Posted on 22 December 2011. Tags: Common Core State Standards Initiative, Pottsgrove Middle School
MAKING STUDIES UNIVERSAL AT POTTSGROVE MIDDLE SCHOOL – Math is math, reading is reading, and those and other subjects taught at schools across the U.S. should contain the same content and concepts no matter where in the nation a school is found. That’s the premise behind the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an effort by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to create a set of consistent and clear academic standards for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Common core standards are being implemented this year among students at Pottsgrove Middle School (above), its December (2011) newsletter explains. The newsletter was distributed last week (Dec. 13, 2011) via e-mail by Principal Bill Ziegler, and contains a full-page article on the topic. It can be downloaded from the Pottsgrove School District website, here.
Posted in Education, Pottsgrove Schools
Posted on 22 December 2011. Tags: Montgomery County Recycling, municipal general election
RECYCLING THE ELECTION IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY – Remember all those general election signs that dotted streets, lawns and utility poles across Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township and elsewhere during October and November? Most are gone now, and according to Montgomery County Recycling Coordinator Chris Kaasmann (above), thousands were recycled rather than discarded. Kassmann reported Monday (Dec. 19, 2011) that the county’s campaign to recycle no-longer-needed election materials collected 1.09 tons of mixed paper campaign signs, 2.97 tons of scrap metal sign holders(below), and a pile of plastic bag-like signs that grew to 5 feet wide, 5 feet deep, and 10 feet high (bottom).
Photos from Montgomery County Recycling
Posted in Health, Lower Pottsgrove, Montgomery County, Politics
Posted on 21 December 2011. Tags: 2209 Inc., Bella Italia Restaurant, Cilluffo Property Holdings
SANATOGA PA – The unexplained absence of a liquor license applicant at its own specially-called public hearing prompted the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Board of Commissioners to delay action Thursday (Dec. 15, 2011) affecting the Bella Italia Restaurant, already approved for construction at 2209 E. High St., Sanatoga, just west of the now-vacant Rite Aid Pharmacy.
Representatives of 2209 Inc., which township Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway said was the entity for the proposed restaurant’s operations, were unavailable as commissioners opened a hearing on their behalf. It was scheduled for discussion of the requested transfer of a liquor license from a Norristown-based holder to what has been promoted as a full-service Italian foods restaurant at the heart of Sanatoga village.
The hearing had been advertised only a week earlier in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, the township’s publication of record for legal notices, to begin promptly at 7 p.m. Commissioners held off on its opening, in hopes that someone from the company might arrive later during their meeting.
When no one did, Holloway suggested opening the hearing anyway. “It’s already been advertised,” he reasoned. “If we don’t hold it, we’ll need to advertise it again. The board could open the hearing and continue it to another date, and we can see what’s happened with the applicant,” he added.
Board members heeded his advice, and then continued the hearing to Jan. 3 (2012; Tuesday) at 7 p.m.
Bella Italia is being built and operated by Cilluffo Property Holdings LLC of Blue Bell PA. It’s taken more than two years to move its project through town, county and state regulatory agency hurdles. When commissioners gave final approval to its plans in July (2011) they were hopeful construction would begin quickly. It hasn’t; the lot it would occupy is not yet graded, although a permit for that purpose was issued during August.
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Posted in Business, Food, Lower Pottsgrove, Real Estate, Sanatoga
Posted on 21 December 2011. Tags: Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Planning Commission, Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners
SANATOGA PA – The vacant seat on the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Planning Commission is likely to be filled by Jan. 19 (2012), but by whom isn’t yet known.
A field of several candidates who indicated interest in serving in the volunteer position has been whittled down to three semi-finalists, Board of Commissioners’ President Jonathan Spadt said Thursday (Dec 15, 2011), following proposed selections made by board members. Spadt asked that interviews with the three be scheduled in coming weeks, so commissioners can decide on a single individual and make an appointment during their second meeting of January.
The chosen finalist will fill the seat vacated by former Planning Commissioner Nicholas Hiriak, who resigned in July (2011). Planners can serve for terms of up to four years, depending on the nature of their appointment. The board is responsible for initial review of most major construction and land development activity within the township.
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Photo from Google Images
Posted in Lower Pottsgrove, Politics, Sanatoga
Posted on 21 December 2011. Tags: Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, Lower Pottsgrove Public Works Department
SANATOGA PA – Employees in Lower Pottsgrove’s Public Works Department will tell you that items on their recently completed task list were merely routine seasonal preparation. What they worked on, though, only confirms the township again this year probably won’t escape winter weather.
The Board of Commissioners on Thursday (Dec. 15, 2011) received the department’s lengthy list of activities finished during the previous month. They included:
- Remarking storm sewers so they can be more easily located during winter snow storms;
- Receiving 25 tons of road salt;
- Re-welding the snow plow for a township truck; and
- Servicing and preparing other plows for winter use.
The department during November also cleared a substantial number of fallen trees, brush and leaves from Lower Pottsgrove parks and open spaces, as well as along North Adams Street, Brookwood and Karen Drives, and Pruss Hill and Sunnybrook Roads. They also conducted a wide variety of other maintenance and road-related jobs.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Dec. 15 meeting):
Photo from Google Images
Posted in Lower Pottsgrove, Sanatoga, Weather
Posted on 21 December 2011. Tags: Life Management Inc., mental health services
SANATOGA PA – Life Management Inc., a private provider of outpatient behavioral health services including substance abuse treatment and mental health counseling, has opened a new office at Sanatoga Commons, 2500 E. High Street, Sanatoga, the Paoli PA-based company announced last Wednesday (Dec. 14, 2011).
It services are provided under the brand names Rehab After Work and Rehab After School, Life Counseling Services, and The Light Program.
Many of its clients “were traveling from the Pottstown area to received counseling at our locations in Phoenixville and Radnor,” company President Guy Murray said. “This was an indicator for us that there was a need for quality treatment providers in Pottstown.”
The company’s stated goal is to place prospective clients in distress with a therapist within 48 hours of their call for help. The Sanatoga location will help make that possible, added Business Development Manager Kenneth Kosza.
Photo from Google Images
Posted in Business, Health, Pottstown, Sanatoga
Posted on 20 December 2011. Tags: Lower Pottsgrove Police Department
Turkey Hill
SANATOGA PA – The Turkey Hill convenience store on East High Street at Rupert Road in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township was one of three retail locations robbed at knife-point Sunday (Dec. 18, 2011) at about 3:30 a.m., The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper reported Tuesday (Dec. 20). No one was injured in the township incident, during which Lower Pottsgrove police said the robber got away with less than $200.
Also robbed in Sunday’s early morning hours were stores in Limerick Township and Phoenixville Borough. Police consider them related, The Mercury reported, because all seem to involve the same individual or methods, occurred within close time and proximity of each other, and were near exits to U.S. Route 422. They also may be related to a recent robbery in Bally, according to police.
Police in several departments continue to investigate, and are cooperating in their cases. No suspects have been announced.
Posted in Business, Limerick, Lower Pottsgrove, Police, Safety, Sanatoga
Posted on 20 December 2011. Tags: Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, Lower Pottsgrove Police Department, Ofc. Matthew Meitzler, Police Chief Michael Shade
SANATOGA PA – A Lower Pottsgrove police officer, his labor bargaining unit, and the township Board of Commissioners have agreed on a settlement over a police department disciplinary action in dispute since July (2011).
The board, during its meeting Thursday (Dec. 15, 2011), approved a proposed settlement with Lower Pottsgrove Police Ofc. Matthew Meitzler, in which he accepted a two-shift suspension from duty related to a traffic accident involving a police vehicle he was driving. However, the officer’s salary docked for each shift will be divided between the 2011 and 2012 calendar years, commissioners said, rather than be withheld in a single year.
Meitzler has already served the suspension, commissioners noted. They authorized board President Jonathan Spadt to sign the agreement, following its awaited approval by Meitzler’s labor representatives.
The discipline was issued by Police Chief Michael Shade, with the board’s approving vote July 7, after a car Meitzler was driving earlier near Sunnybrook Ballroom, East High Street, Sanatoga, hit a light pole. Manager Rodney Hawthorne said the vehicle was at the time the department’s newest cruiser.
Meitzler’s objection to the original suspension of two 12-hour shifts was lodged in a grievance by the uniformed officers’ bargaining unit. That ultimately prompted the township to schedule a hearing on the matter before its Civil Service Commission, and require commissioners to plan for payment of two attorneys’ attendance: one a labor law specialist to represent Lower Pottsgrove, and a second to advise the Civil Service Commission itself.
The board also had to grant a special waiver dismissing a perceived conflict of interest with a third attorney, representing Meitzler, whose firm does unrelated work for the township Zoning Hearing Board.
The Dec. 14 hearing, advertised as a legal notice, was canceled in anticipation of the settlement. Spadt acknowledged the township incurred several costs in the case, the total of which was not estimated. “We had expenses, sure, but a hearing would have been even more expensive,” he said. The settlement had been discussed in executive session Thursday before the board meeting, Spadt reported.
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Posted in Business, Courts, Lower Pottsgrove, Police, Sanatoga
Posted on 20 December 2011. Tags: garbage, J.P. Mascaro and Sons, Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, trash collection, trash hauling
A Saturday mailing includes Lower Pottsgrove's trash collection calendar for next year
Mascaro's postcard
NORRISTOWN PA – Although little has changed in what, how, when or where garbage and recyclables are collected in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, under its new trash hauling contract with J.P. Mascaro and Sons of Audubon PA, the company paid to print and mail on Saturday (Dec. 17, 2011) glossy, full-color postcards to township residents that describe what it called “important information” about its services.
What may be most important to property owners, according to township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, is that they’ll pay less for collection during 2012. The deal with Mascaro reduces annual collection costs next year by $17, compared to 2011.
The contract renewal – Mascaro did the work for the past five years as well – is not mentioned in the postcard. It does, however, supply a full-year calendar (above) of pick-up days (all Mondays, with three holiday exceptions) and yard waste collections (highlighted by an orange-colored leaf).
It also addresses when items may and may not be placed at the curb, how to contact Mascaro for bulk item pick-ups, and how its single-stream recycling program operates. Much of the same information is found on the township website, here. The mailed piece in its entirety also can be found at the website, here.
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Posted in Business, Health, Lower Pottsgrove, Safety, Sanatoga
Posted on 20 December 2011. Tags: Lower Pottsgrove Police Department
SANATOGA PA – Two arrests for alleged retail theft, and a third on charges of alleged intoxication, were made in separate incidents Sunday (Dec. 18, 2011) and Monday (Dec. 19) in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, officers in its police department reported.
- Ofc. Robert Greenwood said he arrested David Q. Blume-Reed Jr., 31, of Village Lane, Sanatoga, on Monday night, who was issued a citation for summary retail theft and released. Security employees at the Sanatoga Thriftway, 2190 E. High St., alleged Blume-Reed removed a cake from a display case there and attempted to leave without paying for it, after earlier buying a bag of groceries at the same store.
- Charged Sunday with retail theft was James Schaaf, 53, of Mount Vernon Street, Pottstown PA. Ofc. Scott Weidenhammer reported he arrested Schaaf after Thriftway security employees alleged he had removed unspecified goods there without paying for them. He was later released.
- Issued citations Sunday for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct was Victor A. Cemini, 48, of North Coventry PA. Sgt. Timothy Walters reported he arrested Cemini after witnesses claimed he “was seen staggering around the parking lot” of the Redner’s Warehouse Market, 1300 N. Charlotte St., Pottstown. Cemini told police he had been trying to locate his girlfriend’s car. Walters alleged Cemini was “highly intoxicated” and “belligerent with officers,” and added he was later housed for several hours at the Pottstown Police Department before being released.
Posted in Lower Pottsgrove, Police, Pottstown, Sanatoga
