The Sanatoga Post

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.

NEW CROP OF SMALL SIGNS – With less than a month to until the May 17 local primary elections, an expected crop of campaign signs touting various candidates have begun showing up on street corners and elsewhere in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township. These were found at Sanatoga village center, the southwest corner of East High Street and Pleasant View Road. Other popular placements currently seem to be the north side of East High Street near the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422, and the small island of greenery at the corner of East High and Wilson Street in the Borough of Pottstown, across the street from Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and about a quarter-mile west of the township line.

POTTSTOWN PA – At least five Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township residents filed petitions by Tuesday’s (March 8, 2011) 4:30 p.m. deadline to identify themselves as candidates in the May primary election for three available terms on the Board of Commissioners, sources reported Wednesday (March 9).

Among those who were said to have submitted completed petitions and accompanying paperwork, listed in alphabetical order by last name, were:

• Bruce Foltz of Sunnyslope Drive, an incumbent and the board vice president;
• Philip Keogh of Rivendell Lane, who currently serves as an elected member of the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors;
• Stephen Klotz of New Kepler Road, a former commissioner;
• James Phillips of Kepler Road, an incumbent; and
• Jonathan Spadt of Bleim Road, an incumbent and the board president.

The Montgomery County Board of Elections office in Norristown PA will not officially confirm the candidacies until its final list of petitioners is prepared and posted, a board employee said Wednesday (March 9).

For that reason, the above  list should not be considered final. One source said a sixth candidate had been anticipated, but the status of that individual’s filing could not be determined Wednesday. Also, the Board of Elections retains the ability to reject a petition already submitted for a variety of reasons, listed here; and the validity of filed petitions also can be challenged by others in court through March 15.

Related (to the 2011 elections):

• Candidates File For Township Board Primary Election
• Primary Election Filing Deadline Arrives; Drama Ahead
• Petitions Open Now For Lower Pottsgrove, District Seats

Petitions must be filed today

SANATOGA PA – There’s a certain amount of political drama in the local air today (Tuesday, March 8, 2011), because it marks the deadline for persons interested in running for public office to file their petitions for candidacy in the May 17 primary elections.

Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township sources indicate as many as five contenders are expected to compete for three 4-year terms on the township Board of Commissioners.

Commissioners’ seats up for election are those currently held by Jonathan Spadt, Bruce Foltz, and James Phillips; all have indicated they will run again. The drama lies in who might challenge the incumbents. Of two others known to have expressed an interest in the positions, one is a former commissioner; the other, a former police officer.

All are anticipated to run as Republicans. The full board consists of five commissioners.

Additionally, five 4-year terms on the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors are up for election. The incumbents are Jodi Adams, Patricia Grimm, Frederick Remelius, David Falkner, and April Kontostathis. The total board consists of nine directors.

Grimm and Falkner, appointed to replace directors who resigned for personal reasons, are expected to seek election to their first full terms. Drama in the school board ranks might arise if Adams, Remelius or Kontostathis decide not to seek re-election. At least one other individual was said to be considering a challenge for a seat, and there may be more.

Neither township or school officials need wait long to know who intends to run. Although filing petitions must be delivered to the Montgomery County Board of Elections in Norristown, the candidates’ ethics and personal disclosures statements are simultaneously filed with the municipal building and district offices by the close of business today.

Related (to the 2011 elections):

• Primary Election Filing Deadline Arrives; Drama Ahead
• Petitions Open Now For Lower Pottsgrove, District Seats

Photo from Clipart.com

NORRISTOWN PA – Petitions were allowed to begin circulating Tuesday (Feb. 15, 2011) for persons interested in running for public office in primary elections in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township and the Pottsgrove School District, according to the Montgomery County Board of Elections. Completed petitions for candidacy must be filed with the board by no later than March 8 (Tuesday).

The primary election is scheduled for May 17 (Tuesday).

Three 4-year terms on the Board of Commissioners are up for election in Lower Pottsgrove. The incumbents are Jonathan Spadt, Bruce Foltz, and James Phillips. The total board consist of five commissioners.

Five 4-year terms on the Board of School Directors are up for election in the Pottsgrove district. The incumbents are Jodi Adams, Patricia Grimm, Frederick Remelius, David Falkner, and April Kontostathis. The total board consists of nine directors.

For more information, call the county’s office of Voter Services in Norristown at 610-278-3280; it’s open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Related (to the 2011 elections):

• Petitions Open Now For Lower Pottsgrove, District Seats