The Sanatoga Post

SANATOGA PA – Natural disasters hit Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township pretty hard during 2011. Heavy rains turned Sanatoga Creek, Sprogel’s Run, and the Schuylkill River into raging torrents. Much of what was in the water’s path was flooded and damaged. Properties here weren’t the only ones hit, of course: hurricanes soaked other parts of the Atlantic coast, tornadoes wreaked havoc in Southern and Midwestern states, and wildfires hit Texas

Traffic cones warn drivers away from flooded North Sanatoga Road last September

If you were affected by a natural disaster last year, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants thinks you should be aware of Internal Revenue Service rules on casualty losses, as well as other financial considerations.

What Qualifies for a Deduction?

Under IRS rules, you are allowed to deduct a casualty loss that is the result of a disaster, but related rules serve to significantly whittle down the amount you can deduct.

First, consider what is eligible for the deduction. A casualty loss is the damage, destruction, or loss of property resulting from an identifiable event that is unexpected, sudden, or unusual. Damages from natural disasters – hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and earthquakes, for examples – are casualty losses. Damage to your home or other property caused by something that is not unexpected, sudden, or unusual, such as accidental breakage of items under normal conditions, progressive deterioration occurring naturally over time or due to the failure to maintain the property, does not qualify as a casualty loss.

If you suffered a casualty loss to your home, household goods, or vehicle due to a disaster, you should be eligible to deduct the amount of that loss on your tax return, less required adjustments. (The same is true if you suffer a loss due to a theft.)

How Does the Deduction Work?

According to the IRS, “If your property is personal-use property, or is not completely destroyed, the amount of your casualty or theft loss is the lesser of: The adjusted basis of your property, or the decrease in the fair market value (FMV) as a result of the casualty or theft.”

To determine your adjusted basis, start with the basis of the property. Your basis in the property is usually how much it cost you. Increase or decrease the property’s basis to reflect any improvements made to the property or depreciation deductions you have taken for the property.

The decrease in the FMV used to determine the casualty loss is the difference between the FMV of the property immediately before the casualty and the FMV of the property immediately after the casualty. The FMV immediately after the casualty frequently is the salvage value of the property. From the lesser of the adjusted basis of the property or the difference in its FMV, subtract any insurance payment or other reimbursement (such as compensation for the loss from a government or employer relief program). This is your casualty loss.

For example, say flooding heavily damaged a finished basement during a recent hurricane. Several items were destroyed by water damage—a washer and dryer, hot water heater, furnace, some furnishing, the basement walls. The basis in these items—what originally was spent on them—amounts to $10,000. The fair market value of these items was $9,500 before the disaster and $500 after, making the decrease in the FMV $9,000. Because the decrease in the FMV of the items is less than the adjusted basis in them, you must use the decrease in the FMV in your loss calculation. Your insurance covers you for a maximum of $5,000 in damages, leaving you with a $4,000 casualty loss.

Final Steps in the Calculation of the Deduction

Before deducting personal property casualty loss on your tax return, there are some last steps you must take. First, you must subtract $100 from every casualty or theft loss you report each year. That lowers the example amount to $3,900.

More significant, you must subtract 10 percent of your adjusted gross income from the loss amount to arrive at your final deduction. If your adjusted gross income was, $30,000 last year, you would subtract $3,000—10 percent—from your loss amount to arrive at $900 as your allowable deduction. If your adjusted gross income in the example was $39,000 or higher, that 10 percent would wipe out your allowable deduction altogether.

Other Sources of Help

For those seeking additional relief, it’s important to be aware that organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) often provide funds and services to those affected by disaster. The agency’s guide, “Help After a Disaster,” offers an overview of what’s available. In addition, “Disaster Recovery: A Guide to Financial Issues” – a joint project of the American Institute of CPAs, the American Red Cross, and the National Endowment for Financial Education – answers questions on how to minimize the consequences in the first days, weeks and months after a disaster.

Contact A Certified Public Accountant

If you have experienced casualty losses due to a disaster, or if you have questions on preparing for or dealing with any financial issue, consult a local CPA. He or she can provide advice to help address a range of financial concerns.

The assembled 2011 Pottsgrove High School Marching Band

POTTSTOWN PA – March on, Pottsgrove High School band members; march on. The district Board of School Directors said Tuesday (Feb. 14, 2012) it’s willing to put an additional $21,000 worth of pep into your step.

Directors voted to use a portion of about $60,000 raised in the district’s local merchant marketing campaign to pay in advance for marching band uniforms and percussion equipment. That allows the high school music department to place orders for those items before the end of March, ensuring their delivery for the 2012-2013 fall band season. Otherwise, it might not have gotten them until the season was almost over.

Band members, parents, and department heads applauded after the board decision.

Music education in Pottsgrove is happily suffering from a success problem, teachers Kathy Williams and Victor Holladay told the Board of School Directors last October (2011). Dozens of Pottsgrove Middle School students headed for the high school next year have already indicated they intend to join the band. Dozens more are ready to follow them from the elementary school music program in later years.

“The numbers are drastically improving,” Holladay said with a smile. “The band will more than double its size next year.”

Its fast growth, and its invitations to play later this spring in locations like Washington DC, have caused an immediate demand for percussion instruments valued at about $12,400 and 25 new band uniforms that will cost about $9,050, he explained Tuesday.

The department has already added those items to its 2012-2013 budget request. Problem is, Business Administrator David Nester noted, Holladay can’t spend what the board hasn’t yet approved … and potential acceptance of any budget remains months away. If the order is delayed, band members wouldn’t have their needs met until November or December.

Board President Michael Neiffer, who is a band volunteer and whose children are band members, notably abstained from voting. He announced his conflict of interest at the start of the discussion, but nonetheless advocated board approval of the advance purchase. “We don’t want to nickle-and-dime this,” he said specifically of the uniforms.

The money will be taken from revenue raised under the district’s partnership with the MarketStreet Sports Group of Lancaster PA. MarketStreet make a business of attracting local, regional and national companies to school districts primarily for advertising and promotional purposes. In Pottsgrove, it has signed the TriCounty Area Federal Credit Union, Mishock Physical Therapy and Associates, and Hallman Retirement Neighborhoods as clients.

The $60,000 fund was initially planned to be used for improvements and renovations to the high school girls’ softball field, Nester said. Enough money may be left to do that work too, he said.

Related:

• March On! Pottsgrove OKs Buying Instruments, Uniforms
• Successful Pottsgrove Music Programs On A (Drum) Roll

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

• March On! Pottsgrove OKs Buying Instruments, Uniforms
• Pottsgrove Multi-Tasks Through MCIU Budget Approval
• State Suspends $3.2M In Ringing Rocks’ Reimbursement

POTTSTOWN PA – Research on, and the corresponding public discussion about, how to propel the economy in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, the borough of Pottstown, and surrounding municipalities forward in years to come – without sacrificing the welfare of one community for another – appears to be ahead of schedule and speeding toward a conclusion in April.

A Maryland-based economic and planning consulting firm, TischlerBise, is nearing completion of its market assessment and fiscal impact study for the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee, of which Lower Pottsgrove is a part, township Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott reported Monday (Feb. 6) to the Board of Commissioners.

The study, begun last June (201) is intended to determine how townships can encourage growth and development without competing against the borough. Elliott told commissioners it was ahead of schedule, and the committee was considering a possible April 3 release of its findings.

Other committee members are Douglass, East Coventry, New Hanover, North Coventry, Upper Pottsgrove, and West Pottsgrove (PA) townships, and Pottstown.

Back in September, TischlerBise asked for public comments and input during a meeting at Pottstown High School on helping to grow local commerce. Its representatives said then they got a helpful earful.

Earlier last year it also surveyed local consumers and business owners for their thoughts. Those conversations focused specifically on what merchants thought they needed to grow, and were aided in part by survey forms distributed by the Tri-County Area Chamber of Commerce to its membership.

The study team also visited each of the member municipalities to learn about their opportunities for business assistance and expansion.

Related:

• Local Market Study For Township, Others Ready By April
• Sept. 8 Public’s Chance To Guide Economic Discussion
• What’s Your Take On Growing The Local Economy?
• Survey Now Looks For Local Business Owners’ Opinions
• Wanted: Your Opinions On Where And Why You Shop
• Study To See If Townships, Borough Can All Prosper

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 6 meeting):

• Local Market Study For Township, Others Ready By April
• Buckle Up, Teens, Or Face Lower Pottsgrove’s Police
• Speed Limit, Stop Signs Topics Of Park Road Hearings
• Talk About Really Dirty Crime: Township Trash Thefts
• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit

Photo from Google Images

On its way to the Cluster, thanks to Wegman's

POTTSTOWN PA – Wegman’s Food Markets, which operates a store in Collegeville and will soon open one in King of Prussia, is making a contribution this morning (Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012) that is likely to help hundreds of hungry families who rely on the free food pantry at the outreach center of the Pottstown Cluster of Religious Communities, 57 N. Franklin St.

A Wegman’s driver is scheduled to pilot a 50-foot-long tractor trailer filled with the supermarket chain’s donated food into the outreach center’s receiving docks at 10 a.m., according to the Cluster.

Philabundance, a non-profit organization that distributes food to pantries for the needy across the greater Philadelphia area, is experiencing a temporary shortage which would have threatened this month’s Cluster delivery. Wegman’s, which is represented on the Cluster board, volunteered to step in and fill the gap.

It’s not the first time, either. Back in September 2009, only three weeks before the chain opened its Collegeville store, it dropped 17,000 pounds of food at the Cluster’s doors. That load included 20 pallets of canned goods, cereals, snacks, assorted beverages, condiments and baking mixes and ingredients.

At a time when local families’ needs are increasing and available resources are declining, said Cluster Executive Director Barbara Wilhelmy, both donations and the personal assistance of volunteers are greatly appreciated. Although financial support is always welcomed, donors can also deliver supplies to the outreach center themselves. Its most current (Jan. 13) wish list of needs for the food pantry and elsewhere can be found here.

Several Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township residents and ministers serve on the Cluster board or as spiritual advisers.

Photo from GoogleImages

LIMERICK PA – Exelon Nuclear, which is credited for its financial support of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s summer concert series, on Tuesday (Feb. 7, 2012) delivered a $150,000 donation to its host municipality, neighboring Limerick Township, to pay for programs and facilities of the Limerick and Linfield Fire companies, its police department, and local parks and recreation.

The check, presented to the Board of Supervisors by Limerick Generating Station (LGS) Site Vice President Bill Maguire, represented the fourth installment of a $600,000 Exelon contribution to the township during the past four years.

“Our goal at (LGS) is to be both a leader in our community and in the nuclear industry,” Maguire said. “Exelon employees have been, and will continue to be, deeply involved in the community, and this contribution demonstrates our ongoing commitment to Limerick … and the region.”

Municipal officials welcomed Exelon’s gift. LGS, supervisors’ chairman Kara Shuler said, “is a valuable member of our community and we look forward to having them here for many years.”

Exelon is currently in the process of renewing its nuclear Units 1 and 2 operating licenses for another 20 years. The station is located at 3146 Sanatoga Rd. in Limerick, just east of the Lower Pottsgrove-Limerick townships’ line.

Exelon spokeswoman Dana Melia noted the company also contributes more than $400,000 each year to regional charities and community organizations.

Photo by Sean Bonner via YFrog

This split image from Google Maps shows the Rupert Road bridge from a driver's perspective, above, and its mapped location below

SANATOGA PA – Attorneys working on behalf of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township said Monday (Feb. 6, 2012) they’re hopeful good things may soon happen in finding cash to fix the crumbling Rupert Road bridge on the municipality’s east side. As evidence of their confidence, the Board of Commissioners was asked to consider scheduling a special meeting on the topic next week.

Commissioners unanimously agreed. A date has yet to be set, pending Manager Rodney Hawthorne’s check of other calendar items. The Post will report the meeting date when it is announced.

The bridge carries Rupert Road across Hartenstine Creek, and is deemed to be one of six structurally deficient bridges in Lower Pottsgrove. During weekdays it bears a heavy load of traffic moving mornings from the township’s northwest end to the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, and back in evening hours.

It’s been on the township’s to-fix list for years, with $375,000 or more for the job intended to have come from developers responsible for building the housing community surrounding Raven’s Claw Golf Club on the road’s east side. The money, according to Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway, sits earmarked for the purpose but untapped in a Wilmington DE bank.

Commissioners last April (2011) directed Holloway and their special counsel, the Furey & Baldassari P.C. law firm in Audubon, to file a lawsuit in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas against developer DHLP LLC. It bought the community from an earlier developer, and consequently assumed liability to pay for the bridge’s repair or replacement, Holloway said.

The township and DHLP had been negotiating over the total sum involved for some time. Those talks broke off earlier last year, and then resumed when the lawsuit was ordered. Now, Holloway explained, they seem to be headed toward a conclusion. “There’s movement,” the solicitor cautiously announced Monday, “and it’s my recommendation we try not to lose it if we can.”

Because the board won’t meet again until Feb. 23, Holloway advocated the special meeting. It will be open to the public, but likely will be preceded by a closed-door executive session during which commissioners would learn the details of any agreement and be able to ask questions regarding it. Such private talks regarding litigation are allowed by state law.

Related:

• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit
• Rupert Road Bridge Repair Funds ‘Wait’ In DE Bank
• Township Plans $375,000+ Suit To Fix Rupert Bridge
• Report: Six Bridges In Township ‘Structurally Deficient’

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 6 meeting):

• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit

Images from Google Maps

WITH LOVE, FROM SIS – Nine-year-old Coral Feldman prepared Sunday (Feb. 5, 2012) to have her hair trimmed by Great Clips salon store manager Beth Maggiotto (above) during a fund-raising conducted on behalf of her younger sister, Victoria, age 5. Victoria was diagnosed last October with a malignant brain tumor, and recently underwent surgery, radiation treatments and several forms of therapy to battle the disease. The staff at Great Clips, which opened a few months ago in the Pottstown Plaza on Shoemaker Road, near Wal-Mart, held a “cut-a-thon” fund-raiser to offset the family’s medical expenses. The store’s stylists donated all their tips, and customers were generous; a huge goblet atop the store’s front counter was filled with bills of all denominations. Outside meanwhile (below), mother Renee Feldman braved chilly weather with friends and family members to hold an accompanying bake sale.

Other coverage:

• Cut-A-Thon For Victoria Today (Pottstown Patch)
• See another photo from the event, here.

POTTSTOWN PA – Pottstown community radio station WBZH 1370-AM, promoting itself as “The Buzz,” plans later this week to announce what it called “the launch of a major campaign … designed to assist revitalization efforts throughout the Tri-County (Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties) area,” it said in an e-mail Sunday (Feb. 5, 2012).

Details of the campaign are to be revealed during a press conference Tuesday (Feb. 7) at 5 p.m. at the station’s broadcasting studios and offices at 224 Maugers Mill Rd. Pottstown PA, according to Programming Director Dave Devlin.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

WBZH is the reincarnation of former long-time radio station WPAZ-AM, which served Pottstown since 1952 but was closed and taken off the air in December 2009 by Great Scott Broadcasting and the remaining members of its founding Scott family. Delaware-based Great Scott sold the station to Four Rivers Broadcasting, and it re-opened in January 2011 with community-oriented programming, much of it created by volunteers.

“We are a partner in the revitalization of Pottstown and the growth of the surrounding area, providing a voice for the citizens and organizations in our area,” the station website said.

The station has expanded upon local interviews and high school sports broadcasts that seemed to make WPAZ such a listening staple, and also added programs with a wide variety of musical styles. last month it also launched a community calendar to collect dates and times of area events and happenings, and most recently issued a call to broadcast local musicians and bands.

Photo from Google Images

Sen. John Rafferty, center, gives his “Thumbs Up!” to a Reading Site Contractors pavers, joined by volunteers David Shafer of Royersford PA, left, and Jim Rivers of Mattiola Services

POTTSTOWN PA – It pays to know people, state Sen. John Rafferty recognizes, and sometimes tapping the right people pays off in unexpected and delightful ways.

Take, for example, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard armory in Spring City PA. Rafferty’s been there dozens of times, usually in the capacity of welcoming home troops returning from overseas deployments. During his visits there late last year, the senator said he was disappointed to find the driveway into Guard headquarters “was crumbling and full of potholes.” The Guard lacked the money to fix it; the state couldn’t afford it either.

So Rafferty called on people he knew – the corporate leaders of The H&K Group contractors, whose quarrying operations extend across Sanatoga and Pottstown – and asked them for help.

Voila! New driveway.

“When Sen. Rafferty reached out to us … we immediately jumped at the opportunity to not only give back to the community, but also to the brave men and women who serve our country,” H&K President and CEO Scott Haines said recently.

H&K donated all the materials and equipment needed to make the repairs. In addition, 15 employees of Mattiola Services LLC and Reading Site Contractors of Pottstown, two H&K divisions, rallied to the cause and volunteered their professional services. Within hours of meeting Rafferty and armory Chief Warrant Officer Michael Murphy at the site a few weeks ago, about 70 tons of new asphalt had been delivered, placed and rolled, “leaving the driveway in a condition worthy of a war hero,” Haines reported.

“The end result is a repaired driveway that will greatly benefit the Guard,” Rafferty agreed, at no cost to the Guard or taxpayers.

Haines praised those who gave of their time to make the job move quickly.

From Mattiola Services, Mike Arrivello provided saw cutting and Travis Zimmerman operated the milling machine. Reading Site Contractors employees Bryan Mclain, Wayne Archer, Chad Davis, Michael Hillegas, Jason Stauffer, and Jistino Villalva made up the paving crew. Terry Gennaria, Dave Leister and Jason Tokonitz hauled paving materials. Tony Alexander was the broom truck driver. Ray Cushman and Gary Halteman mobilized and demobilized the equipment, and Uriah Lessig mixed the asphalt at the H&K Group’s Sanatoga asphalt plant.

“I am so proud that a local company and its workers pitched in to get this project done,” Rafferty noted. “This is an example of neighbors helping neighbors, and a great way to honor our troops.”

POTTSTOWN PA – A knowledgeable team of would-be attorneys fielded by Pottsgrove High School won both of its opening contests Tuesday (Jan. 31, 2012) during the district-level first installment of the 2012 High School Mock Trials Competition sponsored by The Montgomery Bar Association Young Lawyers Section, the Bar website reported.

The Falcons’ legal squad scored 99.40 against one of two teams from LaSalle College High School (its score was 96.00) in Tuesday’s first round at 3:30 p.m. in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown PA; and then fared even better, 101.00, against a Souderton High School team (93.60) in the 5:15 p.m. second round.

Pottsgrove’s is one of 32 teams from Montgomery County high schools vying for the district crown in Pennsylvania’s mock trial program. Now in its 28th year, Pennsylvania’s statewide Mock Trial Competition includes more than 280 high schools from across the Commonwealth, making it one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation.

During the competition, each eight-member student team has the opportunity to argue both sides of a previously provided case in an actual courtroom before an actual sitting judge from Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas.  The students, who play the roles of lawyers, witnesses, plaintiffs and defendants, prepare with the help of teacher-coaches and lawyer advisers.

This year’s case is a civil action in which the plaintiff seeks an injunction to prevent the owner of a pharmaceutical plant from expanding its operations. The plaintiff argues that an endangered species is alleged to have been found on the land where the expansion is to occur.

Future mock trials in the competitive series are scheduled for Feb. 13 (Monday) and Feb. 15 (Wednesday). District semi-finals are scheduled for Feb. 21 (Tuesday), and the district finals for March 13 (Tuesday).

Lawyers, law office staff and community leaders serve as jurors for the mock trials. The juries determine the winners in each trial based on the teams’ abilities to prepare their cases, present arguments and follow court rules. Young Lawyers’ Section Chairman Seth Wilson said that more than 100 county judges, teachers and lawyers are volunteering time to the mock trials this year.

Once the local contests conclude – and Pottsgrove has done well in them during past years – the winning finalist team will join 11 other high school mock trial teams from across Pennsylvania in advancing to the Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide Mock Trial Championships, March 30 and 31, in Harrisburg.  The winning team of the state championship will represent Pennsylvania in the national mock trial finals to be held during late spring in New Mexico.