The Sanatoga Post

POTTSTOWN PA — National Penn Bank, which operates branch offices in Sanatoga, Pottstown and Royersford, has donated $20,000 to the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area and Montgomery County Community College for their development of a Riverfront Academic and Heritage Center in Pottstown, the college announced Thursday (April 14, 2011).

MCCC's Pottstown PA campus will expand with the new center

The new center will be housed in the 140 College Drive building that currently serves as the heritage area’s headquarters. The building sits along the Schuylkill River Trail, and beside Riverfront Park.

The project expands the college’s Pottstown campus by transforming the three-acre brownfield site into a state-of-the-art educational facility. The center will house three technology-equipped classrooms, a state-of-the-art environmental science laboratory, and a new heritage area interpretive center.

“We hope that this gift will help us to build momentum” for the center, “which is important for the economic development of Pottstown borough and for the health of the Schuylkill River,” said college President Dr. Karen A. Stout.

The first phase of the project, anticipated for completion by Fall 2011, includes renovating the infrastructure of the currently unused portion of the building and creating the interpretive center in what is now used as the heritage area conference room.

“The interpretative center will provide educational, historic and tourist information about the Schuylkill River Heritage Area,” said SRHA Executive Director Kurt Zwikl. “It is intended to serve as a visitors’ center for the entire Schuylkill River region, and will include interactive displays and a historical overview of the river’s role in the American, Industrial and Environmental Revolutions.”

The Riverfront Academic and Heritage Center will also allow for joint programming between the College and the heritage area, with non-credit courses that promote awareness of the river as a historical, cultural and natural resource. Courses will run the gamut from historical perspectives of the region, to lessons in kayaking and bicycle maintenance.

National Penn “is pleased to support this unique partnership” to continue education “through this innovative learning experience,” said David B. Kennedy, National Penn Group Executive.

Previously owned by PECO Energy, the building served the Pottstown community as an electrical generating station starting in 1911. After sitting vacant for a number of years, the building and three-acre site were purchased by the Borough of Pottstown. The college took ownership of the site in April 2009; the heritage area leases office space in the building.

Designed to be sustainable, the college will seek environmental certification for the center and will look to incorporate a variety of sustainable adaptations, such as a green roof and geothermal energy sources, that can serve as both a tool for teaching and learning and as an energy and cost-savings alternative.

SANATOGA PA – “Beyond The Wall,” thought of by some as the ultimate Pink Floyd tribute band, is scheduled to perform tonight (Saturday, April 16, 2011) at 8 p.m. in historic Sunnybrook Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Rd., Pottstown PA.

Tickets for what Sunnybrook promoters call a “spectacular event” cost $25 in advance and $32 at the doors, which open at 7:30 p.m. For reservations or to order tickets, call the Sunnybrook box office at 484-624-5186 or visit its website, here.

POTTSTOWN PA – Registration for the newly formed Pottsgrove Youth Football and Cheerleading organization, which intends to field teams this year (2011) involving youngsters in kindergarten through 7th grade, is scheduled for April 23 (Saturday) from 9 a.m. to noon at the Schuylkill Valley Sports retail store in Coventry Mall, at Routes 724 and 100 in North Coventry PA.

The group, which announced its formation with a Facebook page launched in mid-March, is open to children within the Pottsgrove School District and will roster players in two-grade brackets: kindergarten to 1st grade (for flag football), 2nd-3rd grades (for knee-high tackle), 4th-5th grades (for Mites tackle), and 6th-7th grades (for Midget tackle). No weigh-ins will be required, and no weight brackets are planned.

Pottsgrove teams will be part of the Inter-County Football League, which includes the Boyertown Bears, Coventry Wildcats, Spring-Ford Rams, and Upper Perkiomen Mohawks. Organizers said they anticipate the program can serve “as a feeder … in the middle and high school” teams in the district. In fact, Midget team athletes will be allowed to simultaneously play for the 7th grade school team.

“Teams are filling up fast,” organizers happily reported, after registration days held April 5 and 12 at Schuylkill Valley. They enjoyed a particularly “great turnout” last weekend, they said. Potential competitors and their were parents were notified of registration via brochures distributed March 25, available for download here.

Teams will train and play at “Pottsgrove facilities,” they announced.

The group also is conducting a fund-raiser that begins this morning (Friday, April 15) and continues daily through May 15 at the Five Below retail store in the Upland Square shopping center on Route 100. For customers who announce their affiliation with Pottsgrove Youth Football, the store is donating a percentage of their purchase price to the organization.

Although walk-in registration has its benefits (those who register April 23 at Schuylkill Valley will receive a 20-percent discount on purchases made there), registrations also are being accepted by mail. Forms can be downloaded here. In either case, parents must provide copies of their child’s birth certificate and report card. A parents’ manual prepared by the group is available for download, here.

Those interested in cheerleading squads formed along the same grade levels also can register during the walk-in session. A brochure announcing it is available here.

The teams’ first practice begins 123 days from today, according to the group’s website. For more information on the group, send an e-mail to organizers here.

Photo from LiveStrong.com

Three waterfalls at the corner of North River and West Higgins roads in Rosemont IL ...

ROSEMONT IL – Three waterfalls gurgle and churn like musical cauldrons in the village of Rosemont IL, less than a mile east of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. They straddle the corner of two very busy highways, North River and West Higgins roads, and serve as a man-made entrance for walkers along the Des Plaines River, one of the jewels of the Cook County Forest Preserve.

Therein lies a tale of interesting parallels with Pottstown PA.

... on a corner at a traffic light ...

Unlike the borough, Rosemont is a newcomer to municipal life. The Illinois village was founded only 55 years ago, in 1956. Compared to most spots on a Pennsylvania map – Pottstown, for example, was incorporated in 1815 – that makes Rosemont a babe in diapers. To match the village’s age, however, the folks in this part of Chicagoland apparently have some decidedly young thinking too.

Rosemont is booming. New construction can be found on many vacant lots. Gleaming glass and steel office towers are everywhere. New hotels are cropping up like daffodils on a spring day. Less than a half-mile from the corner, a new casino is being built … with the promise of even more development to come.

... serve as a gateway to the Des Plaines River and its recreation areas, just behind it

Yet there are these eye-catching waterfalls, built during 1992 and unexpectedly at the center of it all, as if some child assumed it was as good a place as any to put a cluster of bubbling, multi-tiered cascades.

Motorists who see them for a first time as they approach the traffic light at the corner are mesmerized by their action. Walkways installed at the front, where people can stop to admire the falls from below, extend around to the rear. Those who mosey on back, to their surprise, find both the river 20 feet below and benches on which to sit and watch it pass by.

Take a look at the accompanying photos of the falls, the landscaping, the walkways, and the river hidden behind it. Now close your eyes, and imagine a sign out front. “Welcome to Pottstown and the Schuylkill River Trail,” it says.

Not so far-fetched, really, considering that

• Like the Des Plaines coursing past Rosemont, the Schuylkill is Pottstown’s aquatic jewel. In fact, it’s much wider and offers a greater range of recreational opportunities;

• The forest preserve surrounding the Des Plaines connects its adjacent Cook County communities using a series of greenway hiking and biking trails. The longest, the 31-mile Des Plaines River Trail, links to another series of trails in nearby Lake County. Yes, that’s similar  to the longer-still county-to-county trail system encompassed by the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, of which Pottstown is an important part. That trail eventually will extend through Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s own Schuylkill River Park.

• Rosemont has leveraged the arts and culture as drawing cards, making it one of the premier live entertainment venues outside Chicago’s city limits. Pottstown is attempting to do the same, thanks to the TriCounty Performing Arts Center, The Gallery On High and The Gallery School, summer First Saturdays, Sunday Music In The Park, and other organizations and events.

What Rosemont has accomplished with its waterfalls that Pottstown has not – or, at least, not yet – is create a tangible, visible entrance from its riverbanks to its businesses.

Pottstown has been repeatedly advised by experts at the Urban Land Institute to make its Schuylkill riverfront a place of wonder and magic. Coincidentally, the heritage area and the William Penn Foundation are jointly paying for the borough to create a Heritage Action Plan that defines a vision for Pottstown, gives it a progressive image, and works with its existing assets and resources to drive new economic interests.

Pottstown native Sue Repko, author of the Positively Pottstown blog, has written extensively on these topics. “What do we want to create? What do we want our community to look like?,” she asked in a post last week.

Maybe like Rosemont IL? Or maybe not. Read Repko’s article, titled “A Vision for Pottstown: What do YOU see?” and published April 6 (2011), here. Then use the blog’s comments section, and answer her questions.

Editor’s Note: The Sanatoga, Limerick, and Pottstown editions of The Posts are being published remotely this week from Chicago, where Managing Editor Joe Zlomek is on assignment.

Gerald Richards Park, as seen via Google Earth

SANATOGA PA – After six months of public meetings, preceded by months more of discussions among Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township staff members and commissioners, it’s approaching commit-and-quit time for the future planning of Gerald Richards and Pleasantview parks.

A group of volunteers that at times varied between 10 and 25 members has met almost monthly (they skipped a February 2011 get-together) since last November to review, critique, and ultimately favor one of three plans each for the future design and layout of Richards, the township’s busiest park property, and Pleasantview, its newest. Richards is located on Buchert Road; Pleasantview, on North Pleasant View Road at Bliem Road.

Simone Collins, a Norristown landscape architectural firm that has a long history of work in Lower Pottsgrove, used a similar consult and collaborate formula last year as it designed Snell and Norton parks on the township’s east side. In fact, grant money left over from that project paid for the most recent design work.

Now the volunteers are scheduled to gather for a final time, on April 26 (2011; Tuesday) at 6:30 p.m. in Sunnybrook Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Rd., Pottstown PA, to put their official approval on recommendations for both Richards and Pleasantview and forward them to the Board of Commissioners. Their last session is open to the public – just as the others have been – to let people see what the parks might look like years from now.

Pleasantview is envisioned as a home mostly for baseball and softball, with a soccer game or special recreational activity, and a walking trail, thrown in for good measure. Richards is forecast primarily for soccer, with many of its current field drainage problems solved and baseball taking a back seat.

What remains up in the air is when the plans can be put to use as more than drawings displayed on an office wall. Although the group agrees on functions and designs for each park, finding money to make them happen falls to the commissioners.

Board members are encouraged, they’ve said, by what they see and hear from all involved in the process; Commissioner Michael McGroarty has been one of the volunteers, and reported regularly on the process to his colleagues. However, the cash needed for construction may not be available until the economy dramatically improves.

When it does, the plans should be there … waiting.

Related (to Pleasantview Park development):

• Township Park Volunteers Prepare For Final Meeting
• Parks Work Successful So Far; Feb. Meeting Canceled
• At Richards Park, Planning Foresees New Uses, Re-uses
• Crucial Meeting Ahead For Township’s Pleasantview Park
• Fledgling Park Gets A Name

POTTSTOWN PA – The folks at Pottsgrove Middle School hope you’re hungry. And, if you are, they won’t mind at all if you buy products from General Mills or Betty Crocker or Nestle or other identified manufacturers, and give the box tops to the school.

Look for this

Neither, certainly, will the folks at the brands involved. Ca-ching!

In a blatant but mutually beneficial marriage of education and commercialism, the middle school has joined thousands of others like it across the country that, since 1996, have participated in the “Box Tops For Education” program. The idea behind it is simple: manufacturers pay a dime-per-coupon rebate as a fund-raiser to participants, who encourage conspicuous consumption and collect and return specially-marked box tops as proof they’ve succeeded.

When it first began, the program was limited to things like breakfast cereals. No longer. Now box tops that carry its logo appear on everything from cheese, fresh eggs, and refrigerated cookies to water filters, storage bags and label-making supplies. Even online shoppers who buy books at the Barnes and Noble website can be part of the action.

Like the program’s creators, Bill Ziegler – the middle school’s technologically savvy principal – apparently knows a thing or two about public marketing himself. He used its e-mail list last week (April 6, 2011) to trumpet Pottsgrove’s efforts. “Please collect your Box Tops for Education and send them in with your child,” he asked parents. “For every box top that PGMS receives, our school earns 10 cents.”

To the e-mail, Ziegler even attached a logo illustration so parents would know what products to look for. All they need do now is buy, buy, buy.

Stewart Greenleaf Jr.

SANATOGA PA – Attorney Stewart Greenleaf Jr., a candidate for Montgomery County (PA) controller, was the guest and featured speaker Tuesday night (April 12, 2011) at a political fund-raiser conducted at Cutillo’s Restaurant, 2688 E. High St., Pottstown PA, by the newly-formed Lower Pottsgrove Township Republican Volunteers and Republican groups from neighboring municipalities.

Also in attendance were county commissioners’ candidates Bruce Castor and Jenny Brown. Jonathan Spadt, president of the township Board of Commissioners and the founder of the local GOP volunteer group, served as master of ceremonies.

The volunteers, a LinkedIn business networking group created last December (2010), says it “exists to actively support the local, state and federal GOP elections which affect the residents of Lower Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. We are a grassroots association of volunteers who work directly with the County GOP and our township Republican Committee.”

Membership in the group is open only to registered LinkedIn users who are accepted by its moderators.

Related:

• Township Republicans Form LinkedIn Network Group

Sunnybrook in decades past, set up for its dining patrons

SANATOGA PA – There was a time when it seemed families across town turned out, dressed in their Easter finest, to fill the ballroom at Sunnybrook and feast on a sumptuous Sunday meal that gave Mom a day off from the kitchen and satisfyingly filled every stomach.

The management at Sunnybrook, now a full-fledged entertainment and conference venue at 50 Sunnybrook Rd., Pottstown PA, anticipates that time will return this year with its Easter Day brunch on April 24 (2011; Sunday) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Patrons will have their choice of breakfast, or lunch, or both!, from among dozens of menu items spread over serving stations within the ballroom. To enhance the dining atmosphere, Joe Harbach will entertain with music played on “Ursula,” Sunnybrook’s famous and now restored grand theater organ.

On the menu are fruit pastries, bagels, toast, cream cheese and jellies, scrambled eggs, sausage gravy with biscuits, bacon, sausage, home fries with onions and peppers, an omelet station, baked chicken with gravy, honey glazed ham, potato and bread stuffing, green bean almandine, dinner rolls with butter, assorted desserts, coffee (regular and decaf), tea, orange juice, apple juice, and sodas.

For children, there’s also a kid’s menu: macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, spaghetti and meatballs, and assorted desserts.

The meal is available by pre-paid reservation only. Tickets cost $24 per person for adults; $11 for children age 10 and younger. For more information or reservations, call 484-624-5186.

Photo from the Sunnybrook Foundation

POTTSTOWN PA – They may not have liked the idea of forcing families whose students participate in Pottsgrove School District extracurricular activities to pay for that privilege, but – in the end – members of the district Community Budget Task Force didn’t rule the option out.

Gary DeRenzo, facillitator for the Extracurricular Committee of the Pottsgrove Community Budget Task Force, delivered its findings Tuesday to the school board.

The pay-to-play proposal, as it’s being called, could add $54,480 to district revenues, the task force Extracurricular Activities Committee estimated, in findings it submitted Tuesday (April 12, 2011) to the district Board of School Directors.

The committee was one of six that handed directors their suggestions to trim expenses and increase cash flow under the 2011-2012 preliminary budget, during the board’s meeting in Ringing Rocks Elementary School, North Keim Street, Pottstown PA. The $58.5 million budget currently includes an almost $2 million deficit; task force committees were charged by directors to recommend ways to close the gap.

They reportedly found about half the amount, $1 million, according to research and results distributed to the board. President Michael Neiffer had hoped as much as $6 million might be uncovered.

During its deliberations of recent weeks, the Extracurricular Committee weighed pros and cons of requiring students involved in sports, clubs, special interest groups and other mostly after-school activities to pay fees for doing so. A few neighboring districts have already adopted such a policy, others facing similar budget woes are giving it serious consideration.

Pay-to-play was first raised by committee members in February, and kicked around during March. They generally agreed after-school programming benefited all participants, and that charging fees might unfairly restrict students whose families could not afford to pay them. The committee was prepared to eliminate the idea, its minutes show, until Director David Faulkner suggested otherwise.

The school board needed all the help it could get with the budget, now and in the future, Faulkner contended. As unpalatable as the idea seemed, he said, it may be necessary … if not this year, then in coming years. So pay-to-play, which represents the largest monetary item of five the committee suggested, stayed in the committee’s mix.

Committee members propose the district can save a total of $128,053. Of that amount – besides the $54,480 in pay-to-play revenue – they say:

• $35,445 might be gained by cutting out supplemental positions “that are not currently filled, needed, or a luxury;”
• $22,128, by eliminating clubs at the elementary schools only;
• $15,000, by eliminating intramural sports in which a varsity or junior varsity team already exists; and
• $1,000, by requiring family members of district employees to pay their own way into ticketed events.

Also Tuesday, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis reportedly announced that district administrators, principals, directors and supervisors all offered to freeze their pay during the 2011-2012 school year, saving another $70,000 in salary costs. The move coincided with a school budget-related development elsewhere that may affect Pottsgrove.

The West Chester (PA) school board on Monday said it had reached agreement with that district’s teachers’ union and others on similar wage freezes. West Chester Area Education Association President Debbie Fell said her union’s decision to accept a wage freeze “was proactive and voluntary … and not the result of discussions made at the negotiations table,” the West Chester Daily Local News newspaper reported Tuesday.

Wage freeze proposals were endorsed last month by the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The Pottsgrove Federation of Teachers, which is part of the PSEA, has not yet publicly commented on the prospect of a wage freeze for its members.

Related (to the Pottsgrove School District 2011-2012 budget):

• Pottsgrove Task Force Didn’t Shelve Pay-To-Play Plan
• Committee: Charter School May Save Pottsgrove $70K
• Pottsgrove Paying $28K Next Year For MCIU Support
• Secretary Says Schools Must Find Funds Themselves
• College Students Protest Proposed Ed Budget Cuts
• Pay Freeze Endorsed As Pottsgrove Labor Talks Start
• Pottsgrove High Protesters Exercise Art Of Compromise
• Pottsgrove’s Landis Distributes State Fund Comparison
• Pottsgrove Budget Deficit Balloons With Gov’s Proposal
• MCIU Budgets On Pottsgrove Schools Agenda Tonight
• PA House OKs ‘Cut And Replace’ On Education Funding
• Idea: Other Local Schools Consider Extracurricular Fees
• Idea: Pottsgrove Might Prosper With Own Charter School
• Pooling Resources Could Save Pottsgrove On Special Ed
• Like Pottsgrove Task Force, Outsiders Weigh Cost Vs. Value
• Task Force Crowd Packs Into Pottsgrove For First Session
• School Budget Task Force Kicks Off Its Work Tonight
• Does Western PA School Tax Uprising Foretell Mood Here?
• Pottsgrove Schools Budget Short Another $400,000
• Pottsgrove, As Expected, Adopts Budget First Draft
• Pottsgrove Tentative Budget Adoption Expected
• Weather Postpones Pottsgrove Budget Meeting
• Still Time In Pottsgrove For Budget Volunteers To Enlist
• Challenge To Pottsgrove Budget Advisers: 10 Percent
• Best Guesses, Deficit Launch Pottsgrove Budget Season
• Senate Education Chair Preps For Voucher, Choice Battle
• School Board Questions Pottsgrove Recreation Costs
• Pension Reform Vote Could Benefit Pottsgrove, Others
• Notebook Worthy: News Reporters Made News Tuesday
• Pottsgrove Isn’t Waiting In Search For Budget Volunteers
• If You’ve Got A Budget Idea, Pottsgrove Says It’ll Listen
• Pottsgrove Seeks More Public Input On District Budget

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ April 12 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Task Force Didn’t Shelve Pay-To-Play Plan
• Committee: Charter School May Save Pottsgrove $70K

DeRenzo photo for The Post by Aimee M. Herbert, Aimee Marie Photography

SANATOGA PA – Fixing up the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township municipal building may be a whole lot cheaper than the Board of Commissioners might have hoped for, if bids received for the work are any indication.

Commissioners budgeted $75,000 this year to paint interior and exterior portions of the town hall, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, and lay new carpet. Although the bids have not yet been officially reviewed or accepted, preliminary results recently posted on the township website show it may not cost nearly that much.

In fact, even if board members accepted the highest bids submitted – which would be unusual – the township would pay about 10 percent less than the budgeted amount. And if the lowest bids for both jobs are accepted – a more likely prospect, but still not certain – the savings jump to about 66 percent.

There could be several reasons for the happy numbers: contractors may be hungry and aggressive in a slow economy, or their costs may have fallen in the recession (like almost everything but the price of oil), or commissioners may just have budgeted more than what was needed. No matter; the excess is money that won’t have to be spent.

For the painting work, bids were received from (in lowest to highest order), CertaPro Painters, Bethlehem PA, $11,303; CRJ Construction, Wayne, $13,780; M. Schnoll and Sons, Philadelphia, $14,400; Walt’s Professional Painting, Glenside, $17,500; Hannahoe Painting, Reading, $17,668; Jeanette Painting, Pittsburgh, $18,300; Hy Pressure Washing and Painting, no address listed, $22,700; J.P. Smith Contractors, Glenside, $23,600; and Pro Spec Painting, Vineland NJ, $48,160.

For the carpeting, from Smith Flooring Inc., Chester, $12,424; Farkosh Floor Covering, Pottstown, $13,289; CRJ Construction, Wayne, $14,200; and Munger Associates LLC, Wayne, $19,800.

Bid results remain unofficial until awarded by commissioners, contingent upon review by Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway for their completeness and accuracy.

Related:

• Township Fix-Up Costs Look Cheap, Cheap, Cheap
• Township Calls For Bidders On Building Fix-Up Work
• Township Prepares For Bids On Bulding Fix-It List

Photo from Google Images