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

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.”

Safer motorcycle riding is on the minds of volunteers at the Ringing Hill Fire Company

POTTSTOWN PA – Volunteers from Lower Pottsgrove’s Ringing Hill Fire Company teach children what to do when a fire alarm sounds. They teach fellow members about how to be better firefighters and emergency responders. Now the company is looking to use its property for yet another teaching role: motorcycle safety.

Ringing Hill has asked the township Zoning Hearing Board to grant a special usage exception in the R-1 residential zone where its fire hall located – 815 White Pine Ln., Pottstown PA – “to teach a Pennsylvania-approved motorcycle safety program,” according to an advertisement published Friday (Feb. 3, 2012) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, Lower Pottsgrove’s publication of record for legal notices.

The board is scheduled to meet Feb. 21 (2012; Tuesday) beginning at 6 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga PA. The hearing is open to the public.

If its exception is granted, Ringing Hill would be the only approved provider of motorcycle safety programming within a 10-mile radius of Pottstown, according to the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Program. Others closest to the greater Pottstown area are in Phoenixville, Wayne, Emmaus, Leesport and Cheyney, the last being 23 miles away.

The program is supervised by the California-based Motorcycle Safety Foundation and the state Department of Transportation.

The foundation’s Pennsylvania website explained the program “was established to teach riders of all skill levels the basic fundamentals needed in order to safely operate a motorcycle. The MSP was created from legislation in 1984 and began one year later. The Motorcycle Safety Program is free to all Pennsylvania license holders.”

Its 15-hour basic rider course “is designed to prepare (motorcycle operators) for entry into the complex world of traffic,” the website said. A second, more advanced 6-hour course “was developed to address the skills needed for low risk, enjoyable on-street motorcycling,” it added. A third and newest course is similar to the basic session, but is specifically geared toward increasingly popular three-wheeled ‘cycles.

A set of courses to be taught at Ringing Hill, where there is plenty of isolated parking lot space for such activity, is classified as an “educational purpose” for the hearing board’s consideration.

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 "Firefighter" is being offered for sale this month on Municibid, the municipal auction website operated by former Sanatoga resident Greg Berry

POTTSTOWN PA – It’s common for governments across the country to offer vehicles like used police cars, dump trucks and even a limousine or two for sale on Municibid, the auction bidding website for municipalities operated from Pottstown by former Sanatoga resident Greg Berry. But one item available this month, even Berry concedes, is a whole ‘nother form of transportation.

The city of Boston MA, he said Tuesday (Jan. 17, 2012), is using Municibid to auction off “the Firefighter, a 72-foot, 1,050-horsepower fireboat that has patrolled the waters of Boston Harbor since 1972.” Berry reported that the Boston Fire Department decommissioned the 40-year-old fireboat and replaced it with a more modern vessel last September.

“We got a brand-new fireboat and had a formal dedication,” fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald told Berry for this month’s Municibid newsletter. “The boat we had served the city since 1972, so the question was how to dispose of it.”

The answer, Berry happily adds, is his company, headquartered at 1029 N. Washington St., Pottstown PA. A recent Boston Magazine article about the boat described Municibid as “like an eBay for surplus government equipment, except that it doesn’t charge a seller fee.” Municibid makes its money by collecting a fee – 5 percent of the final sale price – from winning bidders.

The 125-ton Firefighter “has the potential to be converted to a specialized work boat or yacht,” according to an assessment by marine surveyor Joseph W. Lombardi. The auction continues through Jan. 30 (Monday) until 1 p.m.; see it online here, along with 20 different photos of the boat. Bidding starts at $10,000.

Boston Magazine reporter Courtney Hollands offers this caution, though: “You may want to check with your local marina about slip availability before throwing your (captain’s) hat in the ring.”

Berry is a former member of Pottstown borough council, and once lived with his family on North Sanatoga Road in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township. Municibid has grown over several years from a primarily Pennsylvania enterprise to one with thousands of participating municipal and other government agencies nationwide.

Photo from Municibid

SANATOGA PA – A 34-year-old Norristown PA woman was arraigned via video Monday (Jan. 2, 2012) on multiple charges, according to Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township police, after she was alleged to have caused a one-vehicle accident Sunday (Jan. 1) on the westbound lanes of U.S. Route 422 at mile-marker 176.1.

Lower Pottsgrove's Police Department.

The crash occurred at about 2:45 p.m. Sunday, Ofc. James Kenney reported, and during their investigation Kenney said police “determined the accident was the result of a domestic (dispute) in progress inside the vehicle at the time.”

Specifically, police allege passenger Anthony “intentionally grabbed the steering wheel from the driver,” 22-year-old Richard Bloundt of Pottstown, “causing the vehicle to veer off the highway and crash.” Neither Anthony or Bloundt were injured, Kenney said.

Anthony was arrested on charges of recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, public intoxication, and various traffic infractions, Kenney’s report explained. She was released on $10,000 unsecured bail following her arraignment, and is to be scheduled for a later preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Justice Edward Kropp Sr. in Sanatoga.

Bloundt was cited for driving under suspension, Kenney said.

POTTSTOWN PA – For those accustomed to driving on Pruss Hill Road in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, and who found themselves at a loss when the road was closed months ago because of its faulty bridge, their Christmas gift from the municipality arrived 11 days ahead of schedule.

Pruss Hill Road was re-opened to traffic Wednesday at 9 a.m., according to Lower Pottsgrove’s website.

Forget Santa. It was Manager Rodney Hawthorne, the township Highway Department, Traffic Planning and Design Inc. (TPD) of Sanatoga, and the Board of Commissioners who delivered the goods.

The road was closed in mid-September after TPD engineers determined the bridge was structurally unsound. Commissioners voted Oct. 24 to make limited repairs to it and restrict crossing traffic to only passenger cars using a single lane. The work was estimated to be finished in about a month; it took longer. That’s OK by resident P.J. McGill of Rivendell Lane.

“Yahoooooooo, it’s been reopened,” McGill exclaimed today in an e-mail to The Post. He’s been a harsh critic of township officials at times, but his note held only praise for Hawthorne, the road crew, and others involved. “Way to go!,” he said to the multitude.

Previously announced restrictions remain. “Be aware of the new traffic pattern,” the website warns.

Traffic movement is reduced to one lane, and cars attempting to cross the bridge from either direction should stop and ensure the lane is clear before moving forward. Vehicles using the bridge must weigh 5 tons or less; all others are banned. Most cars weigh less than the limit; most trucks, buses and other vehicles will exceed it and must use the existing detour route.

Other coverage:

• Pruss Hill Road bridge reopens to traffic (The Mercury)

Related (to Pruss Hill Road and its bridge):

• As Gift Just Before Christmas, Pruss Hill Road Re-Opens
• Pruss Hill Bridge Could Take Longer Than Expected
• Pruss Hill Bridge To Reopen, But As One-Lane Only
• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit
• Bridge Damage Closes Pruss Hill Road ‘Indefinitely’
• Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
• Bridge, Guardrail Study Proposed For Pruss Hill Road
• Stop Sign May Be Answer For Pruss Hill Road Crashes
• Pruss Hill Road Guardrail Now Repaired
• Use Caution Driving Pruss Hill Road
• Car Upended On Pruss Hill Road

SCRAWLED SIGNS OF PROGRESS – Engineers’ instructions, scrawled on dark asphalt in bright orange spray paint, were the only visible indications Sunday (Nov. 20, 2011) of progress in repairing and re-opening the still-closed Pruss Hill Road bridge in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township. The markings, seen (above) looking east down the road, and west (below), primarily highlight significant guard rail and concrete culvert damage at the sharp curve in the highway just west of the bridge itself. The road was closed in mid-September after engineers from Sanatoga-based Traffic Planning and Design Inc. determined the bridge was structurally unsound. The township Board of Commissioners voted Oct. 24 to make limited repairs to the bridge and restrict traffic crossing it to only passenger cars using a single lane. The work was estimated to take about a month, but now appears as if it be substantially longer.

Related (to Pruss Hill Road and its bridge):

• Pruss Hill Bridge Could Take Longer Than Expected
• Pruss Hill Bridge To Reopen, But As One-Lane Only
• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit
• Bridge Damage Closes Pruss Hill Road ‘Indefinitely’
• Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
• Bridge, Guardrail Study Proposed For Pruss Hill Road
• Stop Sign May Be Answer For Pruss Hill Road Crashes
• Pruss Hill Road Guardrail Now Repaired
• Use Caution Driving Pruss Hill Road
• Car Upended On Pruss Hill Road

EAGLEVILLE PA — To help meet transportation needs of low-to-moderate income individuals in western Montgomery County and across the region, Family Services has partnered with the Family Auto Group of Greater Philadelphia to offer loans for used car purchases or repairs, even to those with poor or limited credit histories.

Once all required documents are submitted, Family Services spokeswoman Karen Konnick said Friday (Nov. 11, 2011), participants can sign and take delivery of their car within a few days. The loan program, called “Keys to Success,” also offers family budget and car maintenance counseling that helps clients stay on track throughout the process she said.

Keys to Success not only provides vehicles and affordable financing options, but also gives clients service contracts and insurance products that make car repairs manageable and supplies peace of mind. “Individuals and families with limited resources will now have the means to achieve greater self-sufficiency through car ownership and reliable transportation,” added Family Services Director Mark Lieberman.

Family Services operates an office on East High Street in Sanatoga.

Persons interested in obtaining a Keys to Success loan should call Family Auto Group of Greater Philadelphia Manager Brian Somerman, 610-630-2111 Ext. 263, for an initial consultation. Qualified borrowers must:

• Be a resident of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Bucks, or Delaware counties;
• Have a valid driver’s license;
• Be insurable;
• Have a source of income; and
• Have a minimum down payment of $500.

When their credit application is completed, applicants will select a reliable used vehicle from the Family Auto Group’s inventory, as well as a service contract and insurance products that fit their needs and budget. A range of affordable financing options is available. All vehicles come with a 21-point mechanical inspection and a 90-day powertrain warranty.

Photo from Google Images

HARRISBURG PA — Motorists in Pennsylvania were sent a clear message Monday (Nov. 1, 2011) by the state General Assembly:  Stop texting while driving, or get a ticket and a $50 fine, The Pennsylvania Independent online news service said.

The state Senate passed Bill 314 that bans texting while driving. The final vote in the Senate was 45-5, following a vote Monday of 186-7 in the House. Kelli Roberts, deputy director of communications for Gov. Tom Corbett, said the governor “supports it and will sign it” into law.

Under the bill, texting while driving would be a primary offense, like speeding. That means a violator can be stopped by law enforcement solely for committing the offense. Those convicted of texting while driving would face a fine of $50.

Proponents of the measure say the ban will save lives. Opponents say the ban won’t help solve the problem of distracted driving.

• Read story by reporter Caleb Taylor, titled “Texting while driving ban passes House, Senate” and published Monday by The Independent, here.
• Watch a video documentary  (above) produced by cell phone service provider AT&T that warns against texting and driving, or see it at the YouTube user account of ShareATT.