The Sanatoga Post

Townhomes along Allison Drive in Sanatoga

SANATOGA PA – A group of neighbors and property owners in the 2600 block of Allison Drive, just west of Sanatoga Road and Cutillo’s Restaurant in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, are receiving preliminary help authorized by the Board of Commissioners to determine the extent of damage to a retaining wall behind their homes, and how it might be repaired.

The board did not promise to have the wall fixed, and did not acknowledge it was a township problem. “But because we want to be fair to everybody,” commission President Jonathan Spadt said, he and his colleagues agreed to have a representative of the Bursich Associates engineering firm assess the wall’s issues and offer some guidance in addressing them.

The group was represented during the board’s meeting earlier this month (Feb. 6, 2012) by King of Prussia attorney Ellis Saul, who said the wall – which supports an earthen embankment between properties on Allison Drive and those higher up on adjacent Terraced Hill Court – has deteriorated over several years due to poor drainage. Its ownership is under question, because no homeowners association exists for the community built there, Saul said.

“Its current appearance raises questions regarding its structural integrity, and poses a potential danger,” the attorney added.

The wall was built sometime during the early 1990s. Homeowners who hired Saul purchased properties on Allison Drive between 1999 and 2011. They’ve researched possible repairs, “but I don’t know where they would start or stop,” one home owner, a man, told commissioners. “We could plow $50,000 into fixing that thing and still not have it solved,” he said.

Spadt said he understood residents’ concerns, but added: “We just can’t go around solving everyone’s problems.”

Commissioners nonetheless asked Bursich to be involved, along with other township officials as appropriate. Saul thanked them for the consideration.

Photo from Google Images

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

Buckle up. It keeps you safe, and also keeps your out of legal trouble

SANATOGA PA – Teenage drivers and vehicle passengers at Pottsgrove High School who fail to buckle up and wear seat belts are going to get a good talking to – and later may even be ticketed – by officers of the Lower Pottsgrove Police Department, Acting Chief Michael Foltz told the township Board of Commissioners.

The department has won a $1,000 grant from the “Buckle-Up PA” program of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Foltz said Monday (Feb. 6, 2012), and it intends to put that money to use beginning Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. That’s when School Resource Officer Wil James, and Traffic Safety Officer Robert Diesinger will make a “teen seat belt mobilization” presentation at the high school. A second show will follow on March 4.

PennDOT has placed increasing importance on seat belt awareness and enforcement within the teen population, Foltz explained, in part because teens tend to pay less attention to the safety benefits of being belted in. They pay a high price for that inattention, too, in injuries and fatalities. Alerting them to the dangers, and the remedy, is the program’s first task.

It’s not the only one though.

Lower Pottsgrove expects to throw enforcement muscle behind its cautionary words. The program’s “second wave will be an enforcement detail,” Foltz told board members. Warnings, tickets, fines, and maybe worst, notifying parents, are among the tools the department might use to force teen drivers and riders that the law requires their safety and compliance.

PennDOT’s funds will cover the cost of the materials for the presentations, and any overtime incurred by officers involved in meeting the program’s goals, Foltz noted.

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

• 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

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

SANATOGA PA – Thar’s gold in them thar black plastic bags. And refuse cans. And recycling bins too. In Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, some folks’ trash truly is becoming what others treasure.

Someone, so far unidentified, seems to be stealing garbage from the curbs of local homes, Acting Police Chief Michael Foltz acknowledged Monday (Feb. 6, 2012). No, it’s not a big problem, Foltz said, at least not yet. But it is bothersome enough that police patrols assigned to night shift duty are being asked to stay alert and try to, um, bag the perpetrators.

Recyclers are paying higher prices to buy scrap metal, Foltz told the township Board of Commissioners, and that drives these nuisance thefts. Bandits apparently swipe the bags, sift through the rubbish for anything salvageable or usable (think identity theft, too), then toss the remains in any nearby dumpster.

Which is how former commissioner and East High Street resident Tom Troutman learned he had been a victim.

A dumpster owner who pays private contractors to haul his garbage away found Troutman’s name on magazines within his trash, and called him to demand an explanation. Troutman was at first embarrassed, then angered, and then humored, he told commissioners. “It sounds silly, and it’s almost laughable,” Troutman conceded, “but it’s also frustrating.”

The problem is worse, Commissioner Stephen Klotz noted, when bad guys go mining through bins containing materials to be recycled. They’re taking money out of the recycler’s pockets, Klotz said, “and besides that the neighborhood ends up looking like the trash men were there at midnight.”

And there, Foltz drew a legal distinction: trash at the curb is discarded and therefore might be considered publicly available, he said; recyclables are not. Even so, if the trash thieves are caught there are offenses aplenty with which they can be charged and, like a wad of used chewing gum, police probably can make them stick.

Foltz’s bigger worry, he said, is the potential for identity theft. It happens to millions of Americans each year, and can result in severe financial distress and months of angst as victims try to sort out how and where someone else fraudulently used their identity information.

The solution to that problem is simple, Foltz added: shred all documents containing personally valuable information before disposing of them. Then there’s one less thing for trash thieves to profit from, he said.

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

• Talk About Really Dirty Crime: Township Trash Thefts
• Settlement May Be Near In Rupert Road Bridge Lawsuit

Photo from Google Images

Orange-tagged stakes mark where soil tests were conducted in December on vacant land at 3049 E. High St., Sanatoga, just west of the Turkey Hill convenience store

SANATOGA PA – During the economic downturn of recent years, the Planning Commission in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township has had only a few major projects – the construction of an office building or two – into which its members could sink their collective teeth. That may change later this month.

Tornetta Realty Corp., which owns and is marketing the vacant and once heavily wooded 14-acre property at 3049 E. High St., Pottstown PA, apparently is considering development there, township Assistant Manager Alyson Elliott recently confirmed. The land is located just west of the Turkey Hill convenience store on the north side of the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422.

The Tornetta firm, of Norristown, has preliminarily indicated its intentions to the township, she said. It might be ready to make a presentation to planning commissioners, on what is tentatively named “Sanatoga Marketplace,” when they meet Feb. 27 (2012; Monday).

It’s been about 18 months since the property was last in the news. At the time, Tornetta was completing work on leveling ground, installing drainage, and negotiating potential right-of-way use with owners of an underground gas pipeline that crosses the land. Since then, the huge Costco retail warehouse has opened on the south side of the interchange, in Limerck Township, and developers of property there have been actively seeking new tenants for future construction.

With the economy slowly gaining momentum, with loan interest rates still at historic lows, with increased shopping traffic in the area, and with its ground ready, there’s plenty of public speculation about what Sanatoga Marketplace might contain. Tornetta hasn’t tipped its hand; as of late last month, no drawings or renderings had been submitted to the township, Elliott said.

Tornetta has been active nonetheless. In late December (2011), its representatives conducted water infiltration tests at 10 separate sites on the property, according to Keith Place, Lower Pottsgrove zoning officer and director of codes. Small plastic orange streamers tied to stakes that dot the ground mark where testing was done to gain information for what could be required in a land development plan.

In some ways, the seemingly leisurely pace at which Sanatoga Marketplace is unfolding has been a benefit to the Planning Commission. The usually five-member board has lacked one commissioner since the resignation in July (2011) of Nicholas Hiriak; his successor, Brian Brentzel, was appointed only last month by the Board of Commissioners.

The board did not meet as scheduled on Jan. 23, Elliott acknowledged, because it lacked a quorum. Besides Hiriak’s vacancy, the board also had one member out of town on business, and another was ill. In addition, the board still has not named a vice chairman to fill in as its leader if Chairman Frank Cebular is absent.

Related:

• Notebook Worthy (of July 19, 2010)
• Grinding Stumps At Sanatoga’s Interchange
• Grading Permit Change Comes With Limits
• Grading Plan May Leave Gap In Sanatoga Land
• Talks Delay Take-Down Of Sanatoga Mound
• Huge Fill Mound On East High To Come Down
• Earthen Mound Could Grow Higher
• Still Piling It Up At The Interchange
• Sanatoga Soil Mound Concerns Its Neighbors
• Grading Gets Started Near Interchange
• Fill Piles At Sanatoga Exit

SANATOGA PA – Recommended changes to rules and regulations of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s Civil Service Commission have been delayed for consideration by the township Board of Commissioners until early February, giving its members more time to study what would be altered.

The proposed changes primarily affect candidates for positions in the police department, and were suggested during the board’s Jan. 19 meeting by Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway. They are based on recommendations made by now-former police Chief Michael Shade and current Interim Chief Michael Foltz, and coincide in part with other changes at the state level, Holloway said.

Although the changes are lengthy, Holloway noted, most affect the process by which the Civil Service Commission tests and approves prospective police job seekers. They delay in acting on them was requested by Commissioner Stephen Klotz, who wanted more time to read through the proposal. Other commissioners agreed.

The changes would:

• Require candidates for police officer positions to apply for and pass the officer certification course of the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission by the time they are appointed. The rules currently state candidates need only have applied to take the course. Demanding course completion before appointment “raises the bar” in the township for hiring more qualified officers, Holloway said.

• Revise time references under which disciplined officers might be considered for promotion.

• Change the circumstances under which an officer could be promoted to the rank of sergeant. The rules currently demand sergeant candidates must first serve as corporals; Lower Pottsgrove’s department has never had a corporal, according to Holloway. In the future, if approved, prospective sergeants could include patrol officers with 5 or more continuous years of service.

• Give the Civil Service Commission discretion in choosing physical agility tests to be administered to candidates. Testing changes made available from health and medical fields occur far faster than before, Holloway said. Rather than continually update rules to keep abreast of latest developments, he added, commissioners would have authority to make the most current or appropriate selections.

• Postpone undertaking a background investigation of patrol officer candidates until after they are certified by the commission as qualified to fill a vacancy. The rules currently require background checks of all candidates, certified or not. That’s expensive and time-consuming, and is rarely practiced by other commissions. The rule change would simply reflect current practice, he said.

Other, less significant revisions also are being proposed, Holloway said. The changes will be scheduled for approval during the board’s Feb. 6 (2012; Monday) meeting.

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

• Township Delays Civil Service Rules, Regs Changes
• December Warrants Detail Lower Pottsgrove Spending
• Board Appointments Prompt Questions, Angry Words
• Commissioners Welcome Lower Frederick To CMERT
• Jump Start: Township Wants Early Police Contract Talks

POTTSTOWN PA – Current and former owners and operators of what once was an Occidental Chemical Corporation manufacturing plant on the southeast corner of Armand Hammer Boulevard and Industrial Highway in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township have agreed to pay $2.1 million for earlier cleanup efforts the site, the federal Environmental Protection Agency regional office in Philadelphia announced Wednesday (Jan. 25, 2012).

One of several entrances to the now-cleaned OxyChem site on Armand Hammer Boulevard, being marketed as the Tri-County Commerce Park

Under a consent decree filed in federal court by the Justice Department on behalf of EPA, the companies also assumed responsibility for all future cleanup costs. They include Occidental Chemical Corp., the most recent owner and often referred to as OxyChem; Glenn Springs Holdings Inc., an OxyChem subsidiary that has been managing the property’s clean-up and re-development; and Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, which preceded OxyChem at the site with a tire manufacturing plant.

OxyChem manufactured polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic resins there from 1980 to 2005. It bought the property from the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, now known as Bridgestone, which manufactured tires and PVC there from about 1945 to 1980.

From 1942 to 1985, operators used The site was used to dispose of industrial wastes including cutting oils, metal filings, tires, and PVC sludge resins. It was identified as having unsafe levels of trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, and other hazardous substances in the soil and groundwater.

After OxyChem ended operations, the site was investigated during 1983 and later for potential pollutants. It was declared an EPA “Superfund” site to designate it as among the nation’s “most contaminated” locations, the agency announcement said. OxyChem, under EPA oversight, performed remedial action on the property and completed construction in 2008.

As of Thursday (Jan. 26), according to the EPA, the property was now considered safe for human exposure, and the migration of any contaminated ground water was deemed to be under control.

To encourage development along Armand Hammer Boulevard, which was renamed for OxyChem’s president, Lower Pottsgrove‘s Board of Commissioners had created a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act (LERTA) district to give incoming business owners property tax breaks within the area. The district included the former OxyChem facility, the land now occupied by Aldi’s Supermarket and Home Depot, and other parcels stretching east to Sanatoga Station Road. The district’s authorization ended in 2008.

The property has since enjoyed a rebirth as a location for light- and moderate-industrial uses, and is being marketed as the Tri-County Commerce Park. A brochure about its tenants and available space can be downloaded here.

Other coverage:

• $2.1M settlement announced for Oxychem site (The Mercury)

Photo from CB Richard Ellis

SANATOGA PA – The December 2011 warrants of Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township – which provide details on where the municipality’s revenues came from during the 12th month of the year, and on what and with whom it spent money – are now available on the Resources Page of The Sanatoga Post.

The document was e-mailed Friday (Jan. 20) by township bookkeeper Michele Christman following the Board of Commissioners‘ meeting.

• Find all warrants archived by The Post as Adobe Acrobat documents, here. Most take about a minute or less to download over a high-speed (DSL, cable, or FIOS) Internet connection.

The December warrants were approved Thursday (Jan. 19) by the board during its second monthly meeting. Warrants are printed and can always be viewed for free at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA, during regular office hours Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Post supplies these materials exactly as received from the township, and makes no guarantee expressed or implied that they are complete, accurate, or faithful reproductions of the actual documents. The Post has had no hand in their creation or submission. Before taking any action based on the contents of any documents offered here, The Post strongly suggests you consult with appropriate professionals for advice.

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

• December Warrants Detail Lower Pottsgrove Spending
• Board Appointments Prompt Questions, Angry Words
• Commissioners Welcome Lower Frederick To CMERT
• Jump Start: Township Wants Early Police Contract Talks

Photo from Google Images

SANATOGA PA – New members were appointed Thursday (Jan. 19, 2012) to Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township’s planning and zoning hearing boards, despite the objection of a local resident who – after the Board of Commissioners’ meeting ended – alleged it played favorites by choosing people “in their buddies’ network” to fill government vacancies.

P.J. McGill hoped for, but didn't get, a planning board position

Donna Cleaver, of Donna Lane in Sanatoga, wasn’t shy in telling board members what she thought of their actions to their faces, either. “I think your selection of individuals stinks, to be perfectly honest,” she commented during their public meeting in the Buchert Road municipal building.

The board named Brian Brentzel to the Planning Commission, to fill the vacancy left last year by the resignation of Nicholas Hiriak. It named B. Scott Fulmer, who also serves as vice president of the Pottsgrove School District Board of School Directors, as an alternate member of the Zoning Hearing Board. The votes for both, who will serve as unpaid volunteers, were unanimous. Both attended the meeting.

Cleaver, who is a frequent audience member during board meetings, questioned commissioners about the appointments from the outset.

She asked about the number of people who applied for the planning position (“five,” Manager Rodney Hawthorne replied); the number of people interviewed (two; a third sought by the board declined for reasons unknown, he added); and their qualifications (determined primarily from interviews and resumes, Hawthorne said.)

“Why didn’t you interview everyone who applied?,” Cleaver wondered. “We took the three we thought were best qualified,” Hawthorne responded. “So only a favored few get to be considered,” Cleaver shot back. No one at the board conference table answered her.

She also pursued Fulmer’s nomination. “He’s busy with the school board,” Cleaver observed. “Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to find another member? What if he has a conflict of interest between the zoning board and the school district?,” she asked. “Then he’ll recuse himself,” board President Jonathan Spadt suggested.

One township resident who has actively lobbied to be selected for planning commission membership, but was passed over, is Cleaver’s neighbor P.J. McGill of Rivendell Lane. McGill, a proud Democrat in the Republican-dominated township, has run unsuccessfully for several elective offices in years past. He was a candidate last November (2011) for a Board of Commissioners’ seat.

In an e-mail to The Post earlier during the day, McGill said he was unable to attend Thursday’s meeting because of a prior family commitment. It likely “will be a cold day in hell before I would ever get appointed to any board” in Lower Pottsgrove, he wrote.

“It won’t always be this way,” Cleaver claimed after the board adjourned. “Things are changing, the parties are changing, and it won’t be like this much longer.”

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

• Board Appointments Prompt Questions, Angry Words
• Commissioners Welcome Lower Frederick To CMERT
• Jump Start: Township Wants Early Police Contract Talks