The Sanatoga Post

Jesse Garron.

SANATOGA PA – Advance reservations are now being taken for an Elvis tribute performance by impersonator Jesse Garron, which is scheduled to be held next Saturday (Aug. 27, 2011) beginning at 8 p.m. in Sunnybrook Ballroom, 50 Sunnybrook Rd., Pottstown PA.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Tickets, which cost $25 in advance, are available for purchase online, at the Sunnybrook box office, or by calling 484-624-5186.

Garron’s show is popular and he has performed repeatedly at Sunnybrook in recent years.

Photo from JesseGarron.com

SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove is paying for two attorneys, one to represent its interests and another to advise its Civil Service Commission, during a legal hearing yet to be scheduled in which a township police officer is appealing a disciplinary action imposed by Chief Michael Shade and approved by the Board of Commissioners.

The North Pleasant View Road entrance to Lower Pottsgrove's Police Department.

Board members voted unanimously Thursday night (Aug. 18, 2011) to retain attorney Charles “Chuck” Garner Jr. of the Garner & Bauer law firm, 2050 E. High St., Sanatoga, as special counsel to the Civil Service Commission in a hearing requested by Officer Matthew Meitzler. Vice President Bruce Foltz was absent from the meeting and did not vote.

The patrolman is opposing Shade’s decision, approved by commissioners on July 7, to suspend him for two 12-hour shifts without pay following an earlier incident that involved a police vehicle outside Sunnybrook Ballroom. Meitzler was driving the force’s newest cruiser at the time, according to township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, when it was involved in an accident with a light pole.

The date and other specifics of the incident were not discussed during Thursday’s meeting. It is known to have been the subject of several earlier board executive sessions that were closed to the public, most recently during July. The township is being advised in the matter by attorney Ryan Cassidy of the Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellot law firm in Philadelphia, Hawthorne added.

Meitzler was expected to serve his suspension sometime during mid- or late-July, but has not as a result of his appeal. Although the hearing date has not been set, according to Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway, the session would be open to the public.

The Civil Service Commission consists of Chairman Jacob Dailey, members Mike Misiak and John Genther, and alternate E.G. “Woody” Righter, the township website reports. Because it is the hearing body in the dispute, “it’s appropriate” that it be advised by Garner on how the hearing is conducted, Holloway explained.

The hourly fees or other costs associated with both attorneys was not estimated or disclosed.

Meitzler, who was hired by the Police Department during 2007, has since been honored twice by the township. He was named its Officer of the Year during 2009 for “the significant impact he … made in leading the department’s Drug Task Force,” Shade said at the time. During 2010, Meitzler also was presented with a certificate thanking him “for exceptional duty” in helping to subdue a shotgun-wielding man in Lower Pottsgrove’s Woodgate residential area.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):

• Township Pays Two Attorneys In Police Discipline Case
• Road Re-Paving Is Coming; Just When Anybody’s Guess
• Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
• Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is

SANATOGA PA – When will already milled state-owned roads within Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township be re-paved? Sometime during the next two weeks, Manager Rodney Hawthorne reported Thursday (Aug. 18, 2011), and maybe beginning as early as this Sunday (Aug. 21).

Don’t hold your breath, though, waiting for equipment to arrive. The paving dates are tough to pinpoint, Hawthorne acknowledged, because those involved aren’t quite certain what they are.

An uneven pavement sign stands at the East High Street end of North Sanatoga Road. Lower Pottsgrove drivers are awaiting the return of contractors to finish paving there

It’s been more than a week since a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation contractor, Allan A. Myers and American Infrastructure, brought its work crews across North Sanatoga Road, from East High Street to North Pleasant View Road; Bleim Road, from North Pleasant View west to North Charlotte Street; and Maugers Mill Road, form North Charlotte Street to Gilbertsville Road.

Those roads were closed over several nights as milling machinery ground down and removed a layer of asphalt to prepare for their re-paving. Once done, uneven pavement signs were posted at both ends of each road. Nothing’s happened with them since.

Township crews earlier this week created small asphalt slopes around manhole covers on the roads to make driving them less jarring, Hawthorne said.

He’s confident the roads will be topped, as well as portions of East High Street from Rupert Road west to North Pleasant View. A call this week from a Myers representative confirmed as much, Hawthorne added. The mystery is exactly when.

Until then, motorists are urged to drive slowly and carefully in the affected areas.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):

• Road Re-Paving Is Coming; Just When Anybody’s Guess
• Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
• Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is

The winner: M&T Bank in Sanatoga

SANATOGA PA – Like any customer who is paying for, but unhappy with, services being provided lately by their bank, Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township has decided to take its money and do business elsewhere.

The loser is First Niagara Bank; the winner, M&T Bank, the township Board of Commissioners decided Thursday (Aug. 18, 2011).

For several years Lower Pottsgrove held its “trash lock-box service” at the former Harleysville National Bank. It’s a depository arrangement which allows taxpayers, most of whom make payments twice a year for garbage hauling, to send their checks directly to a township account. Tens of thousands of dollars funnel through the account annually.

Harleysville National was bought by First Niagara in April 2010. Things haven’t gone well since, Manager Rodney Hawthorne told board members. “We lost the good service we used to have,” he said.

First Niagara, in a cost-cutting move, terminated employees with which the township had a working relationship, Hawthorne claimed. Then it was unable to provide computer files in a format that could be imported into township accounting software. Finally the bank, despite repeated requests, failed to provide pricing to continue the service. “We just haven’t been happy,” he noted.

After some bidding research, township bookkeeper Michele Christman suggested M&T Bank – which operates a branch office on East High Street, about a mile south of the township municipal building – would provide the same service at the lowest price, $3,400. Commissioners took her recommendation and authorized the switch.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):

• Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
• Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is

SANATOGA PA – The words “full faith and credit,” as they apply to a government’s ability to repay its debts, may have lost some luster within the past 30 days, but the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners is expected to prove tonight (Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011) the phrase still has value locally.

When board members meet at 7 p.m. in the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, they will consider pledging Lower Pottsgrove’s full faith and credit on behalf of its sewer authority and $1.74 million it intends to borrow from the Delaware Valley Regional Finance Authority.

The faith and credit of the federal government has been strained in recent weeks, as Congress and the president initially appeared unable to compromise on lowering the national deficit. That almost imperiled the country’s ability to repay its debt obligations, and although a default was avoided it ultimately led to a downgrade in America’s credit rating.

The township’s credit rating, on the other hand, is just fine, Manager Rodney Hawthorne happily proclaims. That’s because the municipality has a substantial fund balance (money in the bank) and also because, if it had to, it could raise taxes to repay debts. Both are good things for the sewer authority.

Back in 2005, it borrowed money from the Emmaus General Authority to pay for sewer improvements locally. Now, six years later, with loan interest rates at historically low levels, Lower Pottsgrove has shopped around and found it can get a better deal on borrowing money from the Delaware Valley authority.

Its plan, explained in an advertisement published Monday (Aug. 15) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper – the township’s publication of record for legal notices – is to borrow from Delaware Valley to pay off Emmaus. To guarantee the new loan will be repaid, the sewer authority is asking the township to pledge its “full faith, credit, and taxing power” on the authority’s behalf.

Simply put, Lower Pottsgrove taxpayers become the loan co-signers. There’s nothing unusual in the arrangement, Hawthorne also explains; it happens regularly. A resolution containing the township’s promise to repay is on the board’s agenda tonight. The meeting is open to the public.

• A copy of the agenda is available online at Lower Pottsgrove’s website, and can be downloaded here.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):

• Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is

POTTSTOWN PA – Here’s another way in which seniors rate at Pottsgrove High School: they’ll be the first to get their permits to park vehicles on the school’s Kauffman Road, Pottstown PA, parking lots.

Lower Pottsgrove Police Officer and School Resource Officer Wil James will issue seniors’ parking permits next Monday and Tuesday (Aug. 22-23, 2011) from 1-3 p.m. at the school. Juniors can claim theirs next Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 24-25), also from 1-3; and sophomores can pick up theirs during lunch periods on Sept. 6 (Tuesday), eight days after the school’s Aug. 29 (Monday) re-opening. Freshmen are not allowed to park on school property.

News of the permits’ availability was announced this week on the high school’s website. Before they are issued, though, students must register their cars in the high school office. They must show proof of a valid driver’s license, vehicle registration and insurance card. They must demonstrate driver responsibility, too; all applicable state laws are in effect on the lots, and the speed limit there is 15 mph.

Eligible students can apply online for their parking permits, here. In addition, both students and parents must acknowledge they will comply with the school’s 11-point list of automobile driving and parking regulations, here. Parents pledge to “assume full responsibility for the safety of (their) child, and that of any passengers within the vehicle, while in the process of driving to and from school.

Questions about the permits, regulations, or school automobile policy can be directed to James via e-mail, here.

POTTSTOWN PA – How will your children get to Pottsgrove School District buildings beginning Aug. 29 (2011), when the schools open, if they must take the bus? The district is eager to let parents know, but it can’t … or at least, it can’t just yet.

Pottsgrove normally publishes its bus schedules during the second or third week of August, as it did last year, in anticipation of the first day of school. But “one of the changes being made this summer is the implementation of a new student transportation system,” the district announced Tuesday (Aug. 16) on the home page of its website. “Unfortunately, this change has resulted in a delay in publishing transportation schedules,” it added.

It did not explain the nature of its changes to transportation, or why they were deemed necessary.

It expects the schedules to be completed and posted by Aug. 24 (Wednesday), only five days before the school doors swing wide. Parents who use the district’s PowerSchool Portal can get a one-day jump on the schedules’ release; they will be available there by Aug. 23, the district said.

Photo from Google Images

SANATOGA PA – You can’t make pizza without pushing around a little dirt.

Lower Pottsgrove’s Planning Commission agreed to authorize a grading permit Monday (Aug. 15, 2011) for earth-moving to begin on the 2209 E. High St., Sanatoga PA, site that someday will be the home to the new Bella Italia restaurant and pizzeria. It won final approval last month from the Board of Commissioners. The project is being built and operated by Cilluffo Property Holdings LLC of Blue Bell PA.

In their eagerness to prepare the property for use, its owners began trying to clear the site of tree stumps and other debris back in November 2009. That was halted at the time by township Codes Enforcement Officer Keith Place because all development requirements had not yet been met.

That’s no longer the case. Planners unanimously granted the permit within less than a minute.

Related:

• Grading Permit OK’d For Sanatoga Restaurant Parcel
• Italian Restaurant Construction Could Start Within Weeks
• 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 Aug. 15):

• Grading Permit OK’d For Sanatoga Restaurant Parcel
• Sportmans Storage Barn Wins Planners’ Approval
• Planners Get Sneak Peek At Buchert Ridge Revisions

Photo from Google Images

SANATOGA PA – A new pole barn of 2,000 square feet will replace several smaller storage buildings that total less than half that size under a proposal introduced Monday (Aug. 15, 2011) by the Lower Pottsgrove Sportsmans Association and approved by the township Planning Commission.

Logo of the Sportmans Association

The association, which encourages outdoor field activities such as hunting, fishing, archery and sport shooting, operates its fish and game club at 2121 Sanatoga Station Rd., Pottstown PA. Several buildings there currently provide about 713 square feet of storage space for its use. They will be removed to erect the larger building on what is roughly the same area of the 33.9-acre property, commissioners said.

The new building required a minor land development plan within the Limited Industrial District zoning where it would be located, which commissioners approved unanimously in a discussion with a group of club representatives that took about five minutes. They recommended the project be approved by the township Board of Commissioners, which is tentatively scheduled to act on it before Nov. 3 (2011).

The association this year has actively promoted a popular series of public archery shooting contests held on the second Sunday of every month from April through September. Its three-dimensional target course features simulated hunting conditions, and the contest includes a breakfast fund-raiser that benefits its youth committee. Its last shoot of this year is scheduled for Sept. 11.

The club also encourages hunter safety for youths age 11 and older, and regularly conducts state approved hunter-trapper education programs on its grounds. Its next series is scheduled for Sept. 10 and 12.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Planning Commission meeting of Aug. 15):

• Sportmans Storage Barn Wins Planners’ Approval
• Planners Get Sneak Peek At Buchert Ridge Revisions

SANATOGA PA – The Goddard School Block Party, an event intended to engage children and their families in a variety of fitness, nutrition and playful learning activities, will be held Sept. 19-24 (2011; Monday through Saturday during regular hours at the school, East High Street, Sanatoga PA. It’s open to interested parents and their children, school owner Ed Shaw said Aug. 8 (2011).

Shaw also offered five tips with which he said parents could help their children be involved in healthy activities:

• Create a game out of everyday tasks such as chores, cleaning and gardening. Think outside the box to create activities that stimulate the mind. Play helps children learn to solve problems, promotes flexibility and motivation, teaches regulation of emotions and builds resilience and confidence.
• Get outside. Preschoolers need plenty of time and space to run around and play. Taking your child to a playground or park is a great way to release energy and exercise. Play outside with your child and teach hand-eye coordination by showing the basics of throwing, catching and kicking a large, soft ball.
• Add music. Play “Statues” by playing up-tempo music. Have your child move while the music is playing and freeze into a statue when you pause the music. Encourage creative dancing.
• Promote activity. Support young toddlers’ mastery of walking by allowing them to be active. Play with them as they learn to run, hop, dance and throw.  Have them chase bubbles or invent a silly walk, so play becomes exercise.  Provide encouragement to your child as they build self-confidence.
• Roll with the weather. When rain or clouds interfere, get out the large balls, exercise mats and games, or do some stretching and balancing exercises together. Limit television, video game and computer time.