SANATOGA PA – After 23 years of volunteer service on the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Planning Commission, a substantial number of which have been spent as its chairman, Geoffrey Dailey has tendered his letter of resignation to the township Board of Commissioners, it was announced Thursday (July 22, 2010) during the board’s second meeting of the month.

Geoffrey Dailey

Dailey, a banker by profession,  will leave office Dec. 31, at the end of his term, Manager Rodney Hawthorne said; his last Planning Commission meeting is likely to be Dec. 20.

The township board accepted his resignation “with regret and gratitude,” Commissioner James Phillips said, and commissioners’ President Jonathan Spadt noted that after more than two decades Dailey “had earned the right to take a break.”

Given his tenure, and the fact that almost all real estate development proposals must first pass by the Planning Commission before they are considered by other boards, Dailey has been both a witness to and a guiding hand in Lower Pottsgrove’s growth since western Montgomery County was significantly opened with the paving of U.S. Route 422.

He has helped deal with major land reclamation projects, like that at the former Occidental Chemical and Firestone plants on Armand Hammer Boulevard; with what sometimes seemed like an explosion in single- and multi-family housing communities; with a concurrent rise of small business office parks and shopping plazas; and with the future of the Sanatoga interchange at 422.

Dailey also is known for demanding meeting efficiency. Under his command most Planning Commission business is conducted within an hour or less. A running, but  true, joke among commissioners is that his record for starting, conducting and ending a meeting is seven minutes.

Members of the Planning Commission have been willingly silent in the past when, at the start of each year, Dailey dutifully sought nominations for others to be chairman. They will be forced, however, to choose a new leader in 2011.

The newest of those members will be Anthony Cherico, who commissioners unanimously selected Thursday to fill what will be the Planning Commission’s vacant seat. Cherico and his wife have long been active in Pottsgrove youth sports and Pottsgrove School District parent-teacher organizations, according to Commissioner James Kaiser. Kaiser said he “wholeheartedly endorsed” Cherico as the board’s choice.

Spadt said Cherico’s appointment had been recommended by Commissioner Michael McGroarty. Phillips said the board decided on Cherico after “examining his bona fides and those of two other applicants,” whom he did not name.

Cherico attended the board meeting. McGroarty and fellow Commissioner Bruce Foltz were absent and did not vote on the appointment.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ July 22 meeting):

• Planning Chairman Dailey Resigns, Effective December
• Occidental Reservoir Removal Wins Board Approval
• Commissioners’ Hearing Tonight On Reservoir Removal

Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail. Share this article.
See our galleries for photos that appear in The Post. Got news for us? E-mail The Post.
Find The Posts on Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Technorati, Flickr, YouTube, and RSS