The Sanatoga Post

by Amanda Michel of ProPublica and the ProPublica Reporting Network Initially published Tuesday (Aug. 18, 2009) at 9:18 am EDT Vice President Joe Biden touted this as the summer of stimulus, a time when the Obama administration would ramp up road construction and put “shovels in the ground.” That promise appears likely to play out [...]

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WASHINGTON DC – The amount of federal economic stimulus money being spent in Montgomery County (PA) – a total of more than $84 million through July 20 (2009) – equals $108 for every man, woman and child who are county residents, an examination by the ProPublica news organization shows. The Pottsgrove and Pottstown school districts [...]

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WASHINGTON DC – Although reporting Wednesday (Aug. 5, 2009) by the ProPublica news organization claims Recovery Act spending nationwide does not correlate with the intent to jump-start local economies out of the recession, stimulus funding in Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties seems to track along the lines of their relative needs. A package of reports [...]

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COLLEGEVILLE PA – Drivers traveling U.S. Route 422 west between Collegeville and Royersford, consider this your notice: the commute is about to get trickier. Construction on that portion of the four-lane limited access highway begins next Monday (Aug. 10, 2009), and for several hours daily some traffic along the 4-1/2-mile stretch could be restricted to [...]

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ROYERSFORD PA – Signs proclaiming that federal stimulus money is at work in the current repair of U.S. Route 422, and in infrastructure projects elsewhere across the state and nation, are being erected as quickly as possible “to make it easier for Americans” to know where billions of dollars in economic recovery funds are being [...]

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WASHINGTON DC – Although a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) spokesman says his agency has taken a “middle of the road” approach to posting signs that show on which highways federal stimulus money is being spent, other states’ willingness to spend liberally on such roadside markers is generating public controversy. PennDOT so far has spent [...]

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HARRISBURG PA – Pennsylvania has asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for $6.1 million in economic stimulus money to clean up 71 leaking underground gas and oil storage tanks in 40 counties, the state said in a press release Wednesday (July 1, 2009). Three sites are in Montgomery County, but none within the Lower [...]

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LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – A one-time federal economic stimulus infusion of $1.6 million, used creatively by the Pottsgrove School District, can lower next year’s projected budget deficit from $646,000 to $71,000, Business Administrator David Nester told the district Board of School Directors on Tuesday (April 28, 2009). But the money would not reduce the proposed [...]

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SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove’s Police Department will apply for federal funding that pays most of the salary of an additional officer for three years, even though accepting the money commits it to the officer’s continued employment in later years, the township Board of Commissioners agreed Monday (April 6, 2009). Lower Pottsgrove currently employs 17 [...]

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SANATOGA PA – Hundreds of Sanatoga senior citizens who receive either Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, or who are beneficiaries of Veterans Affairs or the Railroad Retirement Board, have extra money coming to them in late May. They will be among nearly 55 million older Americans, enrolled in those government programs, who [...]

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