The Sanatoga Post

SANATOGA PA – It will take awhile, but the Pottstown Area Council of Governments – of which Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township is a member – will eventually conduct one of its meetings this year in the township municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA.

The council involves most municipalities in the greater Pottstown area, with the stated goal of trying to coordinate land use, planning, local and state legislation and other issues affecting participants. Lower Pottsgrove Commissioner James Phillips has been serving as council chairman. The group held was scheduled to hold its first meeting of the new year Tuesday (Jan. 11, 2011) in Upper Pottsgrove.

Other scheduled meeting dates, recently announced in a public notice, are:

• March 8 at Pottstown Borough Hall, 100 High St., Pottstown PA;
• May 10 at the West Pottsgrove Township Municipal Building, 980 Grosstown Rd., Stowe PA;
• Sept. 13 in Lower Pottsgrove;
• Nov. 8 in the Douglass Township Municipal Building, 1320 E. Philadelphia Ave., Gilbertsville PA; and
• on a yet-to-be-specified January 2012 date in North Coventry township.

POTTSTOWN PA – The Pottstown Area Council of Governments, of which Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township is a member, has announced its 2010 meeting schedule. Secretary Jason Bobst reports the group plans to meet on the second Tuesday of every other month, beginning with January and except in July, at 7 p.m. in the following locations:

• Jan. 12, Lower Pottsgrove Township Municipal Building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga PA;
• March 9, Douglass Township Municipal Building, 1320 E. Philadelphia Ave., Gilbertsville PA;
• May 11, North Coventry Township Municipal Building, 845 S. Hanover St., Pottstown PA;
• July; no meeting scheduled;
• Sept. 14, New Hanover Township Municipal Building, 2943 N. Charlotte St., Gilbertsville PA; and
• Nov. 9, East Coventry Township Municipal Building, 855 Ellis Woods Rd., Pottstown PA.

Lower Pottsgrove Commissioner James Phillips is the township’s representative on the council.

• These events have been added to The Post calendar.

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POTTSTOWN PA – Although its members have taken the summer off, the Pottstown Area Council of Governments – of which Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township is a part – will resume meeting during the fall. Township Commissioner James Phillips is Lower Pottsgrove’s council representative.

• These events have been added to The Post calendar.

Council members attempt to cooperate in solving common municipal problems. The local council also is part of a similar, broader effort by the Pennsylvania Association of Councils of Governments.

Board meetings during the remainder of 2009 are scheduled for:

• Sept. 8 (Tuesday), 7 p.m., in Pottstown Borough Hall, 100 High St., Pottstown PA; and
• Nov. 10 (Tuesday), 7 p.m., in the West Pottsgrove Township Municipal Building, 980 Grosstown Rd., Stowe PA.

A council meeting for January 2010, the date of which is yet to be announced, is expected to be held at the township municipal building in Sanatoga.

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SANATOGA  PA – Weekend (March 7-8, 2009) jottings from a reporter’s notebook, in no particular order:

It’s Either The Marketing Or The Location

A week ago Friday (Feb. 27, 2009), the Baja Beach Tanning Club at 600 Heritage Dr., Sanatoga PA, advertised on a sign facing East High Street traffic that it was giving away tanning services over the weekend. You wanted a tan, Friday through Sunday (March 1, 2008), you got it for free.

Earlier this week, the sign announcing availability of free tans was replaced with another one. Help wanted at Baja Beach, it said.  Coincidence? Doubt it. Advertising pays.

Apparently that vacancy was quickly filled. The second sign disappeared almost as fast as it went up.

By Sunday (March 8, 2009) a third, and still different, sign was erected, not by the tanning salon but by its neighbors in the shopping center, Parma Pizza. It needs help too, and is looking to hire delivery drivers.

Not just at night.

Caught ‘em

Lower Pottsgrove Police received a surprise during February, police Chief Michael Shade told the township Board of Commissioners last week (March 2,2009), when they set up driving-under-the-influence checks in daytime hours as part of an effort by departments statewide to curb drunk driving. The daylight checks were “kind of unique,” Shade said. He wondered if they would yield any results because, he noted, it would be more “unusual to find DUIs during the day.”

Sadly, or happily – depending on your point of view – they were effective. His officers made a couple of arrests, according to Shade. Expect similar checks in the future.

A Local Financial Firm That’s Growing

Republican U.S. Senators Richard Shelby and John McCain made national news talk show appearances Sunday (March 8, 2009), advocating that the federal government should let some big troubled banks fail rather than commit more funds to prop them up. Mentioned most frequently was ailing Citigroup Inc.

In the continuing rumble of bad news about the banking business, it’s sometimes easy to miss the good. Locally based financial institutions, in particular, are faring pretty well. For one example look to Diamond Credit Union, headquartered on Medical Drive in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township.

In its recent newsletter, Diamond President John Faust reports the credit union will break ground this spring for construction of its third free-standing branch office, on Route 422 West in Exeter (PA) Township across from the Sheetz convenience store and gas station. How’s he feel about expansion? “We are thrilled to be in (this) position,” Faust said.

Just One Person Can Make A Difference

When the Pottstown Area Council of Governments convenes Tuesday (March 10, 2009) in East Coventry (PA) Township for its regular monthly meeting, Lower Pottsgrove council representative Commissioner James Phillips will be in attendance as usual … but unusually prepared.

By that, Phillips indicates, he intends to make a recommendation on a new project for the council.

Phillips wasn’t specific in describing his plans last week (March 2, 2009) to colleagues on the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners, but he said he had been working with township Secretary Michele Cappelletti on an “initiative to make COG even more useful.”

Related:

• Notebook Worthy, April 6, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, March 30, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, March 23, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, March 16, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, March 9, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, March 2, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, Feb. 23, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, Feb. 16, 2009
• Notebook Worthy, Dec. 9, 2008

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