The Sanatoga Post

POTTSTOWN PA – Athletic program and facilities’ needs at Pottsgrove High School and elsewhere within the Pottsgrove School District now top the agendas of Board of School Directors’ committees covering those items, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis reported Tuesday (Nov. 8, 2011) during the board’s first meeting of November.

Although he did not identify specific proposals under discussion, the board’s athletic and facilities committees met jointly before the directors’ regular session to talk about both “long-range things, as well as some we’ll need in the next school year,” Landis said.

Projects like improving the entrance to the high school stadium and upgrading its baseball field have been mentioned at past board meeting by Business Administrator David Nester.

Landis said the committees would have more information available when they again meet during December to review the proposed task list.

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Nov. 8 meeting):

• Pottsgrove Committees Look At Sports And Facilities

SANATOGA PA – Police in Lower Pottsgrove and Coatesville PA are cooperating in the investigation of an alleged armed robbery that was reported early Wednesday morning (Nov. 9, 2011) near Cutillo’s Restaurant on East High Street, Sanatoga, The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper reported.

Coatesville police contacted the township department following their arrest Wednesday at about 5:45 a.m. of eight people inside and around an East Lincoln Highway home in the Chester County borough on unrelated drug and warrant charges, The Mercury said. While working on those arrests, Coatesville called Lower Pottsgrove regarding the East High incident that was alleged to have occurred almost three hours earlier.

During it, a man walking Wednesday at about 3 a.m. on East High reportedly was forcibly stopped by armed individuals inside a vehicle, had his cash and credit cards taken, and was brought against his will to an illegally entered apartment above Cutillo’s. Lower Pottsgrove police, who were notified less than an hour later, initially determined those suspects had left the area, according to The Mercury.

The investigation is continuing, in part to determine if the Sanatoga and Coatesville incidents are connected.

• Read an original story and its update by the Journal Register News Service, titled “8 arrested in Coatesville could be connected to Lower Pottsgrove robbery” and published Wednesday by The Mercury, here.

POTTSTOWN PA – Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School students are among those expected to participate in this year’s “Holiday Mail For Heroes” effort, sponsored by the American Red Cross, in which kids volunteer to create hand-made holiday cards that will be delivered to active U.S. military personnel next month.

Paperwork explaining the program to parents will go home with the students Friday (Nov. 11, 2011), school Principal Ruth Fisher said. The children don’t have to claim all the fun, she added; adults can make cards too. After all, Fisher figures, the more the merrier.

Not just any card will do, though. Because recipients are members of the military, and because the cards will in some cases be sent overseas, safety and security are of concern. The Red Cross is providing these guidelines to card-makers:

• All cards must be returned to the school during early December, because they must be postmarked no later than Dec. 9 (Friday). That means participants have about three weeks to craft their creations;
• All cards should be signed, using a first name only, by donors;
• Cards should use generic salutations like “Dear Service Member.” Sorry, but cards addressed to specific individuals cannot be delivered through the program;
• Only cards, and not letters or other communications, are being accepted;
• E-mail or home addresses should NOT be included anywhere on the cards, as the program is not intended to foster pen-pal relationships;
• Inserts of any kind, including photos, should be avoided. Such items will be removed; and
• Cards should be brought to or dropped off at the school without envelopes.

The school’s office staff will bundle and package the cards for mailing to the Red Cross, Fisher said, and in its own form of holiday cheer an anonymous donor is picking up the cost of sending the cards to the Red Cross for distribution from the Holiday Mail For Heroes center in Maryland.

Every card received will be screened for hazardous materials by postal services provider Pitney Bowes, and then reviewed by Red Cross volunteers.

SANATOGA PA – The former Sanatoga Union Sunday School chapel on East High Street in Sanatoga village will be decked out in holiday finery for the November monthly open house of the Lower Pottsgrove Historical Society, President Beth Scherer said Wednesday (Nov. 9, 2011) during its regular meeting.

The open house is scheduled for Nov. 27 (Sunday) from 1-4 p.m. at the chapel, 2341 E. High, which also serves as the society’s museum and offices. The event is free to the public.

Members will get to enjoy the holiday spirit there too, Scherer said; their holiday party and gift exchange will be held Dec. 14 (Wednesday) at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel. The society does not meet during January or February.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Scherer reported the society’s October open house and slide show by member Glenn Isett attracted more than 40 visitors, including at least one general election candidate. As of Oct. 30 the society also has gained four new members this year, she said.

Photo from Clipart.com

Jonathan Spadt, left, studies voter tallies as they arrive Tuesday night at Cutillo's Restaurant in Sanatoga

SANATOGA PA – Call him the campaign champ, the voter victor, the ‘lection leader (OK, so we’re stretching with that one). But no matter which roll-off-the-tongue moniker you prefer, recognize that Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Board of Commissioners’ Vice President Bruce Foltz on Tuesday (Nov. 8, 2011) was, again, the township’s top draw among candidates for election to public office.

Foltz, who at the start of 2012 will enter his 16th year as a member of the municipality’s governing body, attracted the highest vote count among four contenders vying for three open board seats. It’s an accomplishment he has achieved regularly in past elections, too.

In results deemed unofficial until certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections, the all-Republican election winners were:

• Foltz, with 1,579 votes, or 32.78 percent of the total cast;
• Stephen Klotz – 1537, 31.91 percent; and
• Jonathan Spadt – 991, 20.97 percent.

A very happy Steve Klotz on Tuesday outside the township municipal building

Left without a chair when the figurative political music stopped playing was sole Democrat P.J. McGill, who had not filed to seek election but accepted a place on the ballot as a write-in candidate. He received 710 votes, or 14.74 percent.

The winners will be sworn into office during the board’s first meeting of January.

Other election coverage:

Lower Pottsgrove

• LOWER POTTSGROVE ELECTION RESULTS: Spadt, Foltz, Klotz win (The Mercury)

Montgomery County

• Shapiro, Richards Win Election to Board of Commissioners (Perkiomen Valley Patch)
• MONTCO COMMISSIONERS RACE: Democrats break 140-years of GOP dominance (The Mercury)
• MONTCO ELECTION RESULTS: Behr wins sheriff; Dems get 5 other row offices (The Mercury)

Pottstown

• Looks Like Shake-Up In Makeup Of Pottstown School Board (Pottstown Patch)
• POTTSTOWN ELECTION RESULTS: Zahora, Lydon, Kefer among school board winners (The Mercury)
• POTTSTOWN ELECTION RESULTS: Palladino succeeds father as district judge (The Mercury)

Lower Pottsgrove's four voting districts, as of Tuesday (Nov. 2, 2011). Current polling places are marked in red and identified by their addresses

SANATOGA PA – This year’s general election is over. By the time the next rolls around, however, a significant number of voters in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township may find themselves casting ballots in a different and entirely new location.

Republican and Democrat political party leaders locally and in Montgomery County have agreed on a proposal to split in half township Voting District 2, geographically its largest of four districts. The division would create a new district, No. 5, with Sanatoga’s Sunnybrook Ballroom suggested as its polling place. Each half would encompass an almost identical number of voters.

A new district is sorely needed, Pottstown party representatives say, to better serve the growing township’s electoral needs.

More people call Lower Pottsgrove “home.” Thanks to residential development that occurred primarily between 2004 and 2008, the township’s population grew from 11,213 residents under the 2000 Census to 12,059 under the 2010 Census. Many of the housing communities to which new residents were attracted are located within District 2.

Currently, about 3,200 voters are assigned by the county to use the District 2 polling place at Berean Bible Church, 2675 E. High St., Sanatoga. During years in which elections have been heavily contested – the 2008 presidential race is cited as an example – voter wait times there were said to have been long and occasionally frustrating.

The plan has been discussed over several months by Pottstown Republican Committee head Gail Yoder and Pottstown Democratic Committee leader Jim Prendergast, and accepted by higher-ups in both parties. Paperwork officially requesting the division is completed and was submitted during September (2011) to the county Voter Services Department in Norristown, Yoder and Prendergast said.

County election board officials are inclined to accept and act on the request, both leaders agreed, but a change likely will not occur until after state legislative and federal Congressional re-districting is finalized next year. New state district boundaries were introduced earlier this month; new Congressional districts have not yet been unveiled.

Viewed on a county map (above), District 2 (in orange) is shaped somewhat like a puzzle piece. It stretches roughly from the intersection of Buchert and North Pleasant View Roads at its north end, to the Schuylkill River and the rear of the former Occidental Chemical property, now an industrial park, at its south. At the east side it is defined by the border between Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick townships, and by Kepler Road at its widest part on the west.

Districts 1 and 3 (in blue and purple on the map), by comparison, are rough rectangles that cover central and west portions of the township from north to south. District 4 (in green) is a rough square in the township’s northeast quadrant.

The submitted proposal would split District 2 lengthwise, according to Prendergast, roughly using North Pleasant View as its dividing line. About 1,600 district voters who live west of North Pleasant View would vote at Sunnybrook; an almost equal number of those east, at Berean. Districts 1, 3 and 4 and their polling places would remain unchanged.

POTTSTOWN PA – With uncontested races for all five seats up for election Tuesday (Nov. 8, 2011) on the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors, there was no surprise in the outcome.

Previously appointed board members Patti Grimm and C. David Faulkner, both running for election for the first time; board member Jodi Adams, who had not filed to seek re-election but accepted a place on the ballot as a write-in candidate; and newcomers Justin Valentine and Theodore C. Coffelt all will take places at the board table during next month’s reorganization meeting.

With all voting districts across three townships (Lower, Upper and West Pottsgrove) reporting, in results still considered unofficial until certified by the Montgomery County Board of Elections, Grimm proved to be the highest vote-getter. The results, in descending order of votes received, were:

• Grimm – 2,728, 20.28 percent;
• Valentine – 2,711, 20.15 percent;
• Faulkner – 2,699, 20.06 percent;
• Adams – 2,682, 19.94 percent; and
• Coffelt – 2,633, 19.57 percent.

A total of 13,453 votes were cast, the county said.

Board members gathered for their first meeting of the month Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Ringing Rocks Elementary School on North Keim Street, only a half-hour before the polls closed. With the reorganization meeting on the horizon, district Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis thanked two departing directors, April Kontostathis and Fred Remelius, for their eight consecutive years of service.

Departing Pottsgrove school director Fred Remelius, left, receives a clock from district Suerintendent Dr. Bradley Landis. Board member April Kontostathis was similarly honored

“You both did a lot of work behind the scenes,” board President Michael Neiffer said of the pair. “You gave this district stability when it needed it, and it has improved as a result,” he added. Both received commemorative clocks as parting gifts from the district.

VOTERS AT THE RATE OF ABOUT ONE PER MINUTE – Election officials today (Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011) at the Lower Pottsgrove Municipal Building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga (District 4, above), and the Wesleyan Christian Church, 1301 Hilltop Dr., Pottstown (District 3, below), say voters were waiting at the doors promptly by 8 this morning to cast their ballots in local elections. Only a half-hour later, by 8:30, 39 voters had already signed in at the municipal building, and 36 at the church. Opening of the polls at the church was delayed for a few minutes because of set-up difficulties, poll workers there said.

PHILADELPHIA PA – The Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, which in September (2011) opened a liver transplant center in Sanatoga, will simplify its name and change its brand logo during the next 12 months while it completes construction on a “spectacular new, state-of-the-art medical center” in East Norriton, Montgomery County, according to Joan Gubernick, its vice president of corporate marketing and communications.

A rendering of Einstein's East Norriton facility

The system will shorten its umbrella name to Einstein Healthcare Network to more accurately convey its healthcare services provided throughout the region, Gubernick said. The branding change will be phased in, rather than immediate. It likely will be completed by the time the East Norriton facility is ready for a grand opening, anticipated in September 2012.

Einstein is a 1,267-bed integrated delivery network with more than 8,500 employees that serves Philadelphia and Montgomery County. Its primary location, Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, is the largest independent academic medical center in the Delaware Valley, providing training and education for more than 450 residents and fellows.

Illustration from the Einstein Nework

SANATOGA PA – It took a little longer than usual, but the September 2011 warrants of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township – which provide details on where the municipality’s revenues came from during the ninth month of the year, and on what and with whom it spent money – were made available Monday (Nov. 7, 2011) on the Resources Page of The Sanatoga Post.

Failure of a hard drive storage system in the township’s photocopier caused a delay of several days in the warrants’ production, township bookkeeper Michele Christman explained.

• Find all warrants archived by The Post as Adobe Acrobat documents, here. Most take about a minute or less to download over a high-speed (DSL, cable, or FIOS) Internet connection.

The Setember warrants were approved Oct. 24 by the township Board of Commissioners during its second monthly meeting. Warrants are printed and can always be viewed for free at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, during regular office hours Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Post supplies these materials exactly as received from the township, and makes no guarantee expressed or implied that they are complete, accurate, or faithful reproductions of the actual documents. The Post has had no hand in their creation or submission. Before taking any action based on the contents of any documents offered here, The Post strongly suggests you consult with appropriate professionals for advice.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Oct. 24):

• Lower Pottsgrove Sept. 2011 Warrants Now Online
• Commissioners Challenged By Sanatoga Pipe Plaintiff
• Water An Issue In Sanatoga Beauty Salon Approval
• Pruss Hill Bridge To Reopen, But As One-Lane Only