SANATOGA PA – Sharpen those pencils. Bring in the scratch pads; and the Excedrin, while you’re at it. The municipal budget’s back in town.
Members of the budget committee of the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Board of Commissioners have announced they will meet over a period of three days during this month and October “to conduct business related to the township’s 2011 budget,” according to an advertisement published this morning (Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, Lower Pottsgrove‘s publication of record for legal notices.
The committee regularly consists of Commissioner James Phillips, business development officer at The Victory Bank in Limerick PA; Commissioner James Kaiser, a comptroller with Bentley Systems Inc. in Exton PA; and other members of the board as needed. Its scheduled meeting dates are next Tuesday (Sept. 21) as well as Oct. 5 and 20, all at 4:30 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.
- This event has been added to The Post calendar.
It is anticipated the meetings will be open to the public.
The pencils, notepaper and headache pain reliever usually are in ample supply each fall, as committee members work with the township staff to draw up a spending proposal for the next year that meets Lower Pottsgrove’s operational needs but has a minimal impact on taxpayers.
To accomplish those goals during the past two years of economic problems and declining revenues, the township has increasingly relied on withdrawals from a form of savings account called its fund balance. The task of keeping a few hundred thousand dollars in the fund balance, which demonstrates good fiscal management, while pursuing every politician’s desire to proclaim “no tax increase this year” is a juggling act the budget committee attempts to master.
Today’s advertisement also puts individuals and groups on notice that, if they want Lower Pottsgrove to consider funding or project requests, now’s the time to submit them. Several organizations – the Pottstown Regional Public Library, the Lower Pottsgrove Historical Society, the Pottstown Area Senior Center, and the Visiting Nurse Association of Pottstown and Vicinity – all have been recipients of township funds in years past, and may be again.
Related (to Lower Pottsgrove Township’s 2011 budget):
