The Sanatoga Post

NORRISTOWN PA – A Lower Pottsgrove man accused of abusing his 17-week-old baby boy, who suffered fractures to his skull, ribs, leg, forearms and shoulder, will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he’s competent to proceed to trial, The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper reported Wednesday (Feb. 22, 2012).

Jacob Govinda Zlomek, 25, most recently of the 3000 block of East High Street, will be examined by doctors at Montgomery County Emergency Services on Feb. 28, according to an order issued by county Judge Thomas C. Branca.

The judge said psychiatrists must “address the issue of whether or not the defendant is competent to participate in the legal proceedings presently pending against defendant and if said defendant is criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the offense and if said defendant is capable of criminal intent.”

• Read a story by reporter Carl Hessler, titled “Lower Pottsgrove alleged child abuser to get evaluation” and published Wednesday by The Mercury, here.

Editor’s Note: Jacob Zlomek is the son, and the infant cited is the grandson, of Post Managing Editor Joe Zlomek and his wife, Debbie. In an attempt to ensure objectivity and avoid a perception of conflicts of interest, Zlomek has decided against reporting or writing on this story himself. Instead The Post will refer readers, as it has above, to stories produced by other media outlets.

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

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.

Lower Pottsgrove leads the population change among Pottsgrove townships during the next 30 years, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission predicts

PHILADELPHIA PA – It took a decade, from the start of the century through 2010, for Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township to grow by 846 people. It may take 15 more years to add another 917, both according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. But watch out beginning in 2025!; the township may have a real growth spurt – 1,141 extra bodies – through 2040.

Those are predictions – or at least educated guesses – about what’s ahead for the township’s population over a 40-year span. They are based in part on U.S. Census data and researchers’ studies, and were released Thursday (Jan. 26, 2012) by the commission, the agency responsible for land use planning guidance in the nine-county greater Philadelphia area.

The 2010 Census in Lower Pottsgrove showed 11,213 people living within its borders, and by 2010 Census the population had grown to 12,059. By 2015, the commission believes, the township will be home to 12,157; by 2020, 12,434; 2025, 12,976; 2030, 13,517; 2035, 13,870; and by 2040, 14,177. That means 2,058, or 17.1 percent more people, will have moved in between 2010 and 2040.

The commission predicts that, due to the recession, DVRPC forecasts slower population growth in the near term, with an increasing rate of growth between 2020 and 2030.

Among Lower Pottsgrove’s municipal neighbors during the same period:

• Limerick could gain the most people, 5,442, and watch its population rise 30.1 percent.
• Upper Pottsgrove might anticipate an influx of 2,039 people, up 38.4 percent.
• Pottstown borough won’t grow by as much or as fast. The commission expects it to add 1,441 people (6.4 percent more) by 2040. And,
• West Pottsgrove may grow by only 844, or 8.9 percent over 30 years, the forecast said.

“Population forecasts are an essential component of long-range transportation and land use planning,” the agency noted in releasing its results. DVRPC last adopted population forecasts in July 2007 for the period through 2035.

The commission willingly admits its forecasts can go awry.

For example, five years ago it predicted the city of Philadelphia would lose almost 42,000 residents between 2000 and 2010, before seeing its population stabilize after 2030. Instead, the 2010 Census revealed a gain of almost 9,000 city residents. “This positive trend is forecast to continue,” the commission now says, “as young adults continue to be attracted to the urban lifestyle and Philadelphia’s Asian and Latino populations continue to increase.”

Composite map created by The Post from DVRPC data

The Ches-Mont Jubilaires, as they performed last year at Camp Hill PA

SANATOGA PA – “Grandpa’s Attic,” a show that features the barbershop harmonies of several a’capella groups, will be held March 24 (2012; Saturday) beginning at 2 p.m. in the Berean Bible Church, 2675 E. High St., Sanatoga PA, organizer Syl Buszta announced.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

The program features the “Top Shelf” Quartet and Ches-Mont Jubilaires Chorus, as well as the Time Frame, Vocal Ease, Off Broadway, Downtown Sound, and Sound Generation quartets. An abundance of parking is available, as is parking for the handicapped.

Tickets cost $10 for adults, and $5 for students. They can be purchased at the door, or in advance from Buszta, who also is secretary of the Jubilaires Chorus, by calling 610-323-9068.

NORRISTOWN PA – A Pottstown man will be under court supervision for four years for his involvement in an underage drinking party in a Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township hotel room, The (Norristown PA) Times Herald newspaper reported Sunday (Jan. 22, 2012).

Aaron Marcus Andrews, 19, of the 400 block of King Street, Pottstown PA, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to four years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of corruption of a minor, specifically a 14-year-old girl, in connection with a 2011 (May 14) incident at the Days Inn on Industrial Highway within the township, the newspaper reported.

Other charges of furnishing alcohol to a minor and conspiracy were dismissed against Andrews as part of a plea agreement accepted by Senior Judge S. Gerald Corso, it added.

• Read a story by reporter Carl Hessler, titled “Lower Pottsgrove underage drinking party lands Pottstown man in trouble” and published Sunday by The Times Herald, here.

Friendly's, 203 Shoemaker Rd., Pottstown PA

SANATOGA PA – Staff members at Meals On Wheels in Sanatoga hope you’ll hop into your own wheels Feb. 13 (2012; Monday) and cruise over to the west side of Pottstown for a meal that will give the program some financial assistance.

Friendly’s Restaurant, at the corner of Route 100 and Shoemaker Road, will hold a fund-raiser that day from 5-8 p.m. to benefit Family Services of Montgomery County and, specifically, its effort to bring two meals daily to shut-ins and elderly in the greater Pottstown area. Friendly’s is donating 10 percent of its proceeds during the period, for both dine-in and take-out items, to Meals On Wheels.

• This event has been added to The Post calendar.

Ruth Hood, director of the meals program located at 1976 E. High St., claimed it 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, according to Hood, Family Services provides two meals – a hot lunch and a cold supper to refrigerate – to an average of 175 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.

“Thanks to the community’s ongoing support of our fund-raising efforts, we are able to serve (those) who turn to our program for assistance,” Hood said.

Photo from Yahoo Images

SANATOGA PA – The more the merrier or, maybe more aptly, the more the safer.

Lower Frederick's municipal building

A formal request from Lower Frederick (PA) Township to join the Ches-Mont Emergency Response Team (CMERT), a special weapons and tactics law enforcement group developed to handle high-risk situations in Montgomery and Chester counties, was approved Thursday (Jan. 19, 2012) by the Lower Pottsgrove Township Board of Commissioners.

Board members acknowledged their vote was merely a technicality and said they welcomed the participation of Lower Frederick’s government, headquartered in Zieglerville on Route 73, nine miles northeast of Sanatoga.

CMERT consists of specially trained police and emergency response personnel from Pottstown, Collegeville, Upper Providence; the Lower, West, and Upper Pottsgroves; Douglass, New Hanover, Limerick, North Coventry and Colebrookdale townships. The team of more than 20 individuals is commanded by Pottstown Police Chief Mark Flanders.

All municipalities already involved, and Flanders too, recommended Lower Frederick’s inclusion, commissioners’ President Jonathan Spadt said. The organization’s by-laws demanded the formality of township approval, he added.

All participating governments make a contribution to CMERT’s operations. Members of Lower Pottsgrove’s police department are among the CMERT elite.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Jan. 19 meeing):

• Commissioners Welcome Lower Frederick To CMERT
• Jump Start: Township Wants Early Police Contract Talks

Photo from Lower Frederick Township

SANATOGA PA – It’s tax time … again … and with it comes the annual call for volunteers to join Family Services of Montgomery County (PA) and the Internal Revenue Service in providing free income tax preparation assistance from the Family Services office at 1976 E. High St., Sanatoga.

The help is need for the agency’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. VITA-trained volunteers assist low- to middle-income individuals and families in the preparation and electronic filing of simple income tax forms.

There are many ways to help at VITA, said Kathy Cael, the program’s site coordinator. They “can complete and file tax forms, greet clients, organize paperwork, and assist with other administrative tasks,” she said.

Volunteer tax preparers receive free instruction and training to become certified IRS tax preparers. Volunteer greeters, who should be friendly and customer service-oriented, welcome clients and assist Cael with administrative tasks.

No experience is necessary. All volunteers must be age 18 or older, computer literate, and able to commit to one 4-hour volunteer shift per week for the 13-week tax season. Early afternoon, evening and weekend volunteer shifts are available at two VITA sites in greater Pottstown. For more information, call Cael at 610-326-1610, Ext. 222.

Photo from Squidoo.com