgrove
• Geothermal Now ‘Locked’ Into Ringing Re-Build
• How Estimated Costs For Ringing Shape Up
• Less Is More In School Project, Planners Learn
• Bids Sought For Ringing Project Asbestos Removal
• Ringing Relocation Decision Possible In Two Weeks
• Restaurant, Ringing Projects Win Conditional Uses
• Ringing Rocks, Restaurant Hearing Topics Tonight
• Pottsgrove Student Enrollment: Up? Yes. Down? Yes Again
• Green Discussion At Ringing Results In Red Faces
• Pottsgrove, Archdiocese Still Discussing Pius Lease
• Ringing Rocks Relocation Discussion Set For Tonight
• In The Ringing Rebuild, Whither Pius?
• Ringing Rocks Relocation Plan: Modulars At MS
• Ringing Rocks Construction Cost Hearing Tonight
• Planners OK Ringing Rocks Land Sketch
• District Sets Dec. 3 Hearing On Rocks Budget
• Pottsgrove Asks State Help To Pay For Ringing Re-Build
• As School Opens, Progress On Ringing Rocks’ Project
• Surprise Enrollment Spurs Demographic Interest
• District Assembles Ringing Rocks Planning Team
• 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

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of May 20):

• Call Goes Out For Ringing Rocks Construction Bids
• Lower Pottsgrove’s Reviled System Generates Reverent Talk
• In Lower Pottsgrove, Legal Paperwork Out The Gazoo
• Cracks, Crumbles Mean Trouble In Township

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