The Sanatoga Post

Needed: cheery volunteers for meals' delivery

POTTSTOWN PA – Montgomery County Family Services’ Meals On Wheels program needs volunteers to pack and deliver meals to home-bound elderly and disabled individuals in the greater Pottstown area, agency Marketing Director Karen Konnick said Thursday (June 23, 2011).

Each weekday, Meals On Wheels provides two meals – a hot lunch, and a cold supper to refrigerate – to an average of 160 home-bound elderly and disabled individuals in Pottstown, Royersford and the Lower Perkiomen Valley. Volunteers personally deliver more than 81,000 meals a year.

Volunteers meet weekdays at Family Services’ Pottstown office, 1976 E. High St., Sanatoga PA, to pack meals during one of two shifts: from 8–10:15 a.m., or from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Those who deliver meals arrive at the office at 10:30 a.m., and take about 90 minutes to complete their routes. Drivers must have a valid driver’s license, current insurance and their own reliable vehicle.

Most volunteers commit to packing or delivering meals once a week; others volunteer on a substitute basis. Training is provided.

For more information, call Case Manager Ruth Hood at 610-326-1610, Ext. 226, or send her an e-mail, here.

SANATOGA PA – Final plans submitted by the Berean Bible Church, 2675 E. High St., Pottstown PA, to build a new gymnasium at its existing building were approved Monday (June 20, 2011) by the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Planning Commission.

Berean Bible Church, 2675 E. High St., Pottstown PA

The church uses its current gym both for worship and its youth sports program. The new 10,960-square-foot facility would house its growing sports programs for neighborhood kids while allowing the church to leave chairs and other items set up for worship in place. Administrative Pastor Bill Neitz said the sports program was an important part of the church’s youth ministry.

Some items of the plan, including parking lot width and lighting, and landscape buffering and screening, required township Zoning Hearing Board waivers recommended by the commissioners.

POTTSTOWN PA – Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Quigley thinks giving first-time offenders a break in sentencing for comparatively minor crimes “is valuable,” but if they don’t learn from their mistakes the legislator who represents Lower Pottsgrove, Limerick and Pottstown in the state House wants to ensure justice is served.

"Five-finger discount" in action

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (June 21, 2011) approved Quigley’s proposed law to treat repeat violations of retail theft as more severe for individuals who have completed an accelerated rehabilitation program. The proposal would close a loophole that became apparent during a recent court case, and which was pointed out to Quigley by detectives in the Limerick (PA) Police Department.

The proposal now goes before the full House for consideration.

The rehab program is the state’s way of giving first-timers their break. It’s often used in driving under the influence violations, and amounts to a probationary sentence that usually involves a fine, temporary loss of a driver’s license, or other lesser punishments. It can be used, too, in cases that involve shoplifting, the theft of goods from a retail store.

Once individuals complete rehabilitation, charges against them can be dismissed as though they never happened. For repeat offenders, the first-time crime normally is resurrected so harsher punishments can be imposed.

Where retail thefts were involved, though, language about thieves who participated in rehab wasn’t sufficiently clear, according to a Pennsylvania Superior Court ruling in a case called Commonwealth v. Graeff. More severe punishments might not apply to them, the court determined. Quigley’s proposal would address that problem, he said.

His House Bill 1603 would allow prosecutors to charge defendants who participated in rehabilitation but continue to break Pennsylvania’s retail theft law with a second-degree misdemeanor. “Retail theft is not a victimless crime,” Quigley noted. “Businesses lose billions of dollars annually to retail theft, and it’s paying customers who absorb those costs.”

SANATOGA PA – The 2011 edition of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township‘s series of summer musical concerts is scheduled to open Sunday (June 26) with a return performance by the Bill Koss Combo, beginning at 6 p.m. at the band shell in Sanatoga Park, 223 S. Sanatoga Rd., Pottstown PA. The concert is free and open to the public.

• Watch a video, above, of one of the band’s numbers performed during its 2010 concert at the park, or see it at The Post’s YouTube account.

The Bill Koss Combo

The combo frequently plays locally, and offers a variety of music to suit almost every interest. The grounds of the slope surrounding the band shell are comfortable on most evenings; concert-goers are urged to bring their own seating in the form of lawn chairs or ground blankets. The acoustics are good, too, and guests who position themselves just right can enjoy the show while watching nature’s progress on the nearby lake.

In case of rain, the concert will be re-scheduled to Monday (June 27) at 7 p.m. Again this year, the series is sponsored by Exelon Nuclear, and conducted by the township Parks and Recreation Board.

Following Koss on the schedule are:

• July 13 (Wednesday), 7 p.m., the U.S. Army Band;
• July 17 (Sunday), 6 p.m., family fun night with The Paisley Pickles;
• July 24 (Sunday), 6 p.m., Barbone Street Jazz Band;
• July 31 (Sunday), 6 p.m., The Mango Men; and
• Aug. 7 (Sunday), 6 p.m., Pottsgrove Community Band.

The municipal building

SANATOGA PA – The Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners will conduct its second meeting of the month tonight (Thursday, June 23, 2011), beginning at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.

A copy of the board agenda is available for download from the township’s website, here. The meeting is open to the public.

POTTSTOWN PA – Forks up! The annual feast to benefit the Montgomery County Meals On Wheels program that is thrown by Shorty’s Sunflower Cafe, the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township restaurant known for its gourmet dishes, is under way.

Shorty's last year raised $14,346 for Meals On Wheels. This year's goal: $15,000.

The fund-raiser donates proceeds from several activities by owners and staff of the restaurant at 1494 N. Charlotte St., Pottstown PA, to the program operated by the non-profit county Family Services agency from its offices in Sanatoga. It began Monday (June 20, 2011) and continues through next Thursday (June 30).

“Our staff and customers always look forward to our annual Meals on Wheels fund-raiser,” said Liz Bieber, who with her husband George owns and operates Shorty’s. “By participating in this event, we have a chance to be more involved in our neighborhood, help those most in need, and do what we do best: feed the community.”

Shorty’s opened in Gilbertsville in 1996 and then moved to Pottstown 11 years ago. It gets high marks from many national restaurant and dining guides for its breakfast and lunch menus. Last year’s event collected $14,346 for Meals On Wheels; the goal this year is $15,000 … or more, hopes Family Services’ Marketing Director Karen Konnick, if the public is hungry enough.

Meals On Wheels, Konnick noted, “has a long history of ensuring the nutritional well-being of elderly individuals, and has helped many seniors lead happy, healthy and independent lives.”

Each weekday it provides two meals – a hot lunch, and a cold supper to refrigerate – to an average of 160 home-bound elderly and disabled individuals in Pottstown, Royersford, and the Lower Perkiomen Valley. Community volunteers personally deliver more than 81,000 meals a year. Beyond the obvious nourishment, though, drivers also offer friendship, a kind word, and a quick status check to their recipients.

Family Services’ is headquartered in Eagleville PA, but its offices at 1976 E. High St., Pottstown, is home to the meals program. For more information on it or the agency, call 610-326-1610.

For this year’s fund-raiser, Shorty’s staff will sell tickets to raffle off prizes that include a variety of gift baskets, art work, and gift certificates to local businesses. Customers can buy a single ticket for $2, three tickets for $5, or an arm’s length of tickets for $20.

The café also sold advertising space on T-shirts being worn by its staff for $100 each. The shirts are rotated regularly throughout the week, so sponsors’ ads are seen by a variety of patrons. And, of course, donations to the meals program are gratefully accepted too.

As usual at Shorty’s, there’s little rest for the weary. The restaurant is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s first-come, first-served (they’ll take your name for a waiting list at the door, if necessary) and it’s also a cash-only business, so go appropriately prepared.

Related (to the Meals On Wheels Program):

• Exelon Funds Help Sanatoga Agency Feed Seniors
• Sanatoga Meals Program Hopes You Can Help
• Patients Get An Exam, Meals Program Gets A Donation
• Conklin’s Comedy Benefits Local Meals Program
• Sanatoga Program Among Golf Outing Beneficiaries
• Shorty’s Café Gives Thousands To Meals On Wheels
• Meals On Wheels Honors 30-Year Volunteers
• Sanatoga Meals Program Needs Volunteers
• Patients, Public Made Chiropractor Donations Possible
• Shorty’s Holds Annual Benefit For Meals Program
• Notebook Worthy

Photo from Shorty’s Sunflower Cafe

An artist's rendering of the facade for Bella Italia Pizza

SANATOGA PA – One by one, hurdles are falling for Cilluffo Property Holdings LLC, the Blue Bell PA-based company that has been working since November 2009 to build an Italian-style restaurant on East High Street in Sanatoga village. The latest came down Monday (June 20, 2011), as Cilluffo won final approval from the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Planning Commission.

Commissioners, during their monthly meeting in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, unanimously accepted a final land development plan for the proposed Bella Italia Pizzeria. It would be built on a vacant lot at 2209 E. High St., Pottstown, just west of the former Rite-Aid pharmacy at the corner of East High and North Pleasant View Road.

A prior review by staff and representatives of Bursich Associates, the township’s engineers, found no remaining problems with or recommendations for the building or its owners. Both have appeared before the commission several times during the 19-month planning and approval process.

Monday’s session with Cilluffo lasted only seven minutes. “It’s the last time we hope to see you,” company attorney Amee S. Farrell cheerily told board members. “It took you longer to get here than to get out,” Commissioner Ronald Dinnocenti noted.

Cilluffo hopes to build a 4,500-square-foot, one-story building on the property, facing East High Street and with both entrances and exits to East High. The building would contain the restaurant, of 2,500-square-feet, and two smaller offices available for lease. A 900-square-foot patio, complete with water fountain, would be located outside the restaurant for diners to enjoy at adjacent tables.

The last hurdle before construction can begin is to receive approval for the same final land development plan from the Board of Commissioners. That is expected before Aug. 1, and board members have given every indication they are anxious to see the restaurant get under way after its long delay.

Related:

• One Down, One To Go For Township Italian Restaurant
• Watch Your Speedometer! Sanatoga Street Slows 5 Mph
• Commissioners OK Italian Restaurant’s Plans, Without Alley
• It Could Be Awhile Before Sanatoga Pizza Oven Fires Up
• Alley To Sunnyside Ave. ‘Elephant’ In Restaurant Plans
• Restaurant, Doctors’ Office Return To Planning Board
• Owners Ask For Restaurant Variance Extensions
• Planners Hear More About Proposed Pizza Restaurant
• Pizzeria Owner Has History Of Restaurant Development
• Restaurant, Ringing Projects Win Conditional Uses
• Ringing Rocks, Restaurant Hearing Topics Tonight
• Pizzeria Planned Next To Sanatoga Rite-Aid

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Planning Commission meeting of June 20):

• One Down, One To Go For Township Italian Restaurant

POTTSTOWN PA – The general contractor already involved in expanding and renovating the Pottsgrove School District‘s Ringing Rocks Elementary School on Kauffmann Road in Pottstown PA has won its $381,000 bid to also repair a crumbling retaining wall and other structural elements outside Pottsgrove Middle School on North Hanover Street.

The retaining wall at Pottsgrove Middle School

Contractor E.R. Stuebner Inc. of Reading PA received the Middle School job last Tuesday (June 14, 2011) in a unanimous vote of the Board of School Directors, whose members had no other comment on the project. The work is expected to get under way this summer.

A separate group of structural engineers in December 2009 determined that water over time has penetrated the wall, is even pooling behind it in some places, and has weakened its red-colored masonry veneer. Some of its steel components are rusted and flaking. Mortar joints are cracked, sealants are missing, and there are open joints around embedded railing posts topping the wall, the report by Baker, Ingram and Associates said.

The school district must shoulder the repair costs alone, administrators claimed, after their research indicated Pottsgrove probably would have little if any recourse against the original builder.

Stuebner’s bid is more than $160,000 lower than the $550,000 price tag the district had estimated for the repairs. That’s due, in part, according to Business Administrator David Nester, to the fact that much of Stuebner’s equipment and manpower is currently at work on the Ringing Rocks project and won’t need to be moved far. The two jobs will proceed simultaneously, Nester said.

Stuebner employees seem to be extra busy this year, according to recent releases from its account on Twitter, the popular social media website. The company in March was awarded construction of the new $42 million Bishop McDevitt Catholic high school in Lower Paxton (PA) Township. It’s building an Exeter PA branch office for Diamond Credit Union, as well as another elementary school in Middleburg PA.

The retaining wall fixes were high on a to-do list of tasks presented earlier this year to school board members by district Director of Facilities and Physical Plants Michael Katzenmoyer. The board also approved other Katzenmoyer-recommended projects; they include:

• Replacing the wall padding in the West Pottsgrove Elementary School gym, awarded to bidder R.J. McCarville Associates, for $4,700;
• Concrete sidewalk replacement at Pottsgrove High School, K&K Construction, $10,974;
• Lighting supplies within the district, Denny Electric of Ambler PA, $5,601;
• Crack fill and seal coating at West Pottsgrove, ChemSeal, $7,975;
• Lighting supplies for the West Pottsgrove gym, Denny Electric, $2,237; and
• Elevator repairs and installation of an emergency telephone at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School, Tri-State Elevator Co. Inc., $5,860.

Related:

• Pottsgrove Board Awards MS Retaining Wall Bid, Others
• Pottsgrove Calls For Bids In MS Wall Repair Project
• Retaining Wall Tops Pottsgrove List Of Needed Repairs
• Pottsgrove MS Retaining Wall Needs ‘Significant’ Repair

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ June 14 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Board Awards MS Retaining Wall Bid, Others
• Western Center Celebrates Over High-Scoring Students
• ‘Cyber School, Here We Come,’ Pottsgrove Proclaims
• Budget-Motivated Pottsgrove Admin Changes Approved
• Pottsgrove OKs Personnel Items Affecting 55 Positions
• Plan To Further Cut Pottsgrove Tax Hike Dies In Tie

LIMERICK PA – Eighty-five percent of all students who attended the Western Montgomery Career and Technical Center on Graterford Road in Limerick PA scored this year “at advanced or competent levels” on national occupational competency exams, the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors learned last week.

One of the center's automotive technology students at work

Students from the Pottsgrove, Spring-Ford Area and Upper Perkiomen school districts receive career-specific training at the center, and their 2011 exam scores are the highest in its history, director Scott Fulmer told his colleagues during the board’s meeting last Tuesday (June 14). Fulmer and directors April Kontostathis and Philip Keogh serve as Pottsgrove’s representatives on the center Joint Operating Committee.

Better still, center director Joe Greb added later in the week, students who participated in this year’s auto technology, computer information systems, health sciences, protective services and commercial art courses all were rated on the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute exams as competent or advanced in their knowledge.

For those results, Greb explained, the center four years ago took what he calls a “backwards” approach to improve what it taught.

“We started with the end result we wanted to achieve,” he said. “Then we analyzed what we were teaching and eliminated things that didn’t help us get to that goal. We checked for gaps in information, organized it into teachable units, and designed our semesters so they all fit together. We believe this has led to a positive impact on student success.”

The institute exams include written and hands-on portions conducted in front of judges who are experts in their respective career fields. During 2008, when the improvement process started, only 35 percent of center students scored as competent or higher on the tests. By 2009, the number reached 56 percent, and last year it hit 63 percent.

The progressive increases have been “phenomenal,” Fulmer said.

About 28 percent of the center’s students go onto full-time employment in their chosen fields following graduation, Greb said. Another 20 percent take up part-time employment, and about 47 percent attend some form of advanced schooling.

The center last fall completed a $40 million building improvement project that renovated and expanded the school, “bringing it in line with other leading technical schools nationwide,” Greb said.

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ June 14 meeting):

• Western Center Celebrates Over High-Scoring Students
• ‘Cyber School, Here We Come,’ Pottsgrove Proclaims
• Budget-Motivated Pottsgrove Admin Changes Approved
• Pottsgrove OKs Personnel Items Affecting 55 Positions
• Plan To Further Cut Pottsgrove Tax Hike Dies In Tie

Photo from the Western Montgomery Career and Technical Center

KING OF PRUSSIA PA – Motorists traveling U.S. Route 422 will face night-time lane closures through June 30 (2011; Thursday) between the Route 202 and Route 23 interchanges in Chester and Montgomery counties, as workers re-surface pavement there, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 6 office in King of Prussia PA announced Monday (June 20).

Night paving will occur through June 30 on Route 422

422 will be reduced from two lanes to one nightly, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning, near its First Avenue interchange. Crews began milling the road surface Sunday night (June 19) and expect to start paving Wednesday (June 22). The contractor’s work, scheduled through the end of the month, is weather-dependent.

Drivers are advised to allow additional time for travel on 422 during construction, because backups may occur, PennDOT said.

Its contractor will resurface 1,800 feet of 422 as part of a $2.7 million project that began in February (2011). It intended to fill voids beneath the highway that could potentially develop into sinkholes.

Crews have drilled 570 holes along 500 feet of road and median on 422, and pumped grout to support the pavement and fill underground cavities. In addition, PennDOT said, the contractor replaced deteriorated concrete pavement and installed a liner in the grass median to seal the surface and block water penetration.

Photo from Google Images